The Bencini Koroll 35

The Bencini Koroll and Comet 120 and 127 cameras are very common in the UK, having been sold by Boots the Chemist during the 1950's. However the 35mm version, the Koroll 35, seems much rarer, perhaps because 35mm was in its infancy as a mass market format, being something of a luxury back then. This was the first one I'd seen when I came across it in a charity shop two weeks ago, complete with its leather case and original manual.

 

These cameras were attractively designed and well made from solid aluminium castings. However they invariably had simple F/8 meniscus lenses in focusing mounts.

 

 

 

The Koroll 35 has a few more options than its roll film cousins, with three shutter speeds from 1/50 to 1/150, and an adjustable aperture from F/8 to F/22. It's not all good, though, as the aperture is not round, rather it is achieved by two flaps which come together forming irregularly shaped openings as you stop down, culminating in a narrow slit across the full width of the lens at F/22. I was rather sceptical that stopping down would improve the quality, so most shots were done at maximum aperture. This proved to be a mistake.

 

There is no sprocket mechanism to measure the film advance, instead it relies on winding the film on to an oversize drum, so that the change in diameter as the film builds up is not too significant. In practice there is a noticeable widening of the frame spacing towards the end of the film, but the scanner seems to have coped with this adequately.

 

The shots are from the Warwickshire town of Atherstone, which straddles the Roman Watling Street (A5). The main shopping street, Long Street, is actually the Roman route, but the town was by-passed many years ago.

 

 

Looking the other way (towards London):

 

Many were unsharp, probably due to a combination of camera shake and missed focus. The sharpest of them by far were two close ups I did at F/22, disproving my reluctance to stop down. The finder is hopelessly vague, exacerbating my bad habit of taking pictures on a slant. So I've had to straighten most of them in slight cropping.

 

 

The above shot, and the flower shot below, were done at F/22 and are the sharpest by far.

 

A couple more from around the town.

 

Edited August 18, 2017 by John Seaman

The last two, and as always, thanks for looking.

 

 

Those results from the Koroll 35 are really very good, John. There's plenty of colour and contrast and very little distortion, and surprising sharpness from the meniscus lens, with the corners of the frame being far better than I would have expected, especially at the f/22 setting. While I have examples of the Comet and the Koroll 120, I've never come across a Koroll 35, and I can only assume that they are a much rarer camera in the southern hemisphere. Thank you for an interesting and decorative post; what lovely locations you have...

They really are very good photos coming from such a simple camera. Well done and thanks for posting.

Nice results. Never heard of this camera, but I am in USA. Thanks for an informative post.

Thanks for the comments, much appreciated. Greg, I've only shown the sharpest shots from the 24. Some were fairly dire. Rick, Mike, the Koroll 35 seems rare in the UK too, this was the first one I'd come across, although I've seen loads of the roll film versions. Here's another view of the camera sans case.

 

 

And one more shot from it:

 

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing! I like the results, too.