julio1fer
Well-known
I got locally at a reasonable price a set including the IIIc with 50mm Xenon, the Schneider 80mm and 35mm in their bubbles, and the auxiliary viewfinder.
The chrome in the top of the body was long gone, so the technician took it out. I can brag that this is a "special-series" yellow-top IIIc.
The Xenon is a fabulous lens. This was at noon, to check RF focus at close distances.
I was curious to see how the auxiliary lenses performed.
Despite the help obtained in another thread, I found the lenses difficult to focus because of the complex procedure to follow. The 80mm is especially clumsy because of its size and lower DOF. When I got it right (not often), the results were quite acceptable, although not on par with modern equivalents. An example of the 80mm Longar:
The tiny 35mm Curtagon is easier to use, and the shorter focal distance is more forgiving of operator confusion.
I do not think that I will be using these auxiliary lenses a lot, although they do their job. Great Yellow Father may have got its goal of an interchangeable-lens folding Retina, but I'd rather use the IIIS.
In fact, I have never heard of any other folder with interchangeable lenses. A dead-end of camera evolution, and maybe interesting for collectors just for that reason.
Thanks for looking and for any comments. Film was Pan F+ in Beutler.
The chrome in the top of the body was long gone, so the technician took it out. I can brag that this is a "special-series" yellow-top IIIc.
The Xenon is a fabulous lens. This was at noon, to check RF focus at close distances.
I was curious to see how the auxiliary lenses performed.
Despite the help obtained in another thread, I found the lenses difficult to focus because of the complex procedure to follow. The 80mm is especially clumsy because of its size and lower DOF. When I got it right (not often), the results were quite acceptable, although not on par with modern equivalents. An example of the 80mm Longar:
The tiny 35mm Curtagon is easier to use, and the shorter focal distance is more forgiving of operator confusion.
I do not think that I will be using these auxiliary lenses a lot, although they do their job. Great Yellow Father may have got its goal of an interchangeable-lens folding Retina, but I'd rather use the IIIS.
In fact, I have never heard of any other folder with interchangeable lenses. A dead-end of camera evolution, and maybe interesting for collectors just for that reason.
Thanks for looking and for any comments. Film was Pan F+ in Beutler.
FrankS
Registered User
Love my lllc too! It's only a plain chrome one though.
farlymac
PF McFarland
Lovely results there, Julio. The Retina auxiliary lenses were likely Kodak's way of keeping folks from jumping ship to Leica, Contax, or any other interchangeable lens rangefinder. But I don't think it really helped much in the long run. Also, the other 35mm lens was about the same size as the 80mm, though a stop faster than the smaller one. Just way too much glass hanging out there in my opinion. It really detracted from the original design of what was supposed to be a quick to use camera.
PF
PF
Moto-Uno
Moto-Uno
Lets not forget the aux lenses for the Yashica Electro 35 .
Peter
Peter
julio1fer
Well-known
Thanks! PF, I believe that you are right. Just too much glass for a folder.
The Xenon justifies it all, anyway.
The Xenon justifies it all, anyway.
Chris Sherlock
Established
That Retina IIIc certainly looks very interesting stripped down to the brass. That must have taken a fair bit of work to achieve that.
I have some very ugly top covers here, so perhaps I should give it a go too.
Regards, Chris
I have some very ugly top covers here, so perhaps I should give it a go too.
Regards, Chris
farlymac
PF McFarland
Put it in a sonic cleaner with lime Kool-Aid. We used to prep all our plating that way a few years ago.
PF