Flexaret at the Vintage Festival

<p >I believe this is a Flexaret 2 model 3 made by Meopta in Czechoslovakia the late 1940's. The Ebay seller said the magnifier and lid were detached (and for some reason he seemed to think it was actually a Weltaflex??). I managed to pop them back OK, but as always with TLR's I took the hood off the camera (4 screws) and realised the rectangular mirror was US, with very little silver left.</p><div></div>

<p >Now Ive got a scrap Yashica, but the mirror in these is trapezium shaped, not rectangular dammit! Except surprisingly it fitted the Flexaret like a glove! Now the view is much brighter, although its only a plain ground glass screen. I might decide to put the Fresnel from the Yashica in it too. The new mirror's a little thicker, though, so I had to adjust the focus, easy on these because you loosen a single screw which allows the viewing lens to be turned in its thread. The slow speeds worked, even the self timer, and the Mirar f4.5 lens just needed a bit of a clean. With the hood off you can see enough of the focus helix to add a drop ot two of light oil to the threads, which made focussing via a lever below the lens, much smoother.</p><div></div>

<p >This Flexaret has simple knob winding with the frame numbers seen in a red window. Later models had lever wind, surely not as reliable. There's no double exposure prevention. Its quite light for a TLR, and has an oversized lower film roller at the bottom to minimise film curl, and a lovely leather case, with, quaintly, a little lock on the back.</p>

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<p >The subject for the 400ISO Fuji slide film is the Vintage Festival at Leicester's Abbey Pumping Station. They had all four giant beam engines in steam for the first time for many years.</p><div></div>

<p >This re-enactor was supposed to be a Home Guard first aid man, like Private Godfrey in Dad's Army. He was interested in the camera and posed for me with his little bag.</p>

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<p>1094's First Aid equipment</p><div></div>

<p>A Morris?</p><div></div>

<p >Looking at some of these pictures I winder if I quite nailed the focus adjustment, but the ones in duller conditions were shot at F5.6. When the sun came out I was able to reduce to f11, giving sharper results. Perhaps the lens performs much better at small apertures, or I'm just getting more depth of field, minimising focus errors.</p><div></div>

<p>Greengrass was a character in the series Heartbeat, set in 1960's Yorkshire. This is just about the sharpest of the shots.</p><div></div>

<p>In general the lens performed well and is noticeably less prone to flare than, for example, the Tessar on the Ikoflex.</p><div></div>

<p>A Panhard.</p><div></div>

<p>Last one, a Ford Zephyr. It was a good experience, using the Flexaret, despite the lack of automation it delivered some nice images and attracted a lot of attention.</p>

<p>"Here's someone still using film!"</p>

<p>Thanks for looking</p><div></div>

<p>Oh I forgot this one, having a nap.</p><div></div>

<p>Nice work John. I should really try to shoot some c-41 120 while we still have one local place that processes it. I really like the shots of the old cars. I find it interesting the differences between European cars of the 50's and 60's compared to American cars of the same vintage. </p>

<p>Thanks Cory, actually it was a Fuji 400ISO transparency film, which I scanned on my Epson 4870 flatbed. I've also put a Fuji Reala C41 film through a different TLR, but that's another story.</p>

<p>Congrats on getting the Flexaret up and going. It's true that people respond really well to TLR's, I guess that they are obviously different...plus they look cool!<br>

Festivals like this are always a treat, especially when you want to try a new CMC,and these pics would also look great in B&W. Really like Mr. Godfrey, really looks like him, and a series that I really enjoyed way back when.</p>

<p>Nice repair job and great shots. Thanks for sharing.</p>

<p>Nice shots of old cars. Good old camera too! The TLRs hold their own even after decades of stopping production. Thanks for posting. SP.</p>

<p>Another fine project, <strong>John</strong>. I'd often wondered what a Flexaret could produce when in good hands, and now I know. The results are actually better than I would have expected, and the festival was certainly an ideal location.</p>

<p>Flexarets are great machines, the Flexaret VI was the first TLR I ever owned and it still works like a charm. They have very good lenses. Flexarets are often seen as a kind of underdog and many think they are crap because many people just bought one that had been sitting in a cupboard for 3 decades and because of that it had been frozen. If you buy a Flexaret you have to buy one that has been recently serviced. Camera's are pretty much like a car, you wouldn't drive a care straight away when it has been sitting in a barn for over 30 years, you first give it a good service and make sure everything works like it should. Many seem to forget this and are frustrated when they get the camera and see it won't work. The Flexaret II's are quite simple in design and indeed lack the automated transport which is a plus sometimes because it can't go wrong there. The lenses however are only a Triplet in most cases (although there exist Flexaret II's with Tessar (Belar) lenses) but that is of course a matter of taste. The Tessar lenses preform even better than this, these machines are nifty and cheap little buggers that never have let me down on a trip.</p>

<p>Thanks for the comments, much appreciated as always. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the lack of flare, even is situations where I would have expected it with a very bright area in the frame, for example the Zephyr car. The Ikoflex I featured recently would have made a real mess of these shots.</p>

<p>The triplet lens certainly performs best at f11 or 16, with good edge to edge sharpness. Most cameras I've acquired from whatever source, have needed some kind of TLC and its always satisfying to get them working well and get good results from them.</p>

<p>The lenses made before WW2 weren't coated, and the ones after were mono-coated. This can make a huge difference in flare resistance and color saturation. The Tessar is fairly soft wide open but rapidly sharpens as you stop down. Most old lenses are this way.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>Late to the party.. as usual.. been busy with other things!! Nice Job with an underrated underdog! I love MF slides your scans are quite good! . Nice to hear the mirror worked for you somehow!! </p>

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<p>Chuck I wish I took a picture before putting it back together, but the trapezium mirror from the dead Yashica slotted in perfectly, there even seemed to be a recess in the casting to allow for it, despite the fact that as I said, the original mirror is a simple rectangle.</p>