Perverse pleasures

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Roger Hicks

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Cameras you have to fight with, but still use (or wish you still had) -- and why. A couple to start the ball rolling:

Exakta Varex series: wonderful all-mechanical gadget, and capable (with the right lens) of delivering surprisingly good results. Mine also has a metered prism with a direct-vision finder built in.

Tessina: wish I still had it, despite having to reload the film into special cassettes. I even had the wrist strap for it! Excellent image quality from a 14x21 negative, motor drive, reflex focusing...

Cheers,

R.
 
Plaubel Makina II (1937).
Sharp metal edges and hard to hold folder.
With the Roll film holder on your eye can't quite get close enough to the tiny RF window. And it's heavy.

I like the results from the big 6x9 negs. Not exactly sharp but some how has a real character.
That and everyone wants there pic taken with it. A very unique and interesting camera .
 
Roger Hicks said:
Cameras you have to fight with, but still use.....Exakta Varex series: wonderful all-mechanical gadget, and capable (with the right lens) of delivering surprisingly good results. Mine also has a metered prism with a direct-vision finder built in.
Click to expand...

I have much the same Exakta Varex; I used it but it I don't use it anymore because of the fight.

Perhaps surprisingly for some here, I find my Rolleiflex f2,8 to be a bit of a fight to use sans tripod. Some I know swear by the ergonomics, but I find my own experiences are mixed....perhaps I just haven't found the sweet spot for it off a tripod. Awesome planar lens though:p Just goes to show that ergonomics are soooo important and, to an extent, personal.
 
For me it's the Bronica S2A - I had about ten years ago, just could not get on with the entire mechanics of it!. The Nikkor lens produced superb negs, especially when used on tripod, as I suppose it really was meant to be, very nice looking thing, and I occasionally think about having another try with one - I don't like to be beaten!. Incidentally - I wonder if anyone does hand-hold one of these successfully? - I never could!.
Cheers,Dave
 
Argus C3: I can cope with the other non-ergonomic bits, but the one that does for me every time (apart from not being much of a photographer!) is the sodding viewfinder. Anyone who cut granny's head off with a C3 was really, really, trying to. I reckon you get at least 40% extra on your neg over the viewfinder - and it's along the top and down one side.

On the bright side, I have no camera that is not improved by using the Brick first!

Adrian
 
Dave Wilkinson said:
For me it's the Bronica S2A - I had about ten years ago, just could not get on with the entire mechanics of it!. The Nikkor lens produced superb negs, especially when used on tripod, as I suppose it really was meant to be, very nice looking thing, and I occasionally think about having another try with one - I don't like to be beaten!. Incidentally - I wonder if anyone does hand-hold one of these successfully? - I never could!.
Cheers,Dave
Click to expand...

Yes, I have - Bronica C, which is the S2A without the removeable back / dark slide.




The Bronica is nice, very hand-holdable (I use the L-bracket flash holder to make it easier also, hehehe), but it sounds like a cannon when you take the photo.

Answering Roger's question - I should not have sold my Diax IIb. Oh well.
 
I bought and sold two Contax G1's. Finally got a G2. It's an improvement. The G1 drove me nuts...but it was so beautiful...and felt so nice. Still, anything for those lenses, esp. the 45 and 90!
 
The Super Ikonta B: lovely precision engineering, reassuringly heavy, very comfortable to hold up to the eye, capable of beautiful pictures if used within its limitations.

But with a hugely over-complicated and fussy-to-set frame counter, a focussing wheel well able to tear your finger up, a vague viewfinder...and only 11 shots instead of 12!

Regards,
D.
 
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My Linhof 220. Big, heavy, a pain in the a** when used in landscape mode, the finder anything but exact; but the sound of the shutter and the 6x7 negatives (and the people´s looks) let me take it out again and again.
 
Muggins said:
Argus C3:
...

On the bright side, I have no camera that is not improved by using the Brick first!

Adrian
Click to expand...

LOL. Thanks for that Muggins. I have one I got in a moment ot GAS, but would never try to use it. Maybe now I have discovered a use after all.
 
Retina IIIS and Reflex-S with the Bottom Wind Lever!

Quality of the lenses is worth the price of admission.
 
Mamiya C220 TLR beast. The viewfinder and framelines drive me nuts, because I cannot figure them out for the life of me. I considered selling it, and would have done it long ago... but when I remember the slides I got from it and the way people look at it with respect (the few times I've taken it out), I just take it out of its bag and play with it.

It's so bad that I even managed to get some 220 film to burn on it and get it developed in Wally World... but haven't loaded it yet.
 
My LF SLRs (of whom I own way too many). They are as heavy as a sports photographers camera bag, big enough to breed Chihuahuas in them, and need to have their shutters fixed every other day. But they can shoot handheld large format with shift and tilt...
 
thomasw_ said:
I have much the same Exakta Varex; I used it but it I don't use it anymore because of the fight.

Perhaps surprisingly for some here, I find my Rolleiflex f2,8 to be a bit of a fight to use sans tripod. Some I know swear by the ergonomics, but I find my own experiences are mixed....perhaps I just haven't found the sweet spot for it off a tripod. Awesome planar lens though:p Just goes to show that ergonomics are soooo important and, to an extent, personal.
Click to expand...

My problem is I have a Rolleiflex 3.5 that I just can't seem to get myself to use, and yet I can't part with it. :bang:
 
Any view camera is a struggle for me. Just getting it into position takes herculean effort - then to get it set up right! And when you finally do get to make an exposure, the scene changes.

I don't even know why I have two. Well, yes I do, cause they are the only cameras I have that hold large format sheet film, but geez!
 
1. Hasselblad 500cm with Polaroid back. It had a grid screen which was not very bright, hard to see thru in bright light due to reflections, loud "clank" sound for shutter, only a 6x6 portion of Polaroid exposed, no light meter, aperature speed changes with speed change (and vica versa) unless little lever pulled, forgetting to pull dark slide out, forgetting to put dark slide back in, dropping dark slide, changing viewfinders, etc, etc, etc.... But... Man those pictures looked good!!! And those were just Polaroid. I ended up getting rid of it because of my trouble focusing an slr and also due to its large size and loud action. But I still miss it and even look back with fond memories at all the little things I hated about it when using it. Also got a lot of interesting comments at social events.
 
I struggle with my Olympus 35-S Rangefinder...The focus is a bit stiff and I'm not use to the tiny knob for focusing...I'm very slow when using this camera...no action stuff for me...
The results from that 42mm 1.8 G. Zuiko lens makes it worth the trouble...
 
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