Kodak, Retinette, 1b. The Retinette family ran broadly parallel to the more expensive Retina range, generally featuring cheaper lenses and shutters. Being products of Kodak AG in Germany they were, however, nicely made instruments. Introduced in 1960, the heritage of this Retinette 1b is still clearly visible, it is still based on the chassis of the first rigid Retinette (022) of 1954. The camera is fitted with a coupled exposure meter, with the match needle visible in the viewfinder. This example was donated to the collection in 1990 by Mr. W. J. Farley, cosmetically beautiful but utterly dysfunctional, the camera - not Mr. Farley. After several attempts to fix it failed, it was relegated to the glass case and retirement. Finally in February 2006 it was decided to strip it once more and the problem was at last cured. The problem was grease from the aperture leaves pivots migrating onto the shutter leaf pivots. It subsequently died yet again! It has now become a very pretty paperweight. A further example was donated to the collection a while back, it too suffers from exactly the same fault.

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Body No.101381
Shutter, Pronto-LK, speeds B, 15, 30, 60, 125, 250 & 500th
Lens, Rodenstock, Reomar 45mm f/2.8
Condition, 3F

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