Retinette vs Retina

[Duofold RF]

Retina for its foldability and compact style, excellent lens. The lens is so good, I converted it into Leica M mount

 

[Godfrey]

Retina for its foldability and compact style, excellent lens. The lens is so good, I converted it into Leica M mount

That's an interesting idea! When you did that, do you keep the whole shutter mechanism too? Love to see a photo of it.

G

 

[Duofold RF]

That's an interesting idea! When you did that, do you keep the whole shutter mechanism too? Love to see a photo of it.

The shutter was removed, mount parts were made, including the cam which was the most difficult part to machine and adjust to Leica M

 

[Duofold RF]

Back in the day you could snag a busted Retina IIIc—usually with the film‑advance rack stripped—for about 20-30 bucks. Micro‑Tools used to sell the replacement parts, but no longer does. Beljan made special tool to remove the lens, not easy to find. The Rodenstock version pops up less often and costs more, but I’ve never seen a good reason to pay extra for it. The Schneider lens is already fantastic for sharpness and color.

 

[Godfrey]

Very cool conversion!

The Retinas with Rodenstock lenses were mostly sold in Europe/Asia/Australia, while the US got almost exclusively Schneider. My friend had a '56 IIc with Rodenstock lens he bought in Europe back in the day. Comparing negatives with it vs my US '56 IIc with Schneider showed no substantive differences in the lens quality ... They were evidently built to the same quality spec.

G

 

[Godfrey]

Back in the day you could snag a busted Retina IIIc—usually with the film‑advance rack stripped—for about 20-30 bucks. Micro‑Tools used to sell the replacement parts, but no longer does. Beljan made special tool to remove the lens, not easy to find. The Rodenstock version pops up less often and costs more, but I’ve never seen a good reason to pay extra for it. The Schneider lens is already fantastic for sharpness and color.

A year or two ago, I bought four Retina IIc and a Retina IIIc cameras for about $25 each, all actually working but in need of serious cleaning and some of them repair. They've all been cleaned, repaired, etc and are in perfect working order now, average cost about $150 apiece. The IIIc had a dented top and broken meter ... I converted it to the IIc top sans meter so it's now a IIc + f/2 lens. Some of my favorite cameras.... 😀

G

 

[Dralowid]

Although the build quality remains the same, one big advantage the Retinette has over the Retina is price...obviously.