Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/10/05

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Retina Cameras
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Tue, 05 Oct 1999 13:23:14 -0400

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!