tony_lockerbie

<p>Damn Rick, you would swear that was taken in the 1940's!</p>

<p>You are asking the wrong people Les, we all suffer from GAD to some degree, mine is the fully blown plague version :)<br> You will now want all the versions of the Retina Reflex, plus the lenses....just saying...</p>

<p>Agree about Ekberg...she was a stunner....pointy boobs and all! Love those ads as usual, and the one for the Contaflex is timely.</p>

<p>Thanks for all that comprehensive info Brett, much appreciated! Nice to know about the viewfinder access, I will check that out.<br> I will send you a PM in due course...<br> Cheers,<br> Tony</p>

<p>Hi Ben, I have the Hasselblad bellows, and while you can fit all the lenses on it, there is a special bellows lens....the 135 S-Planar that does close up to infinity.<br> Really awkward to use though, and you really need a tripod. Mine has a double cable release so you can pre fire the lens before the camera shutter, then another press to fire the lens shutter...see, not for hand holding!<br> Mostly these days I use the 120mm S -Planar, which has normal focusing and operates like the rest of the lenses, albeit going nowhere near as close....you need extension tubes for that.<br> For your type of photography, I would imagine that the best lens is the standard 80mm Planar, or maybe the 65mm Distagon. For portraits there is no better lens than the 150mm Sonnar, but slower to use.</p>

<p>Looking at the first pic I think of Van Morrison's song Tupelo Honey, and it's good to see the water towers being featured after the loss of JDM.<br> Only can manage one this week.</p><div></div>

<p>Now we should have a show of hands as to which you prefer.</p>

<p>Now the others.</p><div></div>

<p>Picture of the Bessamatic and also some of it's rivals.</p><div></div>

<p>Thanks Bruce, Marc.<br> Bruce, the Bessamatic is really just a personal thing, but I'm taken by it's ease of use, lovely feel and it looks the bomb too!<br> Also, I think that the lenses for the Bessamatic were equal, and at times better than the opposition, particularly the Septon.<br> Marc, they did scan quite well, but Rick alerted me to the fact that slightly underdone negs seem to scan better, and he is quite right.</p>

<p>Oh,and Brad, I recently acquired a Canon 7 with the 50mm 1.4, yet to try it. There is a lot of hype around this lens, Japanese Summilux etc, will be interesting to see how it goes.<br> The camera is really sweet, have to get a post up soon.</p> <p> </p>

<p>David, the slow shutter is pretty much endemic for old leaf shutters, but I have found that my two Contaflex 11's fare better than the later models, especially the Supers.<br> Rick, yes, finally got around to it, and always remember that paddle! I too had neglected the close up filters, but found them to be of excellent quality. The Jammin pic was shot at 2.8 at 1/10th, so the Contaflex does handle low light very well. We just finished a long run of very hot weather, glad to see the back of it for a while.</p>

<p>Stephen, don't drool too much, it will ruin my keyboard!<br> Robin, the later Contaflexes had such a wonderful chrome finish...things of beauty.<br> Cory, the filters are very effective as you would expect from Zeiss, need to close the lens down to around F8 though.</p>

<p>Quite right Walter, they are limited, but I'm still really fond of them, and as I have said, the Bessamatic is my favourite, followed by the Contaflex, with the Retina Reflex coming in really close at third. I have an Agfa Ambiflex as well, great lenses and nicely made, but not as sweet to use as the others.</p>

<p>Thanks for looking. Film used was an out of date Delta 100, processed in D76 1:1, and I overdid it a bit, the negs were a bit dense. Scanned on an Epsom V700.</p>

<p>and a pic to show that they do work.</p><div></div>

<p>I though I would include this little item that came with the Camera, a novel holder for the focar set.</p><div></div>

<p>No.8</p><div></div>

<p>No.7</p><div></div>

<p>No.6</p><div></div>

<p>No.5</p><div></div>

<p>No.4</p><div></div>

<p>No.3</p><div></div>

<p>Next...</p><div></div>

<p>and now some pics...</p><div></div>