Robot II ... First Roll

[Godfrey]

I've learned a lot about the Robot since I got it last week:

- It's a Robot II, not Star or Star Junior. Those were post-WWII models.
- Mine was manufactured in 1941, most likely owned by the military first.
- The film transport is working very nicely!
- The shutter works well too, but is lacking the slow speeds and
is probably a little slow on the rest.

I figured out how to load the feed and takeup spools. This is a process intensive camera ... Load the feed spool in the dark. Attach to take up spool. Take photos. There's no way to rewind the film, so you unload the camera and then unload the take up spool in the dark. I shot XP2 Super so (in the changing bag) I rolled the film back into the original Ilford cassette and brought that to the one-hour to run C41.

But it's darn fun. Wind up the drive and zip zip zip zip ... up to 12-15 exposures as fast as you can hit the shutter release button.

Here's my scan index sheet ... A short roll, it 24 exposures, so the Robot II made only 39 exposures here, not 50.

This roll was mostly to test the camera and see how well it was working. It was a little sluggish in the first five-six frames, then started to feed smoothly. I wasn't being terribly careful about exposure either, as I'm sure the shutter needs a thorough service.

Robot II - Scanned with Nikon Coolscan V​

It was fun figuring out how to make the Coolscan's negative feeder fit the 24x24 square format to speed up the process. I can now reliably scan 7 exposure strips with a Preview and Scan pass using Vuescan in about five minutes.

There's a service shop in Germany for Robot cameras. They quoted me €75 to overhaul the shutter and upgrade the body to take a modern 135 feed cartridge without having to unload the film and load the Robot feed cartridge. (Postage almost costs as much as the service ... !)

Of course, once done, it's easier to load but you still need a changing bag to rewind the film into the cassette... ;-)

Well, I'm jazzed. I'll pick a couple of these exposures to render and post a little later. Some look like they have legs...

Enjoy!

G

 

[rhl-oregon]

Have fun! I'll be interested to see what you do with the couple in the cafe, the open grove (without the flare--that's clearly an issue), the fruit tree with the strong shadow, and the older man with the baseball cap.

 

[farlymac]

That baby could sure use a hood. And while they are at it, make sure the lens gets cleaned. Never knew they were square format. After it's fixed, you should have a lot of fun with it.

PF

 

[Filzkoeter]

This thread is triggering GAS 😉
Those Robots always sounded like really fun cameras. + equiped with great Zeiss,Schneider (and I even think Leitz) lenses.

 

[Godfrey]

That baby could sure use a hood. And while they are at it, make sure the lens gets cleaned. Never knew they were square format. After it's fixed, you should have a lot of fun with it.

PF

The lens is perfectly clean. Combination of flare - uncoated 1941 Zeiss lens - and some issues with exposure due to currently inaccurate shutter speeds.

Definitely needs a hood! A multicoated yellow filter would also likely work well.

🙂

G

 

[Godfrey]

This thread is triggering GAS 😉
Those Robots always sounded like really fun cameras. + equiped with great Zeiss,Schneider (and I even think Leitz) lenses.

Zeiss and Schneider from what I've see so far. I've not seen any with Leitz lenses. I'm looking for some good historical texts on them, but for most I think I'm going to have to brush up on my German.

G

 

[Godfrey]

Have fun! I'll be interested to see what you do with the couple in the cafe, the open grove (without the flare--that's clearly an issue), the fruit tree with the strong shadow, and the older man with the baseball cap.

Thanks!

Working on one or two this evening, but I'm getting to the end of my day now. Been a long long day ...

G

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Glad to hear and see the Robot's working properly. €75 is pretty cheap for an overhaul and modification.

The hassle with the film cassettes is what holds me back from going after an early Robot myself.

 

[Godfrey]

Here's a slideshow with a quick processing pass on the whole set of photos ... basically, I processed two or three frames, then rubber stamped the settings onto the rest, then exported them as JPEGs using the Lightroom Slide Show module.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gdgphoto/sets/72157632742891726/show/

I'm encouraged. 🙂

Comments always appreciated.

Godfrey

 

[sevo]

Zeiss and Schneider from what I've see so far. I've not seen any with Leitz lenses.

