I bought this camera (a beautiful Kodak Retina Reflex III, in great condition) with the money my Grandmother sent me for my birthday.

It was a steal at €49 including the lens you see there (50mm), and including the case, uv filter, and the close-up lens in the yellow box. I guess there’s very little demand for such cameras these days (completely manual, film cameras), despite being mooi.

Everything works fine – only the internal light metre is a bit dodgy. The external one seems to work ok but I have to get some more practice and develop my first rolls of film before I know for sure.

These cameras were built in Germany between 1960 and 1964. Mine says “West Germany” on the barrel of the lens and “Made in Germany” on the newer UV filter.

For an additional €29 a piece I got those three other lenses you see in the picture (Kreuznach 85mm, 35mm, 135mm).

We’ll see next Monday how my first set of pictures turned out. Probably not very well since I was mostly “using the force” as regards choosing aperture and shutterspeed. Hopefully I’ll get the hang of it though. I love the picture quality of film.