Topic: I just picked up...

[AJShepherd]

Well this was a birthday present, but right now I'm not sure when I'm going to use it seeing as I'm kind of limited right now (for obvious reasons) to whatever is in walking distance and can be passed off to the fuzz as 'vital shopping' or 'daily exercise' which is when I snapped the test shot.

[Francois]

Happy (late) birthday!
That was a lovely expensive gift.

[Blaxton]

Quarantine has brought about some sorting-out, spring-cleaning exercises in our home.  The cook found some cameras, hidden for twenty-five years (or so), one of which was a Polaroid One Shot.  I ordered some film and exposed two sheets this morning.  The first was forgettable but I like this one.

[zapsnaps]

A yellow filter to shove on the end of the Blad's 80mm f2.8 for some B&W landscape goodness. Due to lockdown, not sure it will get much use, other than in the local field where I exercise for the foreseeable future

[Kai-san]

I picked up this lot today for pocket money. Expiry dates from 2001 to 2007, probably not refrigerated. Big fun!

[Francois]

There's nothing better than mystery desert fresh film 

[Indofunk]

Aw man, that 64T will be a dream if it wasn't cooked in a desert

[jharr]

There's nothing better than mystery desert fresh film 

That's my favorite vintage!!

[Indofunk]

There's nothing better than mystery desert fresh film 

That's my favorite vintage!!

I honestly don't know how you do it 

[David A-W]

It was my birthday last week and the lockdown cancelled my original plan for the two of us to go to a fancy London restaurant for a very nice meal, so instead I bought a Nikon F100, a 60mm AF micro-Nikkor, with some P30 and Ortho Plus to have a play with. Together, it probably cost less than the meal would have done... Prepare for some macro shots of spring flowers.

[EarlJam]

… my "darkroom" box from storage, where it's been for the past 25 years, after residing in the garage since the early 1980s. I expected to find trays, tongs, a one-reel developing tank, speed easel, and enlarger lenses and negative carriers. Unexpected was my bulk film loader with some remaining quantity of Ilford HP4 and a half dozen or so reusable cassettes.

Atypically for me, I had the foresight to note the film type in the loader; more typically, I neglected to note the date I put it in the loader. Looking through my archive, it appears that the last roll of HP4 that I shot was in December 1976.

So . . . 40+ years at minus one stop per decade, I'm assuming I should rate the test roll at ISO 50 baseline, then bracket in half-stops plus and minus two stops from there. Any recommendations on developer?

[Francois]

I developed some mystery garage sale HP5 in HC-110 dil.B and it went pretty well.
I guessed mine was expired around 1989 (very rough estimate based on the knowledge I had of the seller) and exposed it for EI 50.

Still have 6 rolls of the stuff... since I probably didn't pay more than a buck for the bulk loader, I figured it was well worth the price.
I also got at the same time an X-ray machine vacuum tube that came from the first machine used in the province... another one of the oddities that fills my shelves.

[Bryan]

I also got at the same time an X-ray machine vacuum tube that came from the first machine used in the province... another one of the oddities that fills my shelves.

What does your tube look like.  I have quite a few tubes that I use to repair old radios and I have come across a few odd ones that I have no idea what they were used for. 

[Francois]

They're pretty huge things, one of them even has some hefty glass insulated wires coming out of it.
The emittor even has a glass lens molded in.
I'll take some pictures of them.

EDIT:
Here are the pictures.
The one with the wires sticking out is actually the Coolidge tube.
The other one is probably from the power amplification side of things.

[John Robison]

They're pretty huge things, one of them even has some hefty glass insulated wires coming out of it.
The emittor even has a glass lens molded in.
I'll take some pictures of them.

EDIT:
Here are the pictures.
The one with the wires sticking out is actually the Coolidge tube.
The other one is probably from the power amplification side of things.

Looks a bit ‘mad scientist’ to me.

[Indofunk]

That second one looks like a combination between a Dalek and the robot from Lost in Space

[Francois]

Looks a bit ‘mad scientist’ to me.

That second one looks like a combination between a Dalek and the robot from Lost in Space

That's pretty much what attracted me to those. I always loved those old science fiction ray guns and these fit the description perfectly. 

[Bryan]

Those are some crazy looking tubes, like nothing I've ever seen before.

[Francois]

Not really surprising when you consider where they came from.
The previous owner's father was a doctor, anaesthesiologist if I remember.
And the garage sale where I got them was run by the kids of a guy who was a broadcast engineer for CBC.

