raghu_kuvempunagar

Nikkormat FT3.

Nikon FE + Nikkor 50mm f1.8 AFD + Kentmere 400.

An ingenious solution proposed in Popular Mechanics May 1941.

Like Mike I'm yet to decide, but I liked Zeiss Icarex TM + Meyer Optik Oreston combination that I used last week. Nice viewfinder, good heft and solid metal feel. I've spent my last roll of Arista Edu 400 and hence might have to use color film.

Done. Now back to my trusted Minolta Autocord.

Looking forward to use Zeiss Icarex TM + Meyer Optik Oreston 50mm f1.8 loaded with Arista Edu Ultra 400. This is the last of 18+ rolls I rolled from the 100' bulk roll.

Agfa Sensot 535 is a beautiful camera with a bright viewfinder. It is quite a joy to use this camera for street photography. Unfortunately my copy gave me some trouble today: firstly, the film winder got stuck 2/3 thru the roll; next the film rewind mechanism failed and I had to take the film out in the changing bag; lastly but quite alarmingly, several of the frames were too dense to discern any image in them - so dense that there was no inter-frame gap. The rest of the frames are quite good with no obvious faults that I could figure out by visual inspection. My guess is the camera's electronics is fine looking at the frames that came out well and the film winder (ironically mechanical) is faulty. It is almost impossible to get a vintage electronics camera repaired locally. It is in this kind of situations I wish the camera were either flawless or fully dead.

Looks like this thread has morphed into what cameras are you using this week! Nice development imho.

Light was very good this evening and my kid was happy to pose for the camera in the park. So I ran Arista Edu Ultra 400 thru Minolta Autocord and Agfa Sensor 535. And half a roll of the same film thru Fujica 35ML. What a sweet camera is the Fujica to operate! Made my day though I'm quite sure the pics from Autocord will turn out better than both Fujica and Sensor. :)

Either Minolta Autocord or Fujica 35 ML. Arista Edu 400.

Lovely picture!

Minolta Autocord + Arista Edu 400

Ricoh made some cheaper but quite capable point & shoot cameras too: Ricoh R1/s and Ricoh FF90 for example.

I'm thinking of Zeiss Ikon Icarex TM + Yashinon DX 50mm f1.8 + Arista Edu 400, but this weekend is going to be a rainy affair here.

What a pretty looking camera! I've a 535 and it's a fine performer too. The viewfinder is street photographer's delight - big and bright. Wish these cameras had some manual override..

Mike, it's actually a simple and nice camera to use except for the trouble with viewfinder.

Nice capture! Love the blacks and of course the expression!

I recently acquired a Zeiss Ikon Tengor 54/2 in good condition. This is my first box camera and I'm eagerly looking forward to shoot a roll with it soon. The camera sports two brilliant viewfinders for portrait and landscape composition. As this is my first experience with brilliant viewfinders as well, I was initially peeping into the viewfinder only to see bright window without any discernible image. Quickly I figured out that I need to hold the camera at a distance from my eyes and use it like a waist level finder to see the image in the viewfinder. But this poses a practical problem especially outside under the sky. Reflection of my head, objects behind me and the sky is superimposed with the framed scene making composition really a very challenging if not impossible task. Am I using the brilliant viewfinder incorrectly? Is there a correct way to use the viewfinder without having to worry about the reflection?

Nikkormat FT3 + Arista Edu 400 Konica HG28 + Arista Edu 400

Lots of valuable tips here. Thanks everyone! Now I feel my trouble with Patterson reel could be due to a combination of these factors: 1. There's not enough space inside the changing bag. I can load effortlessly with my eyes closed outside the bag. 2. My hands start sweating inside the changing bag very soon complicating things. 3. Film slips off the ball bearing sometimes while twisting left and right. For some reason this doesn't happen when I load outside the bag. I will probably switch to Arista Premium reels in the future. It's nice that they're compatible with Patterson tank! I figured out that for now I can light seal a bathroom to load the film in darkness, ie without having to operate inside the changing bag. There's the scare of film fogging but a test roll that I loaded in the bathroom and developed seemed to be fine.

Turned out to be a wrong prediction as the camera sports APS-C sensor. Can't imagine Leica releasing a full-frame camera for $1,950. I wish they do. :)

I'm having serious trouble loading 120 film to Patterson reel in recent days. I'm using a 27' Adorama changing bag to load the film. I can load 135 film with absolutely no trouble inside the changing bag but have been quite unsuccessful with 120 film. Either I fail to slide the film into the groves properly or even after sliding the film past the ball bearing, I'm not able to load the rest of the film. Ironically, I'm always successful in loading 120 film outside the dark bag with my eyes closed! Tony Evans suggested an interesting trick: "I cut a piece of thin Mylar the width of the film and about 10 cms long and insert it (in daylight) through past the ball-bearings leaving about 2-3 cms sticking out from the feeder end.. In the dark (my changing bag) I can press the taped end of the film flat across the projecting mylar and push it though. Once in, just pull the mylar out from the ball-bearing end and proceed to load.." I tried this method both inside and outside the changing bag but couldn't get it working. The tape gets stuck at the ball bearing. Chuck Foreman shared his process for loading: "I sply my left fingers to feel the nubs of the starting plastic channels., then with my right hand/fingers load the lower film corner and uncurl or feel for the upper corner and place it in the reel channel accordingly. I then switch hands ie with my left and feel if the film is properly spread and in the slots. I may even pull it a bit more onto the reel, then I start the left/right twisting to begin taking up the film. etc. If it's loaded then this step usually works and you need merely to tear or gently remove the masking tape from the backing paper. " This is nearly the same process as mine. [Thanks Tony and Chuck - you guys are very kind and helpful.] In the initial days when I was shooting Arista Edu 400 in 120, I had nearly no trouble. But of late I've been shooting Tri-X and FP4+ and not having a good time with these. Now I'm wondering what I should do to solve my problem. Converting my bathroom into a darkroom might solve the problem as I am able to load outside closing bag with my eyes closed. But I'm hesitant to take that step at the moment and hence looking for alternative solutions. Will switching to steel reels help? And can steel reels be used with Patterson tank? Or should I look at larger sized changing bag?

Fortunately we had a sunny Sunday over here after a long time and I took Nikkormat FT3 (Arista Edu 400) and Fuji GS645W (Ilford HP4+) for a walk in the evening. The more I used GS645W the more I seem to like it.

I've Arista Edu 400 loaded in Konica HG28 and Nikomat FT3 from last week as I couldn't shoot much as much as I had wanted.

Nice work as always Bill. Is there a version of this photograph without the toning? I'm curious how it would look without your exquisite toning.