royall_berndt

<p>Compared to a good Avus lens, that one is a disaster. It gives not only fog but poor resolution. I have an Avus that delivers marvelous results; you deserve one, too. <br>

With those lenses, the front and back elements are carefully matched; you can't get a decent result by replacing only the one element. At most camera shows, you'll find bang-up Avii with perfectly good lenses. You can get them for peanuts and transplant the entire lens and/or shutter. <br>

My Avus, btw, is the only camera I have that can beat my Rolleiflex for image quality. Yes, the Rollei is shooting a smaller negative; but still, the Avus' performance is as staggering as unexpected. </p>

<p>The main subject in all these shots looks out of focus. You might want to have the lens checked and/or rangefinder looked at. I have a Signet myself, and the results from it are consistently razor sharp. Why Kodak put that great lens in a dinky shutter is a "puzzlement." </p>

<p>I recently bought an F3 made in 1983. It consistently underexposed, which I thought was a metering problem. It turned out to be a shutter problem. Maybe F3 shutters don't age well. </p>

<p>In 1954, the Sears camera catalogue was my drool-over book. </p>

<p>I've never seen an Automat in such good condition before. Beautiful. I also remember first seeing transparencies from a Rolleiflex. I had to sit down!</p>

<p>I have a copy of <strong>Modern Photography</strong>'s original review of the Minolta SRT 101. The reviewers were lukewarm at best about the new machine. They groused a lot about the inaccuracy of the shutter at 1/1000 and seemed unconvinced that the CLC metering would prove useful. They had no clue what a huge hit the camera was to be. It's fun to read old reviews and find these kinds of shortsights. </p>

<p>My IIc is as sharp as anything in my collection, which includes Nikons, Leicas, and Minoxes. When people see prints from the IIc, they often exclaim on the sharpness and ask what camera I was using. When I answer, no one so far has even heard of this little gem. </p>

<p>My OM2 was easily damaged, and the advance mechanism felt cheap. I got rid of it and went for a cast-iron Nikon F. </p>

<p>Make sure the advance lever is tight and okay. It is fragile on the FM2, </p>