R
richiedcruz
Guest
I have been playing around with my IIIS for a while now and thought that I would post some new pictures from lenses that I did not have, when I first bought it and mention my now tempered impressions of it.
First the good:
Lenses
1. I have the whole set of Retina IIIS/Reflex compatible lenses and can say that I have had no trouble with any of them. They all came in their original bubbles, and whatever coating Kodak used on them is very durable.
The other week, my Schneider 35/2.8 got dunked into the whipped cream that was topping my mocha
and it took forever to get it off, but the lens did not show the slightest sign of cleaning marks
2. The Schneider 85/4 is the smallest telephoto that I have ever seen. I read that these things were small, but you really have to see one of things in person to appreciate how small they are. I can now see why I had to pay more for it than all of the other lenses combined.
To put this into perspective, the 85/4 is the same size as the 35/2.8 and they can use the same hood. Together, they make for a what has to be the smallest wide/telephoto rangefinder kit ever.
The camera
The camera itself is a delight to use. Its build quality is about equal to my Pentax Spotmatic, and I find it fairly simple to use in spite of what I have read.
I initially had trouble getting used to the bottom mounted winding lever, but an evening spent dry-firing the camera and experimenting with different ways to hold and fire it solved that. This is also the only lever wind camera that I can use without having to take the camera away from my eye.
As someone who likes to leave the leader out of the film cartridge, I also love the little dot that is located on the rewind button and spins around until the leader comes off of the winding reel.
The not so good:
The Lenses
The other Retina lenses (Schneider 50/1.9 and 135/4) block the finder and seem like they were designed to be paired up with the Retina Reflex instead of the IIIS.
Most of the longer lenses do not focus that close. The 85/4 only focuses up to 6' the 135/4 13'.
The Viewfinder
The viewfinder, though paralax corrected, is not foolproof. When I framed the pictures of the Eagles sign, the BL's indicated that I would only be including the sign in the frame, but in the prints that I got back there is quite a bit of space below it.
The finder is also darker than my Minolta Hi-matic 9. Although that camera has had a recent CLA.
Verdict
The Retina IIIS is every bit as good as the Cameraquest profile says it is and I have not experienced any of the fragility that Retinas are known for. I realize that others have had had problems with their Retina IIIS/Reflexes, but I like mine so much that I intend to use it on a trip to China that I will be taking this winter, instead of my Leica which needs a CLA.
My example, including all the lenses, was picked up for less than $200, which makes it cheaper than any other simarly featured rangefinder system Just in case you were wondering.
I took these pictures to show what the 35/2.8 and 85/4 could do and were taken around the corner from where I have my color film processed. They were all taken at f8 at 1/500. I realize that the conditions were not condusive to showing what these lenses are really capable of. But I had some frames left over from a project that I was working on, and, since I was going to have the roll scanned anyway, I figured why not
Richie
First the good:
Lenses
1. I have the whole set of Retina IIIS/Reflex compatible lenses and can say that I have had no trouble with any of them. They all came in their original bubbles, and whatever coating Kodak used on them is very durable.
The other week, my Schneider 35/2.8 got dunked into the whipped cream that was topping my mocha
and it took forever to get it off, but the lens did not show the slightest sign of cleaning marks 2. The Schneider 85/4 is the smallest telephoto that I have ever seen. I read that these things were small, but you really have to see one of things in person to appreciate how small they are. I can now see why I had to pay more for it than all of the other lenses combined.
To put this into perspective, the 85/4 is the same size as the 35/2.8 and they can use the same hood. Together, they make for a what has to be the smallest wide/telephoto rangefinder kit ever.
The camera
The camera itself is a delight to use. Its build quality is about equal to my Pentax Spotmatic, and I find it fairly simple to use in spite of what I have read.
I initially had trouble getting used to the bottom mounted winding lever, but an evening spent dry-firing the camera and experimenting with different ways to hold and fire it solved that. This is also the only lever wind camera that I can use without having to take the camera away from my eye.
As someone who likes to leave the leader out of the film cartridge, I also love the little dot that is located on the rewind button and spins around until the leader comes off of the winding reel.
The not so good:
The Lenses
The other Retina lenses (Schneider 50/1.9 and 135/4) block the finder and seem like they were designed to be paired up with the Retina Reflex instead of the IIIS.
Most of the longer lenses do not focus that close. The 85/4 only focuses up to 6' the 135/4 13'.
The Viewfinder
The viewfinder, though paralax corrected, is not foolproof. When I framed the pictures of the Eagles sign, the BL's indicated that I would only be including the sign in the frame, but in the prints that I got back there is quite a bit of space below it.
The finder is also darker than my Minolta Hi-matic 9. Although that camera has had a recent CLA.
Verdict
The Retina IIIS is every bit as good as the Cameraquest profile says it is and I have not experienced any of the fragility that Retinas are known for. I realize that others have had had problems with their Retina IIIS/Reflexes, but I like mine so much that I intend to use it on a trip to China that I will be taking this winter, instead of my Leica which needs a CLA.
My example, including all the lenses, was picked up for less than $200, which makes it cheaper than any other simarly featured rangefinder system
Just in case you were wondering. I took these pictures to show what the 35/2.8 and 85/4 could do and were taken around the corner from where I have my color film processed. They were all taken at f8 at 1/500. I realize that the conditions were not condusive to showing what these lenses are really capable of. But I had some frames left over from a project that I was working on, and, since I was going to have the roll scanned anyway, I figured why not
Richie
