Ferrania Zeta Duplex - HELP needed

<p>hi,</p>

<p>I am a newbie, and I recently bought a box full of cameras from an auction there was a medium format Ferrania Zeta Duplex in it and I am now obsessed with being able to use it.<br>

Does anyone have any ideas/manual which they could give me an overview of the camera. I am at a loss at what to do.</p>

<p>any help is so appreciated.<br>

Thanks</p>

I looked at the camera-manual sites I know and didn't find this. There's a Zeta Duplex on Camerapedia ( http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Zeta_Duplex_/_Zeta_Duplex_2 ) </br>Sylvain Halgand's site ( http://www.collection-appareils.fr/ferrania/html/ferrania_box.php ) shows a slightly different one. </br>

On the Camerapedia picture, you can see there are three aperture settings (f/16 for bright sunlight, f/11 and f/8 for less light, down to moderately cloudy; all this with what nowadays is quite a slow film; say ISO 100).</br></br>

Guessing it's like most box cameras, the bigger lever on the side is the shutter release. The one at the bottom almost certainly selects the shutter function between 'I' (a short exposure, probably about 1/50 second) and 'B' (the shutter stays open as long as you keep the release lever down). You need 'I' unless you've got the camera on a tripod in very low light. The little threaded socket accepts a cable release.</br></br>

To open the back to load film, I think you pull the winding knob out and slide the whole body off. There may also be a catch on the other side to let you take the back off; it looks that way in the Halgand site. Inside, the camera may be adjustable for 6x9 cm or 6x4.5 cm pictures (i.e. either 8 or 16 on a roll). This will be by means of removable or maybe folding masks inside. Set that up before you load the film.</br></br>

Can't tell from your post whether you're familiar with 120 roll film, which this camera uses, so apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know. There's a photoset on Flickr showing how to load a box camera which might help ( ).</br></br>

The new film comes on one spool; you need an empty spool too, to take the exposed film. This has to go in the top of the camera, where it lines up with the winding knob. Medium format film comes taped to a long strip of paper, held tight with a piece of paper tape. To load the film, you break the tape, without letting the roll unwind. Put the full spool in place in the bottom of the camera, and lead the beginning of the backing paper up to the empty spool. The paper has a narrow tongue at the end; tuck that through the slot in the empty spool, and wind it on a few turns, so it stays put. Then put the body back on the camera, and push the winding knob back in, and close that catch (if that's what it is) on the other side. Now wind the film on, watching the red window for whichever size you chose. You should see nothing at all for a while, then some arrows, then a series of blobs and a number 1. The film's now in place for the first picture. After the first picture, wind on in the same way. The camera on the Halgand site has a cover on each red window; close this when you're not winding on, so light doesn't leak in there. </br></br>

When you've taken the last picture, wind on until you can see through the red window that the backing paper has all gone. Then you can open the camera (best done in fairly dim light), take out the full spool from the top, make sure it's reasonably tightly wound up, and seal it up with the paper tape.</br></br>

Good luck!