Kodak Retina I (type 010) Early serial no. 55946, with Kodak-Anastigmat 5cm f3.5

Kodak Retina I (Retina 1) serial number 55946 — which is an early serial number in the “type 010” SN ranges covering its production years of 1945 to 1949. Beautiful cosmetic condition, see the VIDEO, on the photos page, for a walk-through of checks and tests undertaken.

From Retina expert Chris Sherlock’s excellent site: The Retina I (type 010) serial numbers span 50007-99795, and 150257-228646, for a total production run of 128,179 cameras. This Retina, SN 55946 (the 5940th ‘010’ made) falls well within the first 5% of the ‘010’ production run. Also, as noted on Chris’s Retina I (type 010) page, this one features the conical, five o'clock position, focus knob of the earlier models.

According to Chris’s SN page linked-above: “Cameras imported by Eastman Kodak for sale in the USA typically had an 'EK' prefix to their serial number.” — but this camera’s serial number does not have such a prefix. It’s distance markings are Imperial (feet), so it was intended for the USA marketplace. Conjecture and guess on our part that perhaps the omission of the export “EK” means that this Retina was sold in a post-WWII military PX to a U.S. serviceman stationed in Europe. Also of note, unlike most type 010 Retinas, there is no engraved “Made in Germany” marking next to the film rewind knob.

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Lens is Kodak-Anastigmat 5cm f3.5 in Compur shutter, serial no. 1685684. Iris functioning normal, Lens f-stop lever smooth through its range, Focusing knob smooth through its range, glass surfaces appear to be in good shape, internal haze (clearly visible in the video, for you to evaluate yourself), shutter button trips shutter — please note that the shutter release on the body is locked until the film has been advanced for double-exposure prevention, and is mechanically coupled to the shutter release lever on the shutter assembly, so to test the shutter button one needs to manually simulate film advance by turning the sprocket internal to the film path.

Rounding out references: Here is link to Mike Butkus’ excellent site for the Type 010 manual

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Nothing noticed that suggests that this camera is not fully functional, however: It is untested with film and being sold “AS-IS”, for display-case use only. If you plan to shoot film with it, expect and plan to have a qualified service person first do a CLA. See the VIDEO, on the photos page, for a walk-through of checks and tests undertaken.