chuck_foreman1

Wow.. tough act to follow..RickD and LuisT. I am back finally with more recent pics than last years highlights. This is only a few weeks ago. (I have plenty, from before, so not chronological) . I am using a Contessa S310 here. I so wanted to like this camera a lot more than I do. The results are just ..well maybe this is a bad copy ,,, often there's a central flare in the lens, and well it's not the sharpest tool in the shed either. I do like its looks and its features etc.. the results, are "less than expected"... but I persist .. like banging your head against the walll to see if it will stop hurting . I also noted some "bromide drag" on some negs... no sure why. I don't think the development time was excessive..on the contrary! The camera porn I pulled from the net, as I don't have a photo of mine, and no time now to make one! I used a yellow filter and it's my usual APX100 in D76 1:1. Straight scans Tonhalle (we've seen this before 😉 ) Favorite vantage point, ideal conditions... poor tools This is the entrance to the Rhine Tunnel .. Neighborhood Companion picture to a winter version of this view ..that I liked.. so I wanted a contrast to it Not sure what this 19th century machine is??? St Marien Kirche in Neuss Grazing Sheep along the Rhine

LuisT This is excellent. A humble Canon F series .. the result looks like Ansel Adams ... WOW!!

I found my list again after a few weeks, and now I do have the final roll from last years actvities. The camera in question is the very nice (and first) P&S from Nikon. I inherted this from my Aunt Ellie when she passed. My father gave it to me in 2016. I didn't realize my good fortune until later. The camera here is the Nikon L35AF which has the very nice 35mm f/2.8 with autofocus from 0.8m to infinity. It had 5 elements in 4 groups. Apparently this lens was specifically developed for the then new P&S model. ASmong P&S cameras..it is quite desirable. I tend to use this usually for family get togethers or job/grill parties etc. Being a P&S this is what it's best suited for. Here though, I give my usual (banal ) yellow filter landscape stuff I always shoot. The usual APX100, as I've been known to use, souped in D76 1:1 Straight scans (Epson 500) no pp. Lebanese Restaurant Oberkassel KunsztAkademie (Art Institute) probably posted this view before 😞 AltStadt Düsseldorf ..some very old building dating from 1694 Land Records Building (have posted this view too 😞 ) En de Canon (Badly scratched in the sky.. did some touch-up, but looks messed with ) Rhein Promenade..view to Oberkasseler Brücke(bridge)

Just to reiterate some of the above. I had a Conaflex Super B. While I wasn't concerned about fungus per-se, I wanted the selenium cell to react to light ..thinking it would benefit. The meter was /is inconsistent.. I was trying makle it consistent. Placed it on the windowsill with the shutter cocked,,,and well forgot about it.. .. Some 3hrs later in direct afternoon sunlight. I found the procedure didn't really help! Later I realized the lens wasn't shutting down to the set aperture. Some oils I assume had now hit the shutter blades. I took it apart and tried to clean the shutter with ronsol (Q-tips) and constant firing. I spent at least three hours (ad nauseum) and then put it away for a month or so in the disassembled state... I had to get on with my life. A month or two later I came back to it as Roger ? (forum contributor) encouraged me stick with it...confident that it would come around and eventually work... after another hour or so with Q-tips and Ronsol.. Finallly the aperture worked. The initial problem still exist.s. the meter intermittently works.. as before. I bought a replacement... suffers from the same problem. The Super (no B) has the same meter and it works consistently...wrong ie a few stops off!! I now have three of these none of which a releable. I live in a very low humidy areas, I tend to keep my cameras/lenses in their respective never-ready cases to avoid dust. My extra lenss are in a cabinet with good circulation with rear caps and or make-shift lens caps to keep dust off the rear element.

I do think the M series took the prize... The Contax "finger-grip" is the only way you can see the the RF image...so a beneficial longer base length..interferes with RF window... it's the only way to use the RF..

Wow...who would've thunk! Lets see how this pans out! If it drives down the cost of film.... we'll see!!

Thanks for that!! Very Cool

Careful with Ronsol.. it creeps where you really don'T want it... ie the optics get smeared with dissolved grease and or the shutter. If in the shutter, it gums up the works..

Great work here Rick! Lovely compostiions too.

I encountered an Agfa with a similar problem, I passed on it becasue I had read/heard before about this problem. Whoever had the camera before me had tried with a tool ..pliers?.. as there were marks on the lens. Whatever the lubricant used has now ( as someone commented before me ) turned to cement. If you have nothing to lose, you might try with a heat gun or a hair dryer that you can localize the heat. Perhpas this will free up the gunk. Alternatively, baking in an oven might bring it free. Generally people say just buy another... but apparently all of this generation have likely suffered this curse. I suspect once it's free, you can disassemble it and replace the lubricant witth something modern.

here's the other three pics... ( I jsut don't give up easily or... I can't take a hint 😉 More 'Mamiya 645 Super" Proof that it ain't the camera... it's the taker!! Another failing shadow detail I've never seen water here .. is this a fountain? The Tonhalle from the side.. which I think is the main entrance

In probably my löst post from rolls shot last year... I have a really top-end camera that came to me.. in a rather strange (sad) way.... a long camera(s) story is behind it. I'll spare the details. Notz to look the gift horse in the mouth, suffice to say this was given to me as goodwill gesture. I received Mamiya 645 Super with the 2.8 80mm and a 3.5 150mm. A strange thing for as I mostly shoot old stuff.. I guess these days any film camera is old, but this is quite the full featured sem-pro if not pro outfit. I can't remember if I have posted anything before with this camera .. Usual D76 1:1 .. stright negatives! BTW this is a conglameration of the rolls 2 from Summer 2022 and one from Fall 2022 Back of the Marxhaus.. I believe I shot this with a 35mm before or after?!? Another inspired shot from a CMC contributor .. you know who you are 🙂 The local Social Security Admin (Renten Versicherubng) Which I am now intimately acquainted with !! Statue in Park This is a Museunm IIRC.. the statue above is on the grounds Another Statue,,,easy subjects 🙂 .. I like the dappled lighting! A little more shadow detail would've helped... I have exceeded either my time or "total" size limit.. I can't add more pics ..told oversize.. they are smaller than the last picture I posted

Tihs is how AI learns too!! 🙂 Well Done John!

