Chris's camera pages
Filters for the Kodak Retina & Retinette cameras
The most common size of filters you will need to find for the Retina & Retinette cameras are the ones Kodak confusingly labelled '32 mm', which would be the correct size for a push-on filter, but these are actually screw-in filters, and the thread size is 29.5mm.
Here is a selection of filters from my collection
The range here includes pale yellow (FI), medium yellow (FII), yellow-green (FIII), orange (FIV), red (FV), blue (FVI), and UV (FVII). There are two others here, a 1A Skylight filter intended for use primarily with slide film, and an 80B filter intended for using daylight-balanced colour film under photoflood lights. Not shown here is a diffuser with concentric lines embossed in the surface.These filters suit most of the 45mm or 50mm standard lenses on Retinas and Retinettes from the IIIc era and later models.The exception being the f/1.9mm standard lenses of the IIIS and reflex models, which need a larger size. For the f/1.9 lenses, you should be looking for ones labelled '60mm' by Kodak, which have a thread size of 58mm. Fortunately, 58mm filters from other manufacturers are far easier to find than those troublesome 29.5mm filters.Some filters may be found that were in a thinner mount, presumably for better clearance from the folding front 'door'. These protrude around 2.55 mm from the front surface of the filter mount on the lens compared to the more-common examples at 3.65 mm.For earlier Retina I or Ia cameras fitted with an f/3.5 lens, you will need to hunt down a smaller size of filter, one that Kodak labelled '27 mm', the size a push-on filter would need to be, but which actually have a thread size of 21.5 mm.I have found the little '27'-size filters much harder to find, but I have gathered up one or two as you can see in the photo below.
I have the pale yellow (FI), medium yellow (FII), green (FIII), and the UV (VII) filters. The unmarked filter in the middle of the bottom row is an after-market filter, maker unknown, the last green filter is nickel-plated, and is marked 'Kodak Retina Filter N III Made in Germany'.
Here you can see some of the little embossed metal cases that the early Retina 27 mm filters came in. Unfortunately, the cases here are all empty apart from the one for the green N III filter seen in the picture above.
The only Kodak 60mm filters I have are this medium yellow (FII), and the Skylight filter.
