On Fri, 28 May 2004, Tony Duell wrote:
While trying
to find a Kodak Retina possibly lost off the back
Why would you want to find one of
those? It is my opinion, based on
dismantling and repairing many cameras, that Kodak have never made a
decent camera. Not one! (and yes, I've worked on Retinas, Retinettes, and
Retina Reflexes).
While I agree with you about the Retin*,
it's a little like saying that IBM never made a decent computer.
I have a fairly decent cherry, mahogany? and leather 8x10" view
camera made by Kodak. (actually apparently continued production
under Kodak name by companies swallowed up by Kodak (the MICROS~1
of the early 20th century)
If you're willing to wade into WWW:
http://www.fiberq.com/cam/ekc.htm
http://www.geh.org/fm/toronto/htmlsrc/mE13000111_ful.html
Mine is one of the earlier ones (Century 1920s? 2D), and could
use some substantial restoration work (such as replacing the
bellows that I have a dozen patches on, and finding original
lens and lens boards instead of what I'm using)
They made it until about 1950!, when they switched to the "Master View"
which has an alloy body, which they made through most of the 1950s.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/doug.lavender/photography/kmv/kmv-specs.html
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com