Vintage film cameras

[yokohama]

Interestingly, I saw a lomo Diana on Saturday in a craft shop in Leeds. They had the whole range of Lomography stuff. Panoramas, pinholes. I walked very quickly on before my brain had time to think about them.

[yokohama]

I packed and wrapped the lenses this afternoon. But with the Hanimex in one hand and the Rokkor in the other, you can notice the difference.

[johnnyrod]

Ah, night time, I can come out now. Scanned a few pics, first from the Zeiss Ikon Contessa LBE with 50mm f2.8 Tessar lens:
Ten Little Ducks by John Rodriguez, on Flickr
Leaving the Castle by John Rodriguez, on Flickr
Arcade by John Rodriguez, on Flickr
The scanner hasn't done justice as ever but pretty happy, the contrast and colours on some of them are really something. Unfortunately the fungus damage to the front element coating means there is some flare in direct sunlight, as you can see. Not worked out a price yet but am going to sell this camera. Coating aside (so use a lens hood if you need, but it's not that intrusive) it's 100% working and all settings and light meter are accurate.

[johnnyrod]

These from a 1960s Olympus S 35mm rangefinder with 7-element lens. Marginally better but when used with flash was super sharp. I need to fix the meter and wobbly barrel on this but it's nice to use.
Gate by John Rodriguez, on Flickr
Ana riding by John Rodriguez, on Flickr
Certo by John Rodriguez, on Flickr

[johnnyrod]

The latter pic is the 1937 Certo Dolly Super Sport that had the ye olde Verichrome safety film in it. Safety because it's mainly insensitive to red light i.e. darkroom safety light. Later ones were called Pan because they covered all wavelengths/colours (these are B&W films) and you still see "pan" in film names today. The original pics came out fine but with spots where the emulsion has gone west, the pics I took (some 60 years later) not so well:
StMarysTower by John Rodriguez, on Flickr
This camera has an uncoated 75mm f2.8 lens and takes 6x6 pictures. Needs a bit of a clean-up but is one of my prized ones.

[johnnyrod]

Also spotted this, lens is nothing special but the KM is a great camera, like a K1000 but with the bits they left out:
http://www.gumtree.com/p/non-digital...ro-/1171417511

[Kenzie]

Lomo is a whole different ball game. All about ignoring or breaking the "rules"
It's not flare Johnny, it's character!

[johnnyrod]

I've seen worse! I'm going to put this one up for sale at £30 including a genuine Zeiss Ikon case in excellent condition; bit more than you're used to perhaps but if anyone is interested then drop me a line. It's got X-synch so any flash will work with it (at any speed as it's a leaf shutter), and even a hot shoe so no mucking around with PC cords. The only negative is that the window in front of the rangefinder spot could do with a bit more polish as it spoils the spot a bit, but it's quite usable and the spot is bright. Shutter and meter are accurate - the meter reads 1 stop over which helps compensate for stray light. Shutter measures a true 1/400 when set at 1/500 so 20% out (acceptable and by far the best I've seen for a camera of this age) and 1/13 at 1/15. This one also incorporates an automatic aperture when used with a flash - just dial in the guide number and aperture is automatically linked to distance. It's great to use, meter is in the viewfinder, you just centre the needle, and there is a Judas window to see the shutter and aperture settings from the viewfinder.

[yokohama]

Definitely really good colours from that Contessa. I must really try the Symbolica of mine out sometime. It's got the same lens.

[johnnyrod]

There is one of my daughter standing in front of the Mallard at York railway museum. The depth of the blue and the shine of the paint is really something. She even looks like a saint because her head is just in front of one of the buffers. Later she was sitting in the fireman's seat.

The Tessar is a great lens, it took a lot of beating and is still a good formula. Wide open is good enough even with front cell focusing but when stopped down a bit it really performs. To be honest the Novar triplet I have on my Mess Ikonta is almost as good, and wide open (f3.5) you still get a flat picture even to the edges. You have to work pretty hard to beat a German lens, and these are from the days when R&D money was seemingly no object.