[Bryan]

This is the strangest tube I have, it's an RCA 6198 for a Vidicon camera, an early television camera.  It was the earliest Vidicon tube on the market.  I found it among other tubes at an estate sale and only got it because I thought it was odd.  I think it's probably a used one that is no good, the front where the image is projected into the tube looks like it has some coating loss. 

http://www.myvintagetv.com/rca_videcon_camera.htm

https://www.labguysworld.com/Dage-70B.htm

[Francois]

It probably was used. The Vidicon tubes were very expensive in those days so there must not be that much new-old stock left anywhere.

[EarlJam]

I have a couple of pictures of broadcast cameras in use in the early 60s: one of me with a typical B+W camera (1.25" image orthicon tube, if memory serves); and one of the first color camera installed in Los Angeles, at KRCA (now KNBC) in early 1962. That we're able to carry high resolution, high frame rate cameras in our pocket now, and record and broadcast video at will, strikes me as the same technological leap as the one between the Wright Brothers and the SR-71.

[Francois]

And we're not talking about the weight of these things.
Though that all metal construction is pretty much a rarity these days.

[hookstrapped]

Voigtlander Perkeo I with a Color-Skopar. The negs are drying but looking good...











Very clean. Everything works well. Looking like a nice bargain. I read that it's the most compact 6x6 around. Sounds right.

[02Pilot]

I love my Perkeo, but it took a while to get it right. The lens wasn't square to the film plane when it came to me, and it took a good bit of fooling around to sort it out. And it took far too much time and money to get a set of filters for it. But it is exceptionally compact and takes good photos.

[Sandeha Lynch]

Very clean. Everything works well. Looking like a nice bargain. I read that it's the most compact 6x6 around. Sounds right.

Is it not an early Perkeo II ? I see you have a plain roller on the right side.

[hookstrapped]

It's embossed Perkeo I on the back.

[02Pilot]

Definitely a Perkeo I - it doesn't have the little arm on the back of the top plate that resets the film counter/double-exposure prevention.

[Sandeha Lynch]

Ah, OK. Thanks both. I had a I in the house a while back and was surprised that it was one roller short.

[zapsnaps]

a 300mm 5.6 to go my Zenit EM which I got from Johnha a year or two ago. I've seen a competition to take photos from your window. From a bedroom window, you can see the head and shoulders of people walking past the house and then turning down a footpath. The 'concept' - all comp winners have concepts, rather than ideas or random luck - is to take snaps of villagers walking away from the camera and then turning left so they are side-on when they enter the footpath. The 300 will allow me to get in very close. I'm going to use a long exposure to blur the people into abstract movements. Oops - I've just checked - the EM only goes down to 1/30th. That will probably give blur rather than abstraction. Although the aged villagers are not the most spritely of walkers - perhaps 1/30th will get them pin sharp!

[Francois]

If you hand hold it, you're sure to get some blur at those speeds.

[zapsnaps]

Now I put my glasses on, the 1/30 was the synch dial! It goes all the way down to 30 seconds! But the font is so small I need a loupe to set the speed dial!

[Pete_R]

The EM only goes down to 1/30. It was my first SLR.

[zapsnaps]

Perhaps I need to pick up some new glasses!
I like the EM - but I do find it heavy for its size. But there is something quite pleasing about the heft, if not held for too long.

[Francois]

Perhaps I need to pick up some new glasses!
there is something quite pleasing about the heft, if not held for too long.

That's why monopods were invented

[zapsnaps]

Agreed! When the R8 with the 80-200 was my main rig shooting E6, I usd a monopod most of the time. But I find it tricky to use a monopod with the 500c/m and a WLF for some reason. The verticals and horizontals always seem to be slightly skew, which drives me mad, as I don't like to crop 6x6 images.

[Francois]

I must admit that I've never been very good at keeping any camera level using a monopod.

[zapsnaps]

You should try it with a vestibular condition, aging eyesight and a laterally reversed image - it's a laugh a frame. 

[Francois]

I'm wondering if there's a stabilizing gimbal out these that would hold the weight of a 'Blad?

[johnha]

a 300mm 5.6 to go my Zenit EM which I got from Johnha a year or two ago.

Pleased it's still going strong - a 300, reminds me of the Photosniper...

My latest is a Uni-Loc Major 2300 tripod (nearly 8 foot tall but huge & heavy).

[AJShepherd]

a 300mm 5.6 to go my Zenit EM which I got from Johnha a year or two ago. I've seen a competition to take photos from your window.

I was thinking only the other day that if I lived in a flat higher up and not on the ground floor, it'd be tempting to break out the ol' Photosniper (300mm 4.5 Tair) and get all Rear Window on things. Or maybe with not many people about I could take it to the park and look for squirrels. What's the worst that could happen?

