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Kodak IIc IIIc Accessory Lenses -- Are They Worth Getting?
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PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2015 3:05 am    Post subject: Kodak IIc IIIc Accessory Lenses -- Are They Worth Getting? Reply with quote

I have a Kodak IIc and I treasure the camera for the work of industrial art that it is. A lot of folks don't realize it, but the lenses are interchangeable on the IIc and IIIc models -- or to be more exact, the front element group is interchangeable. In addition to a "fast" 50mm f/2 (normally the IIc came with a 50mm f/2.8 ), there are also 35mm and 80mm accessory lenses.

I see the 80mm fairly often on eBay for a reasonable sum -- say $40-60, thereabouts. But seldom do I see the 35mm. I've been thinking about adding these accessory lenses to this camera, but I'm wondering just how good they are and if they're worth bothering with. Anybody out there have one or both of these lenses that you'd care to comment about?

Thanks!


PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2015 7:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have a IIc and I still keep fancying the Longar- and Curtar- lenses. Then I pinch myself and remember from back when I used to sell them in camera shops that the Longar is huge and heavy and unbalances the camera and the Curtar is tiny but rather slow. Both are an absolute pain to use - the focus-and-refocus routine was surely a triumph of misplaced ineguity. So I keep deciding not to get them. But I still keep thinking how nice it would be to have the set Very Happy

Has your camera the Xenon or Heligon standard lens? Mine has a the Xenon and every time I see a cheap(ish) Longar it's for the Heligon and won't fit my camera - !


PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2015 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My IIc has the Retina-Xenon lens. Huh, I hadn't thought about having to redo focus. I noticed a couple of scales that are positioned on the bottom of the lens mount -- are those for the auxiliary lenses? Wait one, I just found a listing describing the ordeal of focusing with the 80mm. Definitely not for sports photography.

I love this little camera. I often wonder how much a camera like this would cost in today's dollars or GBPs or Euros or whatever. Even with all the advanced machining technologies we have today, I'll bet it would still be a very expensive camera to produce. Okay, I just found a pdf of a Kodak price list. The IIc listed for $135.00 in 1955. In today's dollars that amounts to $1187.25. Now, that I believe.


PostPosted: Sat May 02, 2015 7:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I sometimes sit and listen to how quiet the shutter is - at speeds between 1/30 and 1/125 it's hardly audible even when you're taking the photograph. Makes a Leica sound noisy ! It's a while since I put a film through it but I take it out of the cupboard and exercise the shutter regularly.And the lens is good . . . I expect one day we'll se someone butcher a Retina to adapt the lens to go on a digital body. Did the 5-element Xenon ever get mounted up for any other camera, I wonder?


PostPosted: Sun May 03, 2015 12:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have no idea, but if it can be dismounted as a unit (yep) then it can be repurposed -- maybe even cobbled up to a digital camera.

I just pulled mine out and ran it through all its speeds. Well at least the slow ones still time out. Barely. Looks like it's gonna need a CLA. I wonder how far off the faster speeds are. I'll bet they're still okay. I guess I need to run a test roll through it to check the faster speeds' accuracy.