I've had a few such occurrences of this, none of which need repeating here, aside from my very last one. In this case, the intoxicant was a second glass of egg nog (Ok, so I'm a light weight!) during the week after Christmas, and the result of this imbibing was a new addition to my collection. When the buzz had worn off, I wondered if I had made a mistake that I would regret, but it was one of those things of which only time would tell.
For a few weeks, I had been contemplating picking up a Kodak Signet 35 rangefinder camera, as I had read some good things about it. However, given my recent experiences of the only borderline pocket-ability of the Kodak Retinette, I was a little leery about adding another camera that was wasn't fully portable to my collection. As I looked through listings, I ultimately put in "Kodak 35" as my search term, and a page or two down, I was smitten by what looked at first glance to be a great deal: A "Kodak Regina (sic) Camera" that looked tiny and sparkling. It was $30 to buy, and I suddenly wanted it. Within 15 minutes, I was now a Retina owner.
I'd certainly heard of the Kodak Retina line of cameras from looking at various film camera collecting forums, and yet I had never considered one seriously. Part of this was due to the fact that most of the Retinas I had seen showcased were later examples of rigid body cameras that didn't look to be the compact wonder that this little guy was, while nearly all Retinas of any vintage that I had seen listed for sale started at $50 and up, or so I thought. Yet, here was a clean example of a folding Retina complete with an Ektar lens for $30. I couldn't resist. I figured I had better snap this up before someone else did.
I can't say there was a full borne feeling of "morning after regrets" to follow these actions, but I was a bit nervous in wondering if I was getting anything resembling a working camera, as this just seemed a little too good to be true. As I awaited for its arrival, I did a bit of research to try to determine just what I had bought.
A review of a number of "Retina resources" would reveal that my new Retina was a type 141 dating from between 1937 and 1939, made in the early days of this camera's production. Despite the Kodak name, which previously elicited connotations of basic American made box and folding cameras, the Retina was of German make, produced beginning in 1934 when Kodak purchased the Nagel Camerawerks in 1931. It was certainly a different breed of Kodak.
The Retina's history would last for decades, though nearly each successive model would get larger and larger, first to incorporate a rangefinder, and later to abandon the folding design, while also adding in a light meter. Fortunately, since mine is of an early vintage, it remains stellarly svelte.
My worries of a bad decision began to evaporate, most notably when the camera actually arrived. There before me was a glistening mechanical jewel, completely functional and ready for film. My only lingering worry was that there was some haze in the 75 year old lens that I worried might impact contrast. As such, I elected to load the Retina with a strong contrast film, Rollei Retro 80S to try to impart some additional snap to the images.
