Comments on: Kodak Retinette 1A: going retro

By: kristarella

kristarella — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:03:17 +0000

Thanks Kristian :-)

Good luck with your eBay purchase!

In my previous post about the camera I wrote how I managed to freeze the whole thing before shooting anything by activating the self-timer (not a good idea!), but I was able to take it apart and turn it off and clean it a bit. Your comment, and listening to TWiP today, inspired me to take some more photos with the Kodak. I wasn’t even sure if there was film in there and I think I exposed some of it, but all good fun. :-P

By: Kristian

Kristian — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:46:52 +0000

Great shots! I used a Retinette 1a in the early 90ies, but sort of advanced to a Pentax SuperA SLR. Recently scanned some old images and realised that I wanted to shot Retinette again, so I´m waiting for one of ebay right now. Hopefully it´s in order.
I put up some pictures on my blog today. It´s funny, I dont remember how I sorted out exposure back then, but maybe someone told about something like the sunny 16 rule- but anyway, most of the time it worked out quite well (although there are quite a few blurry closeups too, due to the lack of precise distance measuring :) )

By: kristarella

kristarella — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:25:55 +0000

Jim --- that's cool. Do you have any of your images online?

By: jim whetstone

jim whetstone — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:19:29 +0000

I have owned my own retinette 1A since 1963 and have shot over 20,000 images with it and it still works perfectly. I shot a roll a few years ago on the suny 16 rule and got great results. I now shoot Nikon D300 but will never let go of my Kodak. I paid $50.00 for it in 1963

By: Kodak Retinette 1A « Down the Road

Kodak Retinette 1A « Down the Road — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:26:39 +0000

[...] chose to shoot with my Retinette 1A this time because blogger Kristarella had so much good luck shooting with hers. Maybe she used up all the Retinette karma. Maybe I just had a bad few days with this camera. [...]

By: kristarella

kristarella — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:19:12 +0000

Hey Jim,
If you can stick to sunny 16 with success I’d say you’re in the bell curve, not even close to rank amateur (a rank amateur wouldn’t even know the rule and be on auto all the time ;) ).
I think sunny 16 was my general guide. I think a few different releases of the 1A actually changed the focus scale. I think mine is in feet, but in the manual I have there is a scale for feet and meters, another camera might only have meters.
Have fun with it!

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 02:57:19 +0000

I bought one of these on eBay some time ago and just now loaded a roll of 200-speed Fujicolor into it. I probably buggered up the first several photos until I realized that the camera’s scale is in meters, not feet. I’m a rank amateur with manual controls and stick to the Sunny 16 rule. I’ve had decent luck using it with my other old cameras. I’m encouraged to see how well your photos turned out from your Retinette.

By: kristarella

kristarella — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:31:54 +0000

Hey Matt,

It’s a pretty nifty camera. Good fun, I say! Glad you like the pics :)

I really didn’t use anything special, Kodak Colour ISO 400 and I got them printed at the shop and asked them to put them on CD. So, I guess whatever method most developing places use to do the CDs! I should ask them next time I’m there.

Sadly, I never got set up for film photography. When I finished school I had dreams of setting up a darkroom, but we moved and I started a science degree and I didn’t pick photography back up until I went digital.

Cheers!

By: matt

matt — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 11:26:07 +0000

these look great. i have seen one of these for sale near me and am tempted to buy it – these pics may have made the choice for me

can i ask what film you used exactly here? do you scan the negatives or the prints?

many thanks