At the charity shop

This morning I went to the farmer's market in Ely. As I passed the charity shop window I noticed some photographic gear in the window. Most of it was box cameras but there were two more interesting items: a daylight loading developing tank and a old 3.5" disk box containing filters and lens hoods. The latter had a price tag of £20. I checked through them. There were 49mm and 72mm polarizers and several 55mm filters. This seemed to be a bargain.

Another attempt with my Leica IIIa

I tried out the Leica again. The above picture was taken with a lens hood (there are some on my fotopage. Unfortunately the shutter button release fell off and was lost. I am waiting for a replacement from DAG.

I think that for my next attempt with this camera I will use an industar lens.

To prepare the film to use, I had bought a copy of an ablon template from ebay. The process wrote on the envelope that the start of the film had been damaged!

My Retina IIIc

Recently I have been experimenting with a Retina IIIc (little c). When I first got it, I thought that it was jammed but I forgot the shutter locks when the frame counter gets to 1 (Details can be found in the manual here. Have you noticed that Cameras designed by or film companies are designed to stop you getting extra frames from a film.

I checked the meter and found that it was accurate enough for print film. I exposed a film largely in the Fenland village of Upwell. The Retina IIIC is really too large to classed as a compact camera despite the fact it is a folder. However, it is a reasonably easy camera to use. I am reasonably pleased with the results given that the weather conditions were not ideal.

Using folding 35mm cameras

I Like having a camera with me at all times. This is one area where digital cameras lag. They have a tendency to flat batteries. Although I have more modern compact cameras I am fascinated by older alternatives. Recently I bought a Voigtlander II. I bought mine on Ebay for about the price of the new one. The seller also included a rangefinder, lens hood and four filters (including two the seller addes to the lot because he had found them and thought they might be some use to me. I put a cheap colour film in it and walked a quarter mile to Ely park to take some pictures of the autumn leaves. There picture of the lantern tower of Ely cathedral.

There is a copy of the manual here.
Not that I really needed one. The operation of this camera is fairly straightforward.


I also have a Voigtlander IIa. There are some examples on my photoblog here
. These pictures were also taken at Kentwell Hall but it was a World War II re-enctment rather than a Tudor one. I also have a Kodak Retina IIa. There are some pictures taken with it here

Olympus 35RD

Recently I went to a Tudor re-enactment at Kentwell Hall. For the interior shots, I used an Olympus 35rd. I bought it on Ebay. This camera is known for having problems with oil and shutter blades. Fortunately my camera seems to have been rapaired. I am not sure how is lubricated because it start stiff and then the focussing become silky smooth. An examination of the screw heads revealed that they had been unscrewed. I don't collect cameras that are in pristine condition because I want use them.

One of the best features of these classic rangefinders with leaf shutters is that they are so quiet and unobstrusive.

Film and Processing

This morning I have just taken delivery of 80 rolls of Fuji film. I had had ordered 60 rolls of 100 ISO but the seller contacted me to say he had already sold it and would I take 80 rolls of 200 ISO instead (presumably he did not want me complaining to Ebay). The film is justpast its use by date but this OK. Film does not self-destruct when it passes its expiry date. I usually get the film processed at Boots (a large UK chain of chemists). I usually get the film processed and scanned on to CD. The six day service costs £3.49 and I get 1840 x 1232 pixels. When I need a larger scan, I can just scan the negatives. This is more than enough for compiling digital slideshows for computers or TV. I make my slideshows using ProShow gold. I tried many programs and slected this one because of its range of output options.

Introduction

My interest in classic cameras started when my uncle loaned me his Leica screw thread cameras: a IIIC and a IIIG (for details see http://www.ozdoba.net/leica/schraub_hist_e.html). My uncle sold these cameras years ago. More recently I regained my interest in rangefinder cameras by acquiring Russian Leica copies which I will write about in the future. In today's entry I will describe my experiences with using my recently acquired Leica IIIb with a Summar lens. The Summar lens does not enjoy a good reputation. I tested the camera at a country fair and traction engine rally. This pre-war camera and lens worked but unfortunately the lens exhibited the effect known as Leica glow (another name for flare). The photo on the right illustrates the problem. The white sections of the posts are surruunded by flare. The film used was chromegenic BW and I used the sunny f16 rule.

You can find more pictures from the event taken with a more modern Voigtlander Rangefinder here. Note there are thousand of pictures on my photo blog. I always add nine photogaphs a day. I make DVD and computer slideshows of my photographs and the fotopages imposes a discipline so I do not emd up with a huge backlog to process. It also means family and friends (and up to 200 people I do not really know) see my photographs.