Topic: My New Friend Rex

[charles binns]

And isn't he a beauty!!  Picked up on Ebay - quite pricey (circa £30) but apparently he is rare!  I certainly couldn't find out anything about him on the interweb.  Takes 4x4 images on 120.  A British camera made from the finest plastic available whenever it was made.

Will load a roll this week end and post the results shortly.

[moominsean]

Interesting. Looks like it is probably a Rexall Drugs camera. They made a couple, though the 127 cameras are what you mostly see. Probably something they rebranded for catalogue sales or whatnot. Curious what other names it might appear as, haven't seen that specific design though it looks familiar, like maybe an Ilford camera.

[sapata]

What a lovely piece of plastic we've got here! It looks like the lower body's design is borrowed from the Agfa Isoly, which also makes 4x4.

[LT]

It's a coronet commander with a different label/ name. Looks exactly the same down to the brown leatherette skin.

[charles binns]

So it is!

[Francois]

When I first read the title, I thought you had just bought a dog

[charles binns]

I was going to write down boy! in the title!

[LT]

So it is!

Apart from the diana-esque 4x4 frame size. But good to see it is yet another way of wasting most of the 120 frame real-estate like the original commander. I never understood the concept of a frame that uses only two thirds of the available neg surface.

[Francois]

It was made like that so that slides could be made in the Superslide format.
But apart from that, it's pretty pointless.

[moominsean]

So it is!

Apart from the diana-esque 4x4 frame size. But good to see it is yet another way of wasting most of the 120 frame real-estate like the original commander. I never understood the concept of a frame that uses only two thirds of the available neg surface.

16 shots!

[SLVR]

dont you get 16 shots from 6x4.5 also? Even at 4x4 you're wasting half a frame. If you were going for the 17th frame. if that makes sense. Its not like it matters though. still a neat camera! Have fun with it!

[sapata]

Considering the general public wouldn't bother with the quality of the final negs, 16 shots on a consumer camera at that time seemed to be an advantage against the usual 12.

[charles binns]

I tend to prefer 6x6 as well  - size does matter when it comes to negatives after all.  However, there are times when 16 of a smaller negative are better than 12 of a larger one - for example multiple exposures.  Negative size is less important then because you are not so interested in capturing the detail - just form & colour.  Then having 16 shots/roll is better because you use fewer rolls of film.  Normally for multiple exposures, I use my Holga 135 so I get 24 or 36 shots per film, but if I'm travelling I don't like lugging two film formats around so I usually take a Diana with me for multiple shots. 

Anyway, I bought Rex because he's unusual, made from plastic and as Tintin said it's a neat camera and it'll be fun to use.