This afternoon I took the top cover off my Retina IIc 35 mm rangefinder camera and I just wanted to publish some pictures to help anyone who needed to do the same operation. Although it was an easy job, I always think it is easier if you know what is under the cover before you take it off, so hopefully these pictures may be useful to someone.
Retina IIc top cover removal images
Top cover removal procedure
Removing the top cover was very easy.
The film rewind is removed by holding the prongs of the rewind shaft with a screwdriver blade and turning the top of the rewind knob anticlockwise until it unscrews. Then there are just three screws to remove and the top of the camera lifts away without any problems.
The thing to be careful of is the frame counter button, which will probably come off the shaft it sits on when you lift the cover off. The pictures above show how it sits on the shaft and how the spring under is is positioned. A word of caution which I picked up from Chris Sherlock's Retina Rescue site is make sure you don't remove the shutter release shaft. If you do it could be really difficult to refit it.
The other useful thing to know is that the frame counter lock, which stops the film advance and shutter release from working, is automatically enabled when the top is off the camera. If you need to cock the shutter by advancing the film advance, you need to hold that shaft down as you do it. It's sort of obvious which shaft it is because it isn't the shutter release or the frame counter button.
The main reason I removed the top of the camera was to remove any dust and debris and to check the condition of the cocking rack, which I'm pleased to say look fine on this camera.
This post is part of a series: Kodak Retina IIc
