I had so much fun taking photos with my Kodak Retina Ia that I figured this Retinette IA would be a hoot too. Boy, was I wrong.
I’m sure this Retinette was a very nice camera in its day. It cost $45, which was way more expensive than an average Brownie but probably quite a bargain for its fine German lens and brick-outhouse build quality. Retinette IAs come with three or four different shutters and two or three different lenses, but mine’s got a Pronto shutter and a 45mm Schneider-Kreuznach Reomar lens at f/2.8. That, and the fact that it has a cold (rather than a hot) accessory shoe, says it was made in 1962 or 1963.
I have written before about the perils of buying old cameras on eBay, and I learned as soon as I put my eye to the viewfinder that I fell into one of them with this camera. One of the pieces of glass inside the viewfinder had worked its way loose – maybe it happened in shipping, or maybe the seller just neglected to mention it in the listing. Whatever, the glass’s funky angle blurred the view – instant myopia! – making framing shots difficult.
I have written before about the perils of using a camera without reading the manual first. I took a bunch of shots before I realized that the camera’s focus scale is in meters, not feet. At least those shots looked exactly like they did through the viewfinder.
I have not written (but believe me, I have stories to tell) about the perils of old-camera mechanical problems related to age and disuse. I was able to shoot only 11 photos before the film jammed in the camera. I was able to rewind the film, and so I did, and so I called this experiment a failure.
The photos came back from the processor yesterday. Of the 11 I took, only five came out. Just one turned out to be worth sharing, but only after some digital processing to fix overexposure. The processing gave it a bit of a grainy patina. You might guess I took this shot the day after Halloween. (If you’re really interested, click the photo below to see it, and the rest of the photos that turned out, in Flickr.)
I chose to shoot with my Retinette IA this time because blogger Kristarella had so much good luck shooting with hers. Maybe she used up all the Retinette karma. Maybe I just had a bad few days with this camera. Either way, I’m glad I read her blog first or I would probably have succumbed to the same problem with the camera’s self-timer that she did. Anyway, this one’s back up on the shelf for now, awaiting the day I am up to fixing the viewfinder and winder. I should probably download a manual that day, too.
Feeling like I had fallen off my bicycle, however, I immediately got one of my old rangefinders off the shelf, a Minolta Hi-Matic 7, and loaded her with some Fujicolor 200. I had much better luck with her, and I’ll share those photos soon.
6 Comments
5 December 2008 at 7:32 am
Hey there!
I’m sure I didn’t use up all the karma ;) Maybe all first rolls through these things are destined to be bad? Apart from breaking the timer and having to take the front of the camera apart, the first roll I loaded got completely tangled, jammed up and I had to rip it out! I didn’t realise there were little grooves in the spool that helped it feed on the first wind. It was a total mess as I rummaged under the bed sheets in a dark room to try to save that roll of film.
Better luck with your second roll!
5 December 2008 at 1:57 pm
Kristarella, thanks for weighing in! Maybe that’s how these old Retinettes work — you sacrifice the first roll to get good shots on the second!
5 December 2008 at 2:18 pm
It’s intriguing stuff… I haven’t shot film since I had an SLR for a couple of years about 20 years ago. Even then, I could probably count on both hands the number of rolls I shot. I experimented with B&W and found it unbelievably expensive (virtually no one was developing the stuff on-site and it had to be sent away). I do realize there’s a charm to film photography, and I have a close friend who worked in an honest-to-God photo shop (and not Photoshop) for over 20 years and knew development-techniques-from-the-4th-dimension I have to sigh will be lost soon. Still, I wouldn’t go back, myself. :)
What do you find rewarding about film photography? You may have covered this in your blog, but maybe you haven’t… :)
5 December 2008 at 2:30 pm
LP, I like cameras for the design and engineering in them. I run film through my old cameras out of curiosity; I just like to see them work. I don’t miss film photography all that much, really! I use my digicam for anything serious.
I did capture all this before in my blog, thanks for bringing it up!
http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2007/03/17/i-like-cameras/
http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2007/03/18/photos-from-old-cameras/
29 December 2008 at 5:45 am
[...] Hi-Matic 7 Jump to Comments I wanted to enjoy using my Kodak Retinette IA, I really did. But using it turned out to be like a bad date, the kind where you are glad to be [...]
3 July 2009 at 1:20 pm
does any one one what they sell for? i have one in mint cond.retinette ia pronto. thanks