[Pete_R]

What's the worst that could happen?

You get shot.

[AJShepherd]

Indeed, that's why it never goes out of the house in its final form.

Have used the lens occasionally on the EM, but maybe not as often as I could as it's a lump to lug around all day.

[zapsnaps]

There is a chap (in the US?) who works or lives in a tower black and in summer takes near-vertical shots downwards of passing pedestrians. They nearly always seem to be pictures of large chested women. Classy.

Yes, the EM is still going strong, thanks Johnha. I even tested the built-in meter the other day with my Sekonic and it's spot on, which is quite impressive. It's my only only SLR with a prime 50 f2, so it gets quite a few outings. I really like the Moscow Olympics graphic on the prism housing - it adds to the Russian character.

[Kai-san]

I've never fancied Voigtländer cameras, I always thought they look a bit cheap. But hey, there's the Bessa-L which IS cheap! Made by Cosina who at this time made cheap SLR's for other brands to put their name on and flog as economy models. There's supposed to be an aluminium frame inside, but the back door is pure plastic. And the controls look like they're nicked from a toy camera. Then there's the strap lugs on the front that in use will make the camera tilt 45 deg. backwards. Perfect in the rain, so I put a handstrap on it straight away. The idea of a wide angle point&shoot rangefinder without a rangefinder is not as silly as it sounds, setting the aperture on the 21mm Color Skopar to 8.0 will give you sharp pictures from 1 meter to infinity. The camera is light and the TTL light meter is usually spot on. But the user manual says that it accepts M39 LTM lenses, and that's where my grievances with this camera starts. Because it doesn't accept the old type of wide angled lenses like the Zeiss Biogon, Jupiter 12 or the 20mm Russar. They've put a restriction inside that will prevent these lenses from being seated properly by about 1mm. And I'm quite certain they've done it on purpose. So I've put a Russar viewfinder on top of it just to spite them! 
Will I keep it? Nah, probably not. I can use the lens on my other LTM rangefinders, but on a Leningrad or a Yashica YE it just looks silly. If I sell it I will just get enough dough to buy a black Russar lens. For me personally that is a much more agreeable prospect.

[Francois]

I remember when they came out with this.
Since it doesn't have any rangefinder or even a viewfinder, it reminded me a lot of the Leica 1C.

[Bryan]

I'm sure the people at Voigtländer are really upset about that viewfinder.  How do you read the light meter if there's no viewfinder?

[Kai-san]

I'm sure the people at Voigtländer are really upset about that viewfinder.  How do you read the light meter if there's no viewfinder?

Three LEDs at the back shows the correct exposure. The green in the middle is good, the two red ones on each side is under- and overexposure. Oh, and I forgot the shutter, it's louder than any of my Contax SLR's with the exception of the S2 which is on par with a Nikkormat FTn.

[Pete_R]

But the user manual says that it accepts M39 LTM lenses, and that's where my grievances with this camera starts. Because it doesn't accept the old type of wide angled lenses like the Zeiss Biogon, Jupiter 12 or the 20mm Russar. They've put a restriction inside that will prevent these lenses from being seated properly by about 1mm. And I'm quite certain they've done it on purpose.

The reason is because the camera has a double shutter which is thicker and there's insufficient depth for those old wide angles. So the rear element would hit the shutter if one was fitted. That's probably what's happening if you've tried.

The Bessa L was the first of the Bessa range and was released soon after the release of the Yasuhara T981 - the camera attributed to starting the rangefinder renaissance. The T981 uses a single layer shutter which 'may' allow light through (mine doesn't). Not a problem in SLRs with mirrors but in rangefinders the shutter needs to be 100% light proof. Yasuhara went to Copal with the problem and Copal produced a suitable shutter (presumably the double layer one) but it was too late/too expensive for Yasuhara and he stuck with the single layer one. So Copal had a shutter and no customer. I'm guessing they offered it to Cosina and Cosina rushed out a camera that used it. They used the chassis from the Cosina CT-1 SLR.

Some supposition on my part but it seems strange that Cosina brought out the Bessa so soon after the T981 appeared.

[Pete_R]

Oh, and I forgot the shutter, it's louder than any of my Contax SLR's with the exception of the S2 which is on par with a Nikkormat FTn.

The S2 being purely mechanical is going to be louder than other Contax bodies. The sound can be improved, though maybe not reduced by much, by damping the mirror return springs. The camera normally has a distinct ring to it that continues after each exposure - that's the mirror return springs. I've damped the springs on several and it does help a lot. The Yashica FX-3 series suffers the same problem - not surprising as the FX-3 and the S2 share the same parts.