FEBRUARY 2024 – Close-up of the engraved product name of a Kodak Retinette 1B (Typ 037) viewfinder camera from the early 1960s. Photo © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
In Gear Talk #8, I shared my experience with a used Kodak Retinette 1B viewfinder camera from 1965. During my research I found out that it was a Type 045 camera, the successor of the Type 037 which I also own.
For the article I shot several photos of both cameras, and here is one them – a close-up of the the engraved product name on the top of the camera. It has this subtle elegance of the 1950s that was ubiquitous back then. You could find it everywhere – from neon signs to magazine titles to product packaging. The italic font is really nice as used on the Retinette 1B, and especially the curvy letter R looks fantastic in my view, a reminiscence of the old style handwriting but still fresh and contemporary.
Compare this to the engaved product name of the Type 045 which looks like rectangles all over. I can understand that the Kodak brand managers wanted to leave the 1950s behind and assume a more modern, forward looking product label, almost futuristic. But no, I don’t like it as much as the previous label.
Apart from the label, though, the new version convinced with a better feature set compared to the Type 037, namely a faster release shutter and a fully working hotshoe for electronic flashes.
By the way, it was great shooting an old camera – ancient to me – with a modern powerful body and lens, and I love the results.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date & Time | 03-FEB-2024, 15:02 |
| Location | Unterhaching, Germany |
| Camera | Canon EOS-1D Mark IV |
| Lens | Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM |
| ISO | 100 |
| Exposure | 1/400 sec at f/2.8 |
| Digital Image Source Format | Canon Camera RAW (CR2) |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 3354 x 2236 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
Zanzig.com Photo Hub 