jason_withers

On 1/22/2024 at 6:04 AM, chuck_foreman1 said:

Ohh right ..you were my inspiration to get one of those.. clearly the Ektar is a Tessar type. I've recently acquired more Kodak "stuff"  from this era. Were these also "Dia-postive ie B&W sldes?

 

Nice! Have you used your signet yet?  The Rollei RPX is a B&W negative film. 

17 hours ago, chuck_foreman1 said:

@'Jason   Excellent results with the Signet. Can I assume this is the Tessar type lens?  Were you using a yellow filter? I noted the very dark skies. 

 

Hi Chuck. Thanks! Yes, I believe the Ektar 44mm lens on the Signet is a 4 element Tessar type and I did add a yellow filter. I always think a yellow or red filter gives a nice result with B&W film. 

Battleship Wisconsin and surrounding area, Portsmouth, VA - Rollei RPX-100 - Kodak Signet 35 

A few pictures from my trip to the southwest back in 2021. They were taken at Mono Lake in California. Kodak Signet 35 camera, Ektachrome E100

I don't think that any of the prisms in the Medalist had a silver backing (unlike actual mirrors in some cameras that do de-silver overtime). How did you clean them? Did you clean the inner prism that is behind that black accordion looking piece near the viewfinder, as well as those round glass pieces that are visible in the 1st photo in this thread?

Ran a couple rolls of Kodak Gold 200 through my Chevron back in October of last year and thought I'd share some of the results. Overall, I like how this film scans....it seems to have the same look as the previous Gold 200 film from years ago....warm, saturated colors that are great for fall leaves! Have others used this film in their MF cameras lately and liked the results? 

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Kodak Chevron, 78mm f/3.5 Kodak Ektar - Arista 100 Ultra

On 12/9/2022 at 6:50 PM, rick_drawbridge said:

I wonder how many members are acquainted with the Kodak Generator Flasholder?

I am! I have one as well and have even used it on occasion. It's a convenient holder to use for flashbulbs. You just spin the wheel on the front a few times and it generates enough power to fire an M2 bulb. No batteries needed!

Kodak Signet 80 

12 hours ago, bruce_z._li2 said:

Hi @jason_withersExcellent images from the Signet 35! I also have a few recently, and the Ektar 44/3.5 is a cracker of a lens. Film was Fuji Neopan Acros 100 II.

Coastal Live Oaks

Octopus tentacles of tree roots

Reflection of an oak tree

Great images as well Bruce from your Signet! It’s one of my favorite cameras to use. 

No, I haven’t attempted to take the chamber apart yet, but I’ll try that to see if anything looks amiss. Thanks! 

Kodak Signet 35, 44mm Ektar lens f/3.5, Kentmere 400 

Kodak Signet 35, 44mm Ektar lens f/3.5, TMax 100 - Paisley Park, Minneapolis, MN, 2021

On 2/13/2023 at 8:55 AM, SouthJerseyMan said:

I do not know if this is the proper subforum, but I have noticed that B&H Photo offers for sale "Fomapan" film which would be used for making b&w slides. DR5 was a lab that processed this film, but it looks like it is becoming history, too bad. I have never used this film, but I am curious about it. Does anybody know where there is a lab in the US that could develop this film? Thank you.

 

SouthJerseyMan: I used the Fomapan R100 film when I went on a trip to California. I really liked it and used the Dr5 developing service. You can see some of my results here. 

Spectra Film and Video may do B&W reversal processing still. 

Glad you got it working! I am not sure what Kodak was thinking with this particular "injection" film system. It doesn't seem to save any time over the traditional type where you just turn the takeup knob, and it seems way less reliable. Otherwise the lenses they made for this particular Signet camera and nice and well made, Luminized too! 

The problem my camera seems to be having isn't necessarily with the advancing system per se, its just that the film gets caught in that injection slot somewhere and it doesn't "curl" onto itself and make a spool in the chamber. When I took out a partially exposed film cassette before, the geared teeth had torn the sprocket holes on the film in one place because the film wasn't correctly traveling right to left for some reason. I think the geared teeth are advancing but something is preventing the film from moving correctly in the takeup chamber if that makes sense. 