99% Schneider. A few Zeiss lenses in the first decade - but Schneider were the only list item lenses after the war.

Lenses were trivial to make in a Robot version (if they were long enough - the back focal length on the Robot is SLR like), and some third party lenses have been made with Robot thread mount because Schneider had nothing similar (e.g. super long lenses by Astro or Novoflex) or because import restrictions banned government boards from buying abroad where there was a national product (so that French and British lenses appear on some Robots acquired by the corresponding authorities in the fifties). But the limited appeal of Robots to consumers meant that no low-price third party market ever developed.

 

[Godfrey]

99% Schneider. A few Zeiss lenses in the first decade - but Schneider were the only list item lenses after the war.

Lenses were trivial to make in a Robot version (if they were long enough - the back focal length on the Robot is SLR like), and some third party lenses have been made with Robot thread mount because Schneider had nothing similar (e.g. super long lenses by Astro or Novoflex) or because import restrictions banned government boards from buying abroad where there was a national product (so that French and British lenses appear on some Robots acquired by the corresponding authorities in the fifties). But the limited appeal of Robots to consumers meant that no low-price third party market ever developed.

Thanks!

Yes, they found their niche in industrial applications. All that clockwork mechanism was heavy and costly, but dang how beautiful ...

I plan to use this a bit. 🙂

G

 

[Edward C. Zimmermann]

99% Schneider. A few Zeiss lenses in the first decade - but Schneider were the only list item lenses after the war.

Robot sold Zeiss objectives into the early 1960s. Zeiss broke off their contract and destroyed remaining stocks when Robot started selling Zeiss equipted Robot Royals through a mass market photo chain.

Robot pricelists included a number of other vendors but they also sold "specials" and even "one-offs" to meet customer demands--- recall that throughout the history of Robot the cameras were used for applications such as espionage and instrumentation.

 

[Godfrey]

Interesting about the Zeiss relationship. I wonder why Zeiss would care about that?

There are a couple of books about Robot in English but I haven't found any of them available for sale as yet. The website has a lot of info on it, all in German—it's tough going for me, my German is very rusty.

All part of the challenge... 🙂

G

 

[sevo]

Interesting about the Zeiss relationship. I wonder why Zeiss would care about that?

Throughout the fifties to seventies there was a ongoing trade war between the upper crust parts of the German camera industry and German mail order and discount chain photo stores. The latter were considered by the makers (and the camera dealers association) to undermine the distribution network by undercutting the makers list prices - as discounts on the latter were tightly regulated in Germany, it was easy (and legal) to cut offending dealers off all supplies. In the end, it did nothing but speed up the demise of the German makers, as the Japanese had no issues with permitting competitive pricing, and Quelle, Porst, Neckermann and the like switched to Japanese products...

 

[Edward C. Zimmermann]

Quelle, Porst, Neckermann and the like switched to Japanese products...

While the mail order houses were at the vanguard of selling Asian, especially Japanese, photographic products on the German market their
backbone was actually East Bloc, especially GDR (East Germany) and USSR cameras. Photo Porst sold loads of GDR cameras and objectives and its main competitor Photo Quelle sold Soviet models. Both had good political contacts at the highest levels. With the collapse of the East Bloc, the mail order houses lost their competitive advantage and one and the other went into foreclosure.

P.S.: To add the East-West divide and connect it with Robot.. Their cameras were a favorite of East Bloc intellegence. Robot sold very large numbers especially to the East German secret police, military and intelligence services---- the amateur market they more or less lost by the early 1960s. Its odd but Robot seemed to have more competition in NATO circles than in the East... And oddly enough some West German services were equiped with Soviet and GDR made telephotos...

 

[Godfrey]

Very interesting stuff! There were a few books published on Robot cameras, I wish I could find one of them (preferably in English; most were in German only).

Meanwhile, I'm enjoying the heck out of this Robot II. I'm debating whether to leave the film handling original ... with the Robot feed and take up cassettes ... as honestly I believe that it is a superior design for a 'rapid' advance camera to using a standard 35mm cassette as a feed. But it does take a lot more film handling to use the camera.

Decisions, decisions.

G