Playing Favourites - Cameras

There are cameras I own that I like, and some I don't. In the interests of being completely biased, here is my top 5 list of the cameras I own:

1. Minolta XG-M - Dependable, solid, aperture priority + fully manual, great lens (1.7 Rokkor MD), and fairly light. It's been with me since 2003, my second year of uni. I know I can always get what I want from it, and it was duly promoted to number one for our honeymoon to NZ. The snaps were good. Damn good.

2. Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Super (new) - the name's a bit of a mouthful, but this is a superb SLR. Shutter makes a satisfyingly quirky "zttttt!" noise which I describe as "like a cat sneezing", and despite being over 50, it still works like a dream and is cosmetically close to perfick. The guy was selling it for $85, but when he couldn't figure out how to work the shutter, said I could have it for $40. Good deal.

3. Kiev 6C - Only had two rolls through it, and already it's impressed me to death. As I once said, "it's massive, ugly, and so awesome I could cry". Fully manual, a super lens, a waist level finder - a different way of working, but fun. The only thing that I dislike about the whole contraption is loading film - but I guess it's a matter of practice.

4. Agfa Isolette II - The camera that introduced me to the wonders of square format. I've never spent so much time fixing a camera as I have on this one, and the one roll of film I've put through it so far did not let me down. $20 in a junk shop at Longford, and fairly dirty & unloved when I picked it up. The focus ring was jammed, the bellows were leaking like a sieve, but the shutter fired which fulfills my only criteria for second hand purchases - "they must work". Has recently been having some issues with the shutter.

5. Zorki 4 - this is a rather good looking camera, although the results so far have been a bit soft-looking. However, it's rather good looking. Did I mention that?

honourable mention:
BeLOMO Vilia - this camera kick-started my recent love affair with vintage (and particularly Soviet) cameras. It's solid, but you can really feel the mythical Soviet approach to quality control (ie. patchy at best) in the lens assembly which jiggles slightly. It feels like it was put together by people more used to putting together tanks, but it really does feel like a true "people's camera" - cheap, solid, and simple. The shots are probably more from the LSI school of photography (rather strong vignetting for one), but it revived my interest in all this stuff. Hardly ever gets a run now, but it's still in my heart. Somewhere.

There we have it - one Japanese, two West German, one Ukrainian, one from Russia, one from Belarus.

When I get a chance, I might do some more lists. Although I guess film is the logical next step.

Zeiss Ikon Contaflex - first results (finally)

8 months down the track, I've finally got some results from the Zeiss:






Also the first roll of Fuji Neopan 400 (B&W, not C41) I've had developed. It's quite grainy, but I don't mind. Seems to do the trick, and at the price I paid I'm certainly not going to complain about quality.

Having another look at it, the film does seem a bit cold, so it might be well suited to non-people shots (architecture? abstract? studies?). I have to admit there were a few people/animal & landscape shots in there that I just didn't like all that much. Well exposed, in focus, but not quite suited to the film.

Could just be the development! Anyways, just my initial thoughts on a film I think I quite like...

It's alive!

After a bit of fiddling about on the weekend, I discovered a wonderful thing: the match-needle light meter on the Zeiss works. Both of them, actually. But only in "A" mode. I'm not sure whether this was a decision made in the design process, or whether it's just a quirk it's developed over the last 40 years. Could be either, and as someone who refuses to read the manual in depth, I may never know...

I'm pleased - while I have a light meter on the way, it does mean that I won't have to rely on carrying it with me in future. I'll just have to bear in mind that it's not an aperture-priority mode - which I use mostly when the Minolta isn't sulking - it's a shutter-priority automatic mode. It'll take a little getting used to, and I wonder whether I'll still be thinking in terms of depth of field rather than speed of subject...

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In other news, I completely fucked the first film I put through the Zeiss. Tore it clean in half, as it were. I wasn't aware (translation: i didn't read the manual) that I needed to turn one of the locking screws on the bottom to "R" before rewinding.

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as you can tell, I like to learn things the hard way.

New film purchases, Zeiss Ikon film, and NZ...

Some new film purchases from Vanbar. They seem to be trying to move a lot of their obscure B&W films, and my stocks are depleted since New Zealand, so I thought I'd pick some up:

5 x Paterson Phototec 400 pan 36exp
5 x Lucky SHD 100 36exp
5 x Maco -UP 400 plus 36exp
5 x Paterson Phototec 100 pan 36exp

I have no idea if they are any good, although I think I read that the Lucky 100 is supposed to be similar to TMax. We'll see! And I'm sure I'll just send it up to Black & White Photographics in Invermay to get developed/printed. The gentleman there did a good job with the Rollei Disposables from the wedding.

UPDATE: Vanbar just rang to say they only have the Lucky film. Not really worth it now! I wanted a good stock of miscellaneous B&W film for cheap-ish, so I think I'll just cancel the order and re-think my re-stocking strategy. It's a bit annoying, as this is the second time I've ordered something from Vanbar from the website which they didn't have in stock. If I knew of a better place to order film internet-wise, I'd use it...

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I've just put my first roll of film (some recently expired Agfa colour 200) in the Zeiss I purchased in February. I haven't taken many shots yet, and I'm relying on Sunny-16 as the light meter appears to be buggered. We'll see what the results are like...

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I will start getting film developed from NZ this week. We have about 8 rolls of Reala and 2 rolls of Velvia 100, I think the Velvia will probably be the last off the rank as I think it's going to cost $26.95 for develop & mount. As for prints or scans, I might have to wait! Expensive, but I seem to recall Black & White Photographics charging exactly the same 6 years ago when I was at uni.

I just picked this up today at the Evandale Tinker, located about 25 minutes drive from my home. We (myself & "the tinker") had a bit of trouble riddling the shutter out - I took one shot & it all went black - before he decided I could take my chances for half price ($40 Australian).

After a bit of reading & frustration, it turns out that the winder just needed a bit of "encouragement". So while it looks beautiful, I discovered it might not be the most reliable of beasties. It also came with a brown cover & some magnifying lenses.

I'm quite pleased. Google tells me it's an all mechanical SLR from the 1960s. The lens was probably made in Jena, Germany (my favourite "went-through-without-stopping-on-the-train-wish-I'd-stopped-now" place), and the cameras are supposed to be fairly unbreakable - I'm guessing all that brass & steel would contribute to it's considerable heft.

It has a light meter (supposedly TTL) which I'll need to take some time with to figure out, and the mirror doesn't return when you take the photo - hence the moment when everything went black & I got a considerable discount - but all in all I'm happy with it, and I look forward to putting a roll of Reala through it some time after NZ.

Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Super

A recent trip to an antique/second hand dealer & I found one of these beauties. I didn't buy it at the time, but I have my eye on it. Not sure whether $85 is a good price, but it did seem to be in awfully good nick, the shop owner assured me the shutter is functioning. If it's still there following the honeymoon, I'll be spending my had-earned on it. Provided it works properly. There was another camera (folding camera, takes plate film but comes with a DIY 120 back - looks nice, although I have no guarantee it's functional) in the window which has been there for at least two months, so that gives me confidence that stock moves slowly there...

My god is it heavy though! I think I read it's mostly brass & steel, which I guess would account for it's considerable heft.

The other objects of desire are either a TLR of some kind, or a Fed 1/Zorki 4.