phisc

<p>No one has mentioned my current go-to camera -- an Olympus Pen D3. For five years or more I've been enamored with half-frame cameras and have acquired about twenty of them, including two ordinary SLRs (Pen FT and Konica Auto-Reflex) and the extra-ordinary Yashica Samurai. But of all of 'em, the Pen D3 is best: reliable, small, quiet, lightweight. It's no SLR, not even a RF, but it does well, and it always has film in it.<br>

But if I need an SLR, or full-frame, these days I've been taking out my Olympus OM-10. </p>

<p>Gene, great job. Great pictures.<br>

<br />Has the owner given you any idea of just how old the pictures are? The clothes & hair styles suggest to me the very early 1960s -- especially the tight leggings the young woman is wearing. </p>

<p>That last camera looks like an Olympus Pen F.</p>

<p>Great story. I hope he's successful.</p>

<p>Wow. Her mother was a good photographer. Those pictures must be like buried treasure for the family. Good work!</p>

<p>Great pictures.<br>

There were several f/1.7 half-frame cameras; Fuji and Olympus made them, and I think Canon, too.<br>

There's at least one faster. My Pen FT has an f/1.4 (40mm) lens.<br>

Konica produced a short-lived full-bodied slr that took the regular Konica lenses (including some fast ones) and which was switchable (mid-roll) between half- and full-frame.</p>

<p>I have a Sawyer Mark IV, too, and it's fine camera. I don't know about any accessories but I buy my film from Maco in Germany: I get the Macocolor C41 film when it's slightly expired (a year or so) and it's fairly cheap.<br>

Good luck with it!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I've never handled the Konica half- and full-frame slr, but I know it is switchable with a lever on the back. It may work by changing the the wind-on amount but I've also never seen negatives that went through one. It did not do square frames. <br>

The only camera I know that does more or less what you say is the new toy camera called Golden Half.</p>

<p>An original and good case/pouch does exist. I use my Pen D3 frequently and, when I do, I carry it around for days or weeks at a time. (It IS a half-frame camera...) The original soft-leather zippered case (with Olympus embossed on it) is perfect for me. The leather is like fine glove leather and has thin, red plush inside. The 7- or 8-inch wrist strap attached the camera fits through a hole in the pouch and prevents it (the case) from dropping away when I'm taking pictures.<br>

I like mine so much that I am planning on having a local leather worker repair it -- the zipper has started to come away from the case.</p>

<p>Mark, my Bilora Bella 44 has perceptibly different speeds on the two settings, both visually and in sound. At the 100 setting there is to my ear a single click (until you allow the shutter release to come up again when it makes a second sound), while at 50 there is a definite two-stroke sound. Looking at the two openings, I think they are probably fairly close to the rated speeds, but if they are closer to 1/30 & 1/60 than to 1/50 & 1/100, which they may be, it wouldn't concern me much given the other limitations of the camera. <br>

.<br>

I've never tinkered with mine but the shutter can be got at from the back pretty easily. A drop of lighter fluid may do the trick for you.<br>

.<br>

I've used my Bella 44 several times since I bought it twenty years ago, and I enjoy it. Its Achromat f/8 lens may be the lens with the least elements that I have ever used -- I think Achromat means it is a doublet.</p>

 

Yes, my Petri FT-II's only problem is at its fastest speed (1/1000): one of the shutter curtains can't quite make it across the frame, so only 30-50% of the frame is actually exposed. Otherwise, it's a good camera, mechanically operable without a battery. I understand its breech-mount is peculiar to Petri, and then the early models. Apparently Petri changed to Pentax screw mount on later cameras. Perhaps there is an adaptor from Petri breech to Pentax screw-mount. Anyone know of one?

Andy, what a shame Kodak did not go ahead with the half-frame 500! The 500 is a wonder of solid mechanics and, if it had been half-frame, I would still be using mine. I wonder: did Kodak ever release a half-frame camera?

Louis -- sorry, I didn't realise you were serious. That time of year.

 

The Sprint was a mechanical camera with "programmed" connection between the shutter speed and the aperture. I've not handled one but, from the picture in McKeown's guide, it looks like you decide whether it is cloudy, sunny, etc., and the camera makes that "programme" decision for you. That means in turn you should probably use a fairly slow film -- ISO 100 will likely do fine. Good luck with it.

IS IT APRIL FOOLS yet? Uh, sorry: YET?

At Flickr there is such a group:

 

Just because the image quality is low, it doesn't follow no one is interested!

Kerry, I have a Konica C35EF3, a sub-series of the C35EF that was made in brilliantly coloured plastics (or perhaps plastic-coated metal -- I can't tell). Mine is bright red, very eye-catching when I use it. It's also an excellent carry-around camera. Mine does not take a button battery, but two AA batteries. It's a nicely constructed camera, despite the plastic, and has a smartly placed foot to enable it to stand straight on a flat surface to use its timer. The Hexanon 35mm f/2.8 lens is good. I've had no remorse for buying it.

Here in North America The Frugal Photographer sells it through the mail:

http://www.frugalphotographer.com/cat126.htm

Delete that last > to make that url work....

Ferrania still advertises it: <http://www.ferraniait.com/solutions/photography/photograph.htm>

Patrick -- that's fascinating about Maitani. I now know why I've fallen in love with so many Olympus cameras in the past few years. One thing: the link to the fan site didn't work for me. Is the link broken?

I'm with Ken -- it definitely looks like a Christmas shot. See the streamers in the back: red and green. Stu, your wife may be right that the hairdo looks 1990s-ish. But I know people in 2007 who still dress and wear their hair like these people. I'd say someone saw the old film in the camera and tested it fairly recently. Nice find no matter how old!

I've been searching to see what happened to little Hal, the traveling Halina,

but cannot find anything since last October. Has Hal disappeared? Or retired?

Or have I just missed the Hal-Happening Place?

Chances are the fixed-focus distance is about ten - 15 feet (3 - 5 m). Manufacturers assumed that users would use cameras like this for fairly intimate group-shots (family on holiday, etc.). Having an aperture of f/11 means that its depth of field would be pretty good, leaving the holiday landscape behind the family group in recognizable focus. Your friend can probably find the lens's focus-point just by shooting a test roll. Her grandfather probably had a similar knowledge of the camera's limitations when he was using it. My mother used a slightly less sophisticated Baby Brownie for fifty years and made (mostly) fine pictures. Of course, in 2006, you need to have a definite Luddite bent to appreciate it!

Russ wrote:

> I just bought another Canonet 28, and have an Olympus ECR.

> I'll post some flash shots from the canonet soon. Any

> other pint sized rangefinders I should look out for?

 

Russ, nice pictures!

I have the same addiction for candy cameras. I have too many of these small RFs and RF-siblings to count anymore. I have owned three Canonet 1.7s over the past twenty years and love them. I've never tried the 28. I have both the Olympus ECR and EC and -- despite the zone focusing on the EC vs the RF of the ECR -- I find the EC is sharper and punchier. I love the lonnngggg shutter speeds I get with it when using it for night-time shots. It's a wonderful little camera.

Double oops. Yup, my GSN is not an anomaly. It too work at the fast shutter speed without a battery. Sorry James.

Oops, sorry for the bad HTML. That link is http://www.yashica-guy.com/index.html