On 5/16/2022 at 7:03 PM, rick_drawbridge said:

A great read, and thanks for posting the link. While I find the Brick an unwieldy camera to use, I've always felt it represents a great period in US history and deserves it's place among the icons. Practical, tough, not too many frills and got the job done... The Kodak Medalist and Signet 35 are in the same category.

According to this ad, the Kodak Signet 35 was a bit more expensive than the Argus C3 when they were both for sale in 1955, but I think that Ektar lens justified the higher price. It could best that Argus lens. 

I have seen them pop up every now and then on online auction sites, but not as of late. I'm curious about the issues your camera had that required disassembly. I have the Signet 80 as well and while it took great pictures, I had an issue that I couldn't seem to fix. When pushing the advance lever twice to advance to the next frame, the film would not move smoothly from the right to left side of the camera into the little slot where the exposed film is supposed to curl. Did your camera ever have this issue too? Not sure if it is isolated to my camera. I'd like to be able to fix it and continue to use the camera as the lenses are great. 

-JW

On 2/4/2023 at 1:49 PM, bruce_z._li2 said:

@jason_withersIndeed excellent color results from the Ektar on Ektachrome! I'm restoring one Signet 35 right now (rangefinder/viewfinder cleaned, shutter next), and hope to get it into good working condition next week. Your photos and my earlier photos makes this little quirky camera worth it.

I hope the restore of your camera goes well! It is a quirky camera for sure, but that Ektar lens hasn't disappointed me yet. The manual cocking of the shutter is only a minor inconvenience really. 

22 hours ago, bruce_z._li2 said:

I did get some decent color slides out of the Kodak Reflex. But some photos are not sharp, probably due to camera shake. I'm not used to the side-way shutter release which is combined with shutter tensioning.
 

 

Yeah, I try to bring a tripod if I can when I use the camera, or brace myself well. I too have found that camera shake can be introduced more easily with this type of shutter. Did you respool the 120 film or just trim the ends to fit? I have found that trimming and sanding the plastic flanges of the 120 spool down works in this camera. 

Bruce, here is a good overview of the camera compared to the Rolleiflex:

https://casualphotophile.com/2021/09/09/kodak-reflex-ii-review-a-rollei-competitor/

On 11/12/2022 at 1:07 PM, bruce_z._li2 said:

I did not really like the ergonomics of Kodak Reflex II TLR, but hopefully the Anastar lens is worth the effort. B&W test roll looks good, now going to do some color during the weekend!

Yes, it is certainly worth it in my experience. It's a very well made camera and has that super bright viewing screen. Probably brighter than any other TLR at the time. The Anastar lens on the Reflex II is sharp! It could compete with the Rolleiflex TLRs of the era in terms of image quality. 

On 10/30/2022 at 1:21 PM, bruce_z._li2 said:

Kodak Tourist II with Anaston 105/4.5 lens. Despite its "sin" of using 620 film, this is easily one of my favorite 6x9 folding cameras out there. Excellent optics, solid metal construction, simple and no fuss operations. And you can get one for 10-30 bucks, any day. Photos in the weekly.

I have this same camera and lens combination. They are indeed good performers with a great lens. My only gripe (not 620 film format) is the lack of focus so you have to either guess a bit or use one of those service range finders, which I have, to get it exact, but it almost unusable since it is is very cloudy inside. I think I may try to take it apart to see if I can clean it. I hope I don't regret doing that!

A couple months ago, I picked up some Double perf 16mm B&W Reversal film from film photography project (https://filmphotographystore.com/collections/movie-film/products/16mm-film-double-perf-cine16-bw-reversal-100-iso-100-ft) to use in my Kodak Model E 16mm movie camera. It's the first roll of film I put through it so am anxious to see how it turns out.

Yes, I've used Dwayne's for Super 8 Ektachrome film processing. They do a good job, but don't expect your film back very quickly. I'd say 3 weeks minimum. They are less expensive than most. Price as of today says $12. https://www.dwaynesphoto.com/site/products/c/movie-film-processing?product=52509-super-8-movie-film-processing

Kodak Signet 35 - Hatteras & Ocracoke Island, NC - Ektachrome 100