Thanks Larry, PF and Pete. Of course, Pete, this one came from the photo lab. The body was perfect, just the bellows were a bit rusty and the lens had some dust, all of this to be expected.

The wrist strap could be a solution, if you are on travel or street situations. It is a small camera although heavy by current standards. I tend to carry my classics in a pouch or bag, along with film. light meter, viewfinders, auxiliary lenses or whatever. I usually take away all the cases and straps, to avoid tangling.

Beautiful and shiny!  Congratulations! The flash attachment is a hit.

Thanks for the comments, Mike!


My father traded or sold that Retina II, with our full consent. We were not using it very much. The Retina was just an old boring camera to us, not yet a classic. In the mid 1960s, SLRs, Canonets, half frames and even 16mm were in, folders were out.

Just a few months later, I got a used Zenit 3M which stayed with me for 30 years. But that is another story altogether.


You are right! I just pile my folded fingers against the open lens door and release with the right index. Folder ergonomics were not stellar.

This is the Retina II I got from Pete in Texas, after going through the CLA and bellows repair (it took three test rolls to nail the leak):





The first "serious" camera I ever owned, 50% with my brother when I was 10, was one of these. We received the camera from my father, along with a barrage of instructions to consider it as a precision instrument, take care of it, etc. We never took any memorable picture with it, but we did many family and friends pictures and documented a few school and high school trips. I last used the Retina II in 1967, to document a trip to Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Handling one again after all those years was interesting. It is one of the most compact classics I know that has a rangefinder and a high quality lens - the Xenon is excellent. Controls and operation are simple, provided you don't do flash. The only thing you must remember is to set focus to infinity before folding. Of all the rangefinder Retinas with bellows, I find that the II is the best combination of portability, lens quality and ergonomics, for the subjects I shoot.

Enough talk, some from the test roll. First one is amateur fishermen in International Labor Day (May 1st, for you Americans).



The posh Casino Carrasco (in the back side of Sofitel hotel Carrasco)



Close view of the fountain piece (is this how you look when you get out of the Casino?)



And the usual boat pictures, no test roll is complete without them. Small fishing boat,



and the pilot launches against the sun, to test the Xenon flare behavior.



Thanks for looking! Film was TMX developed in Beutler mix. Any other member is fond of the Retina II?

Ron, if you can't get it to work drop me a PM, I can send you a working Agfa Silette, it should be the same camera.

Great lenses, at least in my examples. Every one is better than the M39 versions I have.

Helios-103 is one of the finest 50mm I have used.

What a nice place. If this is humdrum...

Reminds me a lot of Valparaiso, Chile (only your city is richer and more modern).

Paul, awesome, powerful shots in the square. Lines are your strong suit, and the series has your usual well-defined style. Keep doing this work!

Great series, I like most the bridge picture. Thanks for sharing these.

I have not been to NY for many years, but I remember a lot of people everywhere. You managed to get few people into the frames! Maybe it is a wide-angle effect.

Phil, I am not sure. IIRC there were different sets of lenses and shutters for the Record III (and the II and...). Mine has a Synchro-Compur, 1 second to 1/500 + B.

I believe that the Record and Viking series were close twins. My shutter/lens may have come from a Viking, because focusing distances are marked in feet.

Good point about rangefinder in ft - will check the old auction site.


Of course...how could I have forgotten! Here it is, the one on the right, some years ago. You can see the "wind film" indicator next to the release.  The other twin is an Ansco Viking - old Hagar, which later got snatched in Hawaii by an ex-member, while completing a world tour.



I miss the traveling cameras.

My old Agfa Billy Record III bellows were leaking light like a sieve. Thanks to Sandeha's craft I got a replacement bellows.

The Billy has a Solinar mounted. It has a story - the camera belonged to my father, it originally had an Agnar triplet. But at one point something broke in the shutter, and he got it replaced with a Solinar that a friend brought from Germany.

I had not used this camera for a long time. In the test roll of HP5+ (BTW, my first time with Ilfotec DDX), I was impressed. Look at this frame shot at 1/250, f/16 (I know, f/16 is easy for any lens):



and this crop (scanned at 1200 dpi, unsharp masked):



You can just see the grain in the sky, in the crop. The definition of the negative still has plenty of room!

The scale in the lens is in feet. I am ashamed, because I ruined several nice portraits in this test roll by doing a wrong conversion from my auxiliary rangefinder, which is calibrated in meters. Shoot and learn.

Great series!  Keep them coming!

You two must be doing some serious exercise, I wonder how you manage to snap these great pictures after 6 or more hours of trekking every day, sometimes with bad weather!  Do take a good rest in Leon.

Take care of your knees and Annie's, Dan, it is a very long way, and you want to get to Santiago in good shape!

You are travelling through historic places. Carrion is the place of the Infantes that campaigned with the Cid, and IIRC later cheated on him.

Don't worry about posting photos, there will be time later on. We will all keep tuned!

I had not checked this thread. Ron, that's some equipment you got there! Angenieux, no less! Very nice portraits BTW.

Thanks, Mike -- this is my first contact with an Exakta. Still have to get used to the differences. For instance, the slow speeds are still a mistery to be unveiled, although I do have a manual.