Film Camera 2019/12 – Fujifilm Instax Wide 210

December 30, 2019 by Howard Dale Posted in Fujifilm Instax Wide 210 Leave a comment

I’ve never been a fan of instant cameras, largely because I don’t like the results they produce. However recently we stayed with our younger daughter and noticed this camera on a shelf and decided to give it a try. I asked my son in law if I could use it. He said OK and told me that there was film behind it.

The Instax 210 Wide Camera was the first wide format that Fujifilm developed (It has since been replaced by the Instax 300 Wide). It uses ISO 800 speed film cartridges that come in a pack of ten. Each photo measures 3.4 by 4.25 inches with a white border.

The camera has a film countdown counter as part of an LCD display that also shows the focal distance: either close-up for shots at 0.9 meters to 3 meters or distant for shots from 3 meters to infinity. Every time the camera is turned on, the front lens extends and the camera defaults to close-up mode.

Other controls include a lighten/normal/darken switch and a flash on/off button. The flash on the camera will fire automatically in low light conditions and there’s no way to stop it from doing so i.e. the flash cannot be completely turned off. The shutter speed is fixed at 1/64th and 1/200th of a second, so shots of people (or anything else) moving will look blurred.

The camera comes with a close up lens attachment, which also includes a mirror for taking selfies and requires four AA batteries.

That’s about it. All in all a fairly simple camera.

Film Camera 2019/11 – Leica IIIf

December 29, 2019 by Howard Dale Posted in Leica IIIf Leave a comment

I’d always liked the look of Leica cameras and, of course, their reputation precedes them. When I started collecting cameras (around 2011) I thought about getting a Leica, but I didn’t want to pay what they cost and I wasn’t sure how I’d like the rangefinder experience. So in order to try out rangefinder cameras my first purchase was of two Former Soviet Union cameras: A FED 2 and a Zorki 4.

Of course it was not long until the yen for a Leica returned so I got my hands on this one: A Leica IIIf red dial (I think). I also got a Leitz 90mm f4 lens, the only piece of Leica glass that I could afford. I also figured that I could use the lenses (Industar, Jupiter and the like) that I got with the FSU cameras. Subsequently I bought the Canon Serenar 50mm f3.5, which you see in the picture above and which I used for this test.

So back in 2011 I trimmed the leader and loaded the camera with Tri-X. And there it sat until recently when I took it out again.

This is such a well known camera that I’ll content myself with a couple of links to reviews:

Leica IIIf. Screw Mount (1950-1957) on kenrockwell.com

First Impressions: Leica IIIf after sixty years

Leica Screw Mount Cameras – the 1930’s through the 1950’s (not specifically on the IIIf but and interesting overview of Leica screwmount cameras).

Film Camera 2019/10 – Moskva 5 – Results

December 28, 2019 by Howard Dale Posted in Black & White, Camera Collection, Cameras, Film, Moskva 5 Leave a comment

I struggled with this camera – not the fault of the camera, more my lack of familiarity with it and some basic mistakes I made. Loading was easy enough, but after that things started to go downhill.

Admittedly I was rushing. I was leaving on vacation and wanted to finish a roll quickly before I left. I had the camera set for 6×9 and so only had 8 frames available. I composed my first picture and pressed the shutter release. Nothing happened. Maybe I needed to advance? I did this and still nothing. Now getting flustered I tried again. Still nothing. Eventually I realized that I’d forgotten to cock the shutter – three frames lost, five to go.

It was a fairly dull day and I was using 100 ISO film and in one of the shots I think the shutter speed was too slow for me to hand hold – four frames down four to go.

Only occasionally having used medium format cameras I didn’t realize that depth of field is less than I was used to with 35mm. Only a small area was in focus, with the foreground and background badly out of focus. Five down, three to go (the images above and below),

I found the camera quite cumbersome to use. I couldn’t seem to hold it comfortably and the focus mechanism at the end of the lens was also uncomfortable. I left with the impression that it’s really designed to be used on a tripod, which is what I’ll do next time I use it.

So while I didn’t really like the camera all that much the 6×9 negative is hard to resist so I’ll certainly try it again.

Film Camera 2019/10 – Moskva 5

December 28, 2019 by Howard Dale Posted in Camera Collection, Cameras, Moskva 5 Leave a comment

Made from 1955-59 by KMZ, Krasnogorsk (Moscow), USSR. Earlier models were copies of the Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta C. Unlike the earlier models, this model is a Zeiss Super Ikonta adapted form, rather than a clone and unlike the Super Ikonta, its solid top plate has a built-in rangefinder and a dual-format viewfinder. The Moskva-5 was the latest model in a series of cameras, the main difference from the Moskva-4 being the addition of a self timer. The Moskva-5 was undoubtedly designed as an expensive professional camera, and not as an amateur model.

It uses 120 rollfilm and produces a negative of 6cm x 9cm (or 6cm x cm) with mask (apparently the mask is often lost, but I was lucky that mine still has it.

It weighs about 30oz and has an Industar-24 f3.5-f32 (4 elements in groups) lens, which focuses from 1.5m to infinity. The shutter is a Moment 24s with shutter speeds of b, 1-1/250. The shutter isn’t set by advancing the film; it has to be cocked at the lens by a lever. To take a picture, press the button on the left of the camera top. The button on the right is for unlocking the front plate when the camera is collapsed. To fire the shutter, the film needs to be transported, if not, the release button will be blocked, a double exposure locking mechanism is indicated by a small window beside the winding knob, before winding it is white and the shutter release is blocked and after winding it is red and shutter release works.

It sports a rather strange, but effective, rangefinder mechanism with a rotating arm at the end of the lens (I’m not entirely sure how it works but it does). The rangefinder window is separate from the viewfinder, so it’s select the focus distance using the rangefinder and then compose the image in the viewfinder.

The rear of the camera has two red windows, one for the 6×9 frame and the other for the 6×6. Both windows have a blind and whichever frame size is selected (by moving a lever inside the camera back) disables the other.

For a more thorough review see here.

Film Camera 2019/9 – Agfa Click I – Results

December 27, 2019 by Howard Dale Posted in Agfa Click I, Black & White, Film Leave a comment

Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results. It was a cloudy day and I think I took all of the pictures on the cloudy setting with the yellow filter. I thought that, if I got anything at all, it would be blurred, out of focus images with light leaks all over the place. Instead I got halfway decent pictures. OK, they’re not incredibly sharp, there’s obvious vignetting and quite a lot of barrel distortion, but all in all for a very, very basic camera that’s as old as I am they weren’t bad at all. Of the eight anticipated frames I only lost two, and those because of operator (i.e. me) error i.e. too much camera blur.