$15 Retina + $3 CVS film

[SLIU]

Saw a Retina at 25th Street flea market while I was waiting for my two rolls of  Provia 100F being developed. The seller asked for $20 and as usual, I bargained down to $15. Used the saved money bought a CVS brand $3 24 exposure 400 ISO film at the nearest CVS store. It was the worst film I ever shot but the camera is a gem. (The only problem is the shutter speeds slower than 1/15, which is common for old Compur shutter.)

[SLIU]

Finished the roll on my way to 14th street Union Square. I scanned all the 24 frames, they are not bad. But I only have time to Photoshop and dedust some of them. This one is an example of how bad the film is and how good the camera is.




More photos will be in my flickr when they are ready.

[josphy]

The CVS film = rebranded Konica film.  I guess those days are numbered once the current supply runs out.

[connealy]

Quite a bargain.  Appears to be the IIF model, with Xenar lens?
The film is contrasty, but the color doesn't look bad to me.

[cenelson]

Yeh, I think the color looks pretty hip myself. Nice grab, too. Interesting character. I need to get the hell out of podunk Arkansas for a while.

[jake]

Excellent nab for $15. That's the carrot guy on Union Square. He is out there every day I think. Still haven't quite figured out what his message is - some sort of performance art. People love to watch him though. Makes a lot of carrot shavings. Fortunately the farmer's market is right there with a steady supply of fresh carrots.

[Wimpler]

Very nice shots.

It is indeed a retina IIf.  I have posted a pic of mine in the "unusual/underappreciated thread".    I had to reglue te label on top as well.

[SLIU]

Wimpler, I saw your photo of IIF and realized what I had bought. It has a f:2.8/45mm Retina Xenar. The top name plate was gone so I have no idea what it was.

The film has almost no color but blue. The high contrast grain was by Photoshop. My secret weapon to rescue bad film. (See my threads on Beauty and Argus C4.)



Anybody has tips to excercise stiff slow shutter speed?

[SLIU]

Got another frame "processed". (This Photoshop6.0-OS9-on-a-slow-PowerBook thing is killing me. )




Like the magenta issue on M8, to balance color on this lousy CVS film is so challenging. But what you do think about the lens (for a 35mm camera) ?

[SLIU]

More street color (from the same batch)

[melek]

The Schneider Xenar was always a nice lens. Tessar-design, if I recall. A great choice for a Rolleiflex or any of the Retinas, as well.

Sam, nice shots!

[ImageMaker]

That's what I recall, Mike -- Xenar, Skopar, Dominar, all copies of the basic pre-War Tessar, improved in the same way as the post-War versions (War I, that is) without infringing the patents (generally, anyway).

I can't easily tell the difference between my 13.5 cm Skopar from mid-1930s and my 13.5 cm Tessar from mid-1920s -- they're very, very close to identical at the film plane...