Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 12:39 PM 10/5/1999 EDT, Afterswift@aol.com wrote: > >Kodak's 35s of the period were slightly better, but no bargain either. Only >one of Kodak's Retinas was any good: a folding IIIc. It was made in their >German factory. I will dissent, quite strongly, from this statement. The entire Retina line is of great interest technically and all are capable of grand results. (And, after all, what is arguably one of the most satisfying pictures of all time, the shot of Tenzing Norgay at the summit of Mount Everest, was taken with a Prewar Stuttgart Type 119 Retina I with a Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens.) The Kodak AG factory was founded by Nagel, the former owner of Contessa-Nettel, after that company was merged into Zeiss Ikon. When Nagel discovered that he was to have honourary (but lucrative!) appointments only with Zeiss Ikon, he sold his interest in that company and founded the Nagel-Werke nearby to the Zeiss Ikon plant in Stuttgart, which he sold several years later to Kodak. He continued to run the factory until his death in '44, when his son Helmuth took over the helm. Helmuth died two years or so ago, an interesting foot-note to the history of photography in general and of Kodak in particular. Marc msmall@roanoke.infi.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!