When the lens is removed there are two levers in the lens mount. The one at the approx 3:00 position (see #1 below) operates the depth of field scale as well as the lens aperture but then there is one across (see #2 below) which makes contact with the aperture lever but this one is missing.
What purpose does this lever #2 serve since lever #1 also operates the aperture?? Looking inside the slot there does not appear to be anything broken so I suspect it simply is not there or has been removed by some previous owner..
I have a chance to buy cheap a non-working body to get parts from..
Hi Colyn,
I haven't owned a Retina Reflex yet but I hope to one day, I've decided I rather like them. But I do own a Voigtländer Bessamatic, an altogether different body mechanism, and these, and of course the Ultramatic models, also use a very slightly modified version of the Deckel mount (so close that with a little modification, lenses for either camera can be made to fit the other). I've also been inside a couple of the Voigtländer lenses (not for the faint-hearted), so maybe I can answer this for you.
The lenses have two levers, not one, coming off the aperture control rings that have to mesh with their opposite numbers in the camera bayonet mount. Your subject camera body should have two also, and as you have arrowed in your pic, the slot is clearly there for the second lever.
The two levers fitted to the lenses are normally balanced against each other by a spring. The reason two sets are used, is because one body/lens pair pre-set the f stop the aperture blades will close down to; the other pair are driven via the camera release/shutter (forgive me, I'm not yet intimately acquainted with the intricacies of the Retina Reflex mechanism) to actuate the lens when the shutter is released. Ie. one pair set the f stop, or travel, for the diaphragm stop according to the exposure setting; the other, actually actuates the blades when the shutter release is depressed.
As the pictured camera is missing one lever (it should be a part of a ring under the bayonet mount), it won't be possible to control the lens opening correctly, if the lens wants to stop down at all that is.
One of the Tomosy repair books has an article about the Retina Reflexes, and the Bessamatic, although quite different to any other design in the finest Voigtländer tradition, is also covered in two of the books, including a few paragraphs and images detailing the dismantling and re-assembly of a 50mm f/2.8 Color Skopar lens, which are similar enough in how they work to be of some help in investigating Retina Reflex lenses.
If you would like to check the repair forum here on RFF, just a few days ago a member posted a link to a web site with a free copy of the Synchro Compur shutter repair manual available to download. I own a copy of this and am fairly certain the Retina Reflex is included in this as indeed, is the Bessamatic/Ultramatic. The manual includes high quality actual photographs and exploded diagrams of the various shutters and their mounts. All should become clear after seeing these.
Looking at your picture, although the approach taken to driving the shutter and film wind etc. is as I recall different to the masochistic, but beautiful, design of the Bessamatics, the bayonet mount, unsurprisingly, is similar. I have stripped a Bessamatic and although the body gets decidedly hairy inside, the lens mount and control ring mechanism isn't particularly frightening. So, the good news is that if the camera has no other ills, replacing the missing control ring and lever should not be a very difficult task if nothing else has been removed. As always, set the camera controls to a defined EV at either end of the range--usually 1/500 f/22; or Bulb f/2.8, for example--it will become clear on examination of the lens and body rings how they want to mesh; and re-assembly may get it back to life.
What would worry me is why the part is missing in the first place. Parts are not normally removed from a functioning camera, (unless they might be sacrificed as a donor for a more desirable model, I suppose). There's no doubt someone has been in there, your photo shows enough detail to reveal marks on the retaining screws for the mount that definitely weren't put there by Nagel.
Eventually I wouldn't mind a Retina Reflex Schneider 135mm Tele Xenar lens to put on my Bessamatics, and if I acquire a Retina Reflex body to use with it, so much the better. The 28mm lens for the Kodaks is sometimes acquired by Voigtländer owners, because Voigtländer themselves never made a wider lens than 35mm for Bessamatic/Ultramatic. As I already own too many Contaflice and a couple of Bessamatics, I figure I may as well corner the leaf shutter SLR market and try some Kodaks and Agfas too, one day. Hope the preceding information helps.
Regards
Brett
