Retina IIc - first pictures

I couldn't resist a fine Retina IIc that smiled at me from a dealer's

shelf. It's a nice little camera with a fairly sharp 6-element

Schneider Xenon lens. I went for a little walk to an old deserted

shipyard, formerly pride of socialist industry, now ruined by the

millstones of world economy... These, by the way, are my first

attempts at scanning film directly with a cheap film scanner. The negs

are quite sharp; I hope not too much of the impression gets lost due

to my faulty digital workflow.<div></div>

Heroes.<div></div>

Heavy duty crane.<div></div>

Inside.<div></div>

Outside.<div></div>

After these, the camera froze. Literally. It was below 0 centigrade. After de-freezing, it worked flawlessly again. Winter is not exactly the best time for shooting classic cameras.

Some great pictures. One suggestion, easy on the USM! I can see jagged adges on every single image (or have downsampled using nearest neighbour)?

Jon,

 

I don't think what you see has much to do with USM (too much USM would look quite different AFAIK)- I think it's the compression. I'm still trying to find the optimal settings for getting these pics on the web. Thanks anyway!

After a thorough cleaning of the shutter blades your camera probably will not freeze anymore. I did not check with the Retina IIc yet but m any other leaf shutter cameras worked flawless below 0 centigrade.

Peter,

 

I have been using a healthy serviced Retina IIIc north of you (Deutschland, I suppose) in winter climate (Finnland) with no problem at all. All Retinas are worth of servicing. Beautiful devices, and quite cheap if compared to original prices. All together I have exposed around 5 000 slides with IIIc and it's several accesories. These photos are exellent, but also very different in style if compared for example Canon FDn L lenses. But still exellent quality. Using a Retina is plenty of fun.

 

Kerkko K.

Just a note - the Schneider Xenon 6-element is very similar to Zeiss Planar design. Should be quite sharp.

Actually, many double gauss lenses' cross sections look like Planar cross sections at first sight. Just like everyone seems to have made a Tessar clone after WW2 as a slow speed normal, the 6-element double gauss design is the one for typical post war high speed normal lenses (Sonnar type triplets being the noteworthy exception), they all look approximately the same and have similar performance. What I don't understand is why they closed it down to 2,8 on the IIc, the same lens on a Retina IIIc being a 2.0 lens.

Closing the Xenon lens down to f/2.8 seems rather a marketing gag to make a difference to the IIIc model. I think Rick Oleson once posted the trick how to remove the stop for the aperture lever and to 'convert' the f/2.8 to a f/2.0 Xenon. Lens, shutter and aperture mechanism are identical except for the stop at f/2.8.

You could probably put the IIc in your pocket to keep it warm between pictures.

Peter,

 

Your photographs are very moving, and the Retina's are fine cameras. What country are you photographing? The somber tone of decay reminds me of the current state of my home town, Niagara Falls, NY. It was the birthplace of the electrochemical industry (and the home of the Love Canal) but the forces of capitalism, not socialism, forever searching for cheaper everything but primarily labor, moved the operations first to the southern US, and then overseas, leaving behind rusting buildings. Even the most powerful and natural phenomenon of Niagara Falls, and the dramatic history of wars against the French, the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812 have not been able to reverse the economic decline. Sad commentary but good photos. Welcome to 1984.

Kerry, I take most of my pictures within walking distance from my home, which is situated in Rostock, Germany, formerly German Democratic Republic. I have to admit that my pics look more pathetic than my surroundings are; despite the unemployment problem Rostock has quite a high standard of living. Check some of my earlier postings in this forum for nice pictures of the lovely beaches around.

"Winter is not exactly the best time for shooting classic cameras."

 

Well, I know of a company in Solms and thev'e been making the finest cameras for over 50 years. The funny thing is, they won't break nor bend even in -40 degrees! The first letter of their name is an "L" and the last an "A". ;-)

Yeah, Leon, I just bought another one made by this manufacturer, so now I have 8 of those. I'm still not sure whether I like them more than my Contaxes. You're right, they'll propably work below zero. I thought one wasn't allowed to mention those in this forum, due to the fact that these are bought exclusively by camera fondlers who talk big but never shoot?