So there was no fear of infringing on the LTM mount that the bayonett was conceived, the fear was in coupling the lens to the RF. IIRC this a very distinctive difference in the RF. I have always wanted to see this comparison. The Contax has a "prism" that turns, the Leica is supposedly simpler. The Contax base length is often hearlded as more precise, but apparently the Leica does a very good job with a shorter length. I think Rick Oleson had a paper on viewfinder evolution that might explain thses differences better. I know I need to read-up to understand it better.

Being a student of German... I do see the translations pitfalls. I had to laugh recently when the Graflex "Pacemaker" was listed as a "Schrittmacher" which is of course exactly what this is...in the medical sense, but not in the social (model name) sense of setting the pace for the future, The Rolleiflex model Automat = vending machine... right? The cutter cross is a literal translation of the vendor. Schneider = cutter and Kreuznach similar, Kreuz is to cross = cross. Film camera (job) lot is clear.. a "lot" is a sales term for a group of items. Rollei fans couldf probably assess "Mod 3" as a variation of the Automat, and the serial number is from the lens , I think the owner wants to "admit" it (the TTL) is in poor shape and the translater took the best quess for the spelling of Praktika. I also can't or don'T see the correlation of "admit" to the name Zenit. Amusing none the less.... AI is scary!! When they get it wrong!!

That'S Great!! That 'Biotar... is a fine lens!! The successor, IIRC is the Pancolar...these were Planar type lenses... and the Biotar is CZJ at its finest!!

Thanks for the reply. I tried/did 6x6 stero images on a tripod with a wooden (drawer rack) with markings for the proper distance betweeen the images.. I think this wasn't sooo critical as the same drawer rack separation can be used with 35mm, which I did some 35mm slides.. but ..yeahh... confusing right and left after the fact is kind of hard and choosing the subject with varing depths etc for results is always a trial and error process 🙂 I can show you my amateurish tripod drawer rack if you like?

Very Cool RTick!! I broke out my R/B glasses and it looks very good. Is this a "re-enactment" trench, or is this a real trench?

Again, stuff from March last year. I have here a box camera from the 30s. [Agfa Box 44 ] Suffice to say I have a long story about an inherited box camera that was sold here in Düsseldorf in the 30s, the business still exists . I broke the shutter when firing it and bought a replacement on Ebay(2009) . It wasn't that simple to swap one for the other, so, I eventually used a piece of guitar string to fabricate a replacement shutter spring(2022). I did shoot a roll with the replacement camera ...with mixed results. I shot this roll with my guitar string shutter...and I think it's too slow. ie over exposed. Also..mixed results. Foma100, D76 1:1. (Straight scans... should clean negs better) I can post pics of this same/current business..still in operation if anyone is interested. Do you really want this guy... working on your camera? The Rheinkniebruecke (The Rhien Knee Bridge ) Low Water on the Rhein The "center" being the primary sharp area is best exploited here.....less so in the(se)l landscapes. I took this shot/view to compare with the earlier roll on the other camera... I felt the earlier (repl) roll was better Another View to the City

Fiddly film loading vs fiddly lens mount.. I have used both to some extent... the inner/outer mount is pretty striaght-forward, but this was to accomodate the lenses. I had more problems loading (Leica style) Zorki/Fed than I did with mounting lenses on Contax. YMMV . Exakta (Ihagee) had a bayonet mount, a simple but practical one. So it wasn't unheard of Did the Kine-Exacta precede the Contax?

Do you really see the "bayonet" mount as to avoid the patented TM from Leica?? As the name implies, it is a twist and lock system that is IMHO a better system for interchangable lenses, not a poor substitute because they couldn't use TM due to legal problems. I'm saying, I don't think the bayonet mount was the result of settling for something less. Did Leica avoid moving to the bayonet mount b/c of Zeiss? They finally get on-board with the M series in the mid fifties.

Not sure why the "Dead Thread " police are tackling this poor forum, none the same, I am reminded of an eccentric German guy who goes about the (large metropolittan) city ?? checking that the business hours are posted, as it is required by the city.. and reporting those offenders!" ...I digress I replied to this thread back in 2010, noting all electronic devixes are limited to reliability due to electonics. I aslo note the new post is related to the (much) later ST model and compares inmage quality with a manual Voigtländer Ultron. A bit off topic, but the poster was abviously motivated by the topic by and his less than direct relation to it and is welcome to apply accordingly! Meanwhile, I now possess the camera upon which the reliability question was raised. Mine has no electrical (AFAIK) failures, but it does frequently skip. ...the wind-on tripping the shutter at the end of the wind. This subsequently leads to curtain failure (blank frames). This will recover in time ...10 minutes. I now take extreme care when winding and get semi reliable exposures.. In fact, I love the auto metering/exposures it delivers, and the excellent ergonomics. While heavy by some regards the shutter release was specifically made to be gentle...it is very light to the touch. I would love a more reliable tool... but I don't think my problem is electrical... it's a physical adjustment to the wind travel or a curtain interlock. So reliabilty I would heve to say poor..... but I can't justify buying another...unless it's under €80,00 (pain level)

Thats so cool Bruce. .. an EX.W.A. lens. I was looking at this or one like it for 4x5. but 9x12 sonds very intersting! Frankenholga... I Like that!!