Agfa Isolette with Apotar lens

[charjohncarter]

Well, I'm going to have to work on my scale focusing skills, either that or not have any wine when I photographing with the Ansco Speedex II. But here are three, the first two are OK, the last out of focus (edit; I forgot Apotar lens):

 

[chippy]

well done CJC, nice little first outing with the Isolette, the wine just makes it more fun and chalanging LOL. that little store/cottage is quaint looking too..i wonder how it might appear in b/w as well.

hehe the last picture lends itself to all sorts of captions written under it. or opening lines for the girls.
this is a family forum but something like 'so hey, what sort of horn is that?" reply; 'oh its a trumpet',,, ' do you play it yourself or can anyone have a go' haha.....

or "so is that a horn in your lap or are you just happy to see me" ...ahhh the list goes on 😀😀

 

[Windscale]

As expected, the lens proved to be a worthy performer. Your first pic has that old style creamy look that I liked so much. This is so comfortable without the heavy contrast. Take more pics with more shadow details and you will further appreciate your lens.
Scale focusing could be less difficult if you just remembered your 10 feet and 30 feet and then do your guestimation based on them. It is usually the shorter distances that are difficult. Stopping down a little would help.
Well done. Show us more of your future takes.
And have you done up your First Six yet?

 

[oftheherd]

...

Tecate is kind of weak flavored, but it's good with spicy food. It's just a decent basic beer.
...

Well, as I said, I don't drink much these days. Rather rarely. But I never thought of Tecate as weak flavored. Of course, having been brewed to be drank with lime and salt, maybe the flavor is expected to be different. I used to enjoy Dos Equis, and Carta Blanca some too. I used to enjoy the Korean OB draft when I was in Korea. I don't think it is available in the USA. The Korean soju seemed to go good with snails also. 😛

Don't know what that has to do with folding cameras, except that maybe I need to show one of those with a good folding camera. 😀

 

[FallisPhoto]

In the out of focus photo, did you notice that the right side of the photo is in better focus than the left? Are you sure the lens/shutter/standard was locked into position?

 

[charjohncarter]

chippy, here is the same place in B&W, but with a Bessa R, not as interesting:

windscale, thanks for the scale focus tips. I like that soft contrast look and also the creamy look. I have the FirstSix ready to go.

Fallisphoto, I cheated on that image I used 'focus magic' for some reason it worked better on the right side than the left.

 

[Windscale]

Exactly my point about the over contrasty new lenses of the Bessa system. Everything appeared pin sharp but with no feeling.

Also look at the detail of the big tree trunk at the top right of your 3 musicians pic. The same spot will probably be very sharp and harsh with modern lenses. Of course one can say that it can be sorted out by Photoshop afterwards, like buying a clavinova and say it can do what a Steinway does. Immitations of the real thing are never the same.

Awaiting anxiously your First Six pics.

 

[chippy]

In the out of focus photo, did you notice that the right side of the photo is in better focus than the left? Are you sure the lens/shutter/standard was locked into position?

CJC answer explains a lot...i thought the focus was all over the place as well and wondered what was causing it..it occured to me the standard was not paralelle as well... i noticed the right v left and the shoes nearer the front and gave up trying to figure out what was wrong.

Also look at the detail of the big tree trunk at the top right of your 3 musicians pic. The same spot will probably be very sharp and harsh with modern lenses. Of course one can say that it can be sorted out by Photoshop afterwards, like buying a clavinova and say it can do what a Steinway does. Immitations of the real thing are never the same.

point taken about immitations not being the same. however i tend to think the look and feel of image lies a great deal also with the film used and post processing/printing. one could argue that a modern or vintage lens of another type would render the musicians in focus and the background including the trees softly out of focus if so wished--the faster the lens the easy to do so. still that effect can be had with the apotar to some degree depending on the film used considering the limitations of the shutters paired with the apotar's

CJC i like the b/w version of the cottage as well..swings and roundabouts i guess...its easier to lose contrast in post processing than increase it and still keep detail i find

 

[charjohncarter]

I was trying to have the Musicians is focus and the rest out, but it didn't work that way. The day was very dull, dark overcast, so 3-4 stops down from 'sunny sixteen.' I was using 100 ISO film at 80 so that puts you in very narrow depth of field territory. I just missed it.

 

[charjohncarter]

Back to the Agnar, here is one recently on Flickr. This guy claims no PS, just the lenses wide open. I think it was an Agnar from his description of the camera:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/freudus/2941451216/in/pool-agfaisola

I like this image, and I'm sure that avray will too.

 

[Solinar]

John that shot of the girl pouring tea shows magic of an old medium format camera and film when done right. That is a wonderful image.

 

[FallisPhoto]

I was trying to have the Musicians is focus and the rest out, but it didn't work that way. The day was very dull, dark overcast, so 3-4 stops down from 'sunny sixteen.' I was using 100 ISO film at 80 so that puts you in very narrow depth of field territory. I just missed it.

Did you have an accessory rangefinder?

 

[charjohncarter]

Solinar: I checked with the guy it is an Agnar.

FallisPhoto: no I guessed, but I'm checking right now the focus accuracy with a ground glass. When I get that sorted out, I'm going to contact FallisPhoto to do some fixes on my Olympus 35RC. I hope he works on them.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Solinar: I checked with the guy it is an Agnar.

FallisPhoto: no I guessed, but I'm checking right now the focus accuracy with a ground glass. When I get that sorted out, I'm going to contact FallisPhoto to do some fixes on my Olympus 35RC. I hope he works on them.

I prefer working on folders and Yashicas, but I'll work on anything that isn't digital or modular -- EXCEPT Moskvas and Super Ikontas with diagonally tracking rangefinder patches, rigid-bodied Super Baldinas (internally, they are a Rube Goldberg-inspired nightmare), Canonets and Hi-Matics. There's just too much time and trouble involved in disassembling, fixing and reassembling those to make it pay. I can do it, in most cases, but it is in no way even remotely cost-effective. There are some things it is just not a good idea to crack open.

I stopped working on Hi-Matics when I took the lens off of my third one (stuck self-timer, which seems to be a common problem with them) and three shims fell out. Only god knows where they came from and it might take 40 rolls of film to find out. That one is now in pieces in a parts jar. Canonets are even tougher and fiddlier to work on -- barely.

The diagonally tracking rangefinder patches on Moskvas and Super Ikontas are just a dull, fiddly, time consuming and frustrating fix that leaves you wondering what the lell you've gotten yourself into after the first two hours. You'll be wanting to smash the camera and go off to have have a good cry and suck your thumb for a while after 4 hours. Most people won't work on this particular problem at all. The one guy who describes the fix online, advises that people just not buy cameras with that particular problem: http://www.dantestella.com/technical/superfix.html After fixing my Moskva 2, I didn't want to even look at it for two months. It isn't even close to as easy as he makes it sound either. He neglects to mention that the swing arm has to be reasssembled after every adjustment before you can run the thumbwheel back and forth to check the alignment, that those gears have quite a lot of teeth, and that the gears are under spring pressure and try like hell to jump out every time the thing is taken apart. One will succeed in making an escape every so often, usually when you just have a tooth or two to go, and you have to start over. Like I said, it is frustrating.

Anyway, send me a PM, let me know what's wrong and I'll let you know if it is something fixable and give you a rough estimate.