xwhatsit
Well-known
After reading here and elsewhere about 6x6 and 6x9 folders, I was watching Trademe's (the local eBay clone) film camera section for Isolettes and similar. I saw auction after auction listed, and even the cheapest Agnar in a Pronto shutter would sell for a decent penny. Until one night, I saw an auction only listed 15 minutes ago... an Agfa Record III, with a Solinar in a Synchro Compur! Pretty much the cream of the crop. And, with a very low buy now price! Needless to say I snaffled it up...
On arriving I was shocked to find it was in actual functional condition! I've almost never bought a camera before and had it arrive so well. Even the shutter works. I was getting quite good at pulling apart Synchro Compurs too after my Voigtländers, too...
Only problem is the rangefinder wheel appears to do nothing, despite the rangefinder looking very good through the finder. Will have the top-plate off quicksmart.
6x9 in the pocket, indeed! One thing that immediately struck me, is that on such a beautifully finished and engineered camera, why did they install such a horrible finder?!! Although the rangefinder is in very good condition (none of my 35mm RFs have such good contrast or definition), the finder itself is horrible, with blurry edges and tiny magnification. Quickly gives you a headache!
Red-window it is. Hope the red window is nicer than that on my Rolleicord I, the Shanghai GP3 is all but invisible! However the Record III is not quite as primitive as the Rolleicord I, there's an intriguing double-exposure lock (although you can circumvent it but pressing the Compur's release on the shutter itself).
DOF computer on the left, non-coupled (!) rangefinder wheel to the right of the accessory shoe, and the little red dot is showing the double-exposure lock is active until you wind. Horrible clunky shutter release, it's the long linkage to the shutter, and the double-exposure lock latching.
By golly that's a long extension! Didn't expect it'd be so long. Bellows look OK so far, I'm told these less-shiny leather ones last a bit better. Will take it into a dark room and have a look soon. Oh... the focus helicoid moves! Stiff, but it warms up after some use.
Finally figured out what the chromed bit of trim on the folding cover was for! Nifty!
Unfortunately, the Solinar has a bit of fungus. This, combined with the stubborn rangefinder, means I'll be doing a little work before I put a roll through it. Hydrogen peroxide + ammonia should fix it.
Gosh 6x9 is huge! Can see why it turns out such wonderful images. Compared with my new Yashica YF on the left, you can see 35mm doesn't stand a chance!
I can see this is going to be a very different experience. Lots of fun I hope. If it turns out to be a reliable shooter, I'll be taking the Record III with me to Vietnam and Cambodia early next year to, er, record my holiday. Seems like an ideal travel companion (so long as you have plenty of room for rolls of film -- 8 shots doesn't seem like a lot!)
On arriving I was shocked to find it was in actual functional condition! I've almost never bought a camera before and had it arrive so well. Even the shutter works. I was getting quite good at pulling apart Synchro Compurs too after my Voigtländers, too...
Only problem is the rangefinder wheel appears to do nothing, despite the rangefinder looking very good through the finder. Will have the top-plate off quicksmart.
6x9 in the pocket, indeed! One thing that immediately struck me, is that on such a beautifully finished and engineered camera, why did they install such a horrible finder?!! Although the rangefinder is in very good condition (none of my 35mm RFs have such good contrast or definition), the finder itself is horrible, with blurry edges and tiny magnification. Quickly gives you a headache!
Red-window it is. Hope the red window is nicer than that on my Rolleicord I, the Shanghai GP3 is all but invisible! However the Record III is not quite as primitive as the Rolleicord I, there's an intriguing double-exposure lock (although you can circumvent it but pressing the Compur's release on the shutter itself).
DOF computer on the left, non-coupled (!) rangefinder wheel to the right of the accessory shoe, and the little red dot is showing the double-exposure lock is active until you wind. Horrible clunky shutter release, it's the long linkage to the shutter, and the double-exposure lock latching.
By golly that's a long extension! Didn't expect it'd be so long. Bellows look OK so far, I'm told these less-shiny leather ones last a bit better. Will take it into a dark room and have a look soon. Oh... the focus helicoid moves! Stiff, but it warms up after some use.
Finally figured out what the chromed bit of trim on the folding cover was for! Nifty!
Unfortunately, the Solinar has a bit of fungus. This, combined with the stubborn rangefinder, means I'll be doing a little work before I put a roll through it. Hydrogen peroxide + ammonia should fix it.
Gosh 6x9 is huge! Can see why it turns out such wonderful images. Compared with my new Yashica YF on the left, you can see 35mm doesn't stand a chance!
I can see this is going to be a very different experience. Lots of fun I hope. If it turns out to be a reliable shooter, I'll be taking the Record III with me to Vietnam and Cambodia early next year to, er, record my holiday. Seems like an ideal travel companion (so long as you have plenty of room for rolls of film -- 8 shots doesn't seem like a lot!)
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FPjohn
Well-known
Fine camera, great exposition.
yours
FPJ
yours
FPJ
oftheherd
Veteran
Yeah, 8 shots per roll is a bit of a bummer, but you are going to love that 6x9 negative. They can be contact printed and look great. Looking forward to seeing the results once you are finished sprucing it up.
xwhatsit
Well-known
Tonight I whipped the top off and had a look at why the rangefinder wasn't working. What I found was pretty much what this guy had: http://www.rolandandcaroline.co.uk/html/rangefinder_service_1.html , except that the knob on mine was moving freely. Just the swinging arm was stuck. Cleaned it up and it moves nicely now!
Also cleaned the finder lenses while I was in there. My, what a difference. The finder seems a lot more usable now. Still a little blurry, but it's bright enough and not foggy any more. Adjusted vertical and horizontal alignment on the RF.
Next I took the lens apart to investigate the fungus. It was on the front element and the rear group of two elements, the center element was perfect. I took the lens elements out of the shutter and did the 50/50 ammonia/hydrogen peroxide trick with some cotton buds. The fungus just wiped off, good as new. Doesn't appear to have etched the coating. I have put the lens back together but now must collimate it, as I took the focus ring off of course. Slightly unsure about that as haven't done it before but I have read a few suggestions.
Looking forward to using it
Also cleaned the finder lenses while I was in there. My, what a difference. The finder seems a lot more usable now. Still a little blurry, but it's bright enough and not foggy any more. Adjusted vertical and horizontal alignment on the RF.
Next I took the lens apart to investigate the fungus. It was on the front element and the rear group of two elements, the center element was perfect. I took the lens elements out of the shutter and did the 50/50 ammonia/hydrogen peroxide trick with some cotton buds. The fungus just wiped off, good as new. Doesn't appear to have etched the coating. I have put the lens back together but now must collimate it, as I took the focus ring off of course. Slightly unsure about that as haven't done it before but I have read a few suggestions.
Looking forward to using it
joeswe
Well-known
Hi,
glad the lenses cleaned well. The Record III with Solinar will not disappoint you, this camera is capable of taking excellent pictures. In fact, I like it so much I decided that scanning is just not enough and I have to get back into wet printing. So I snapped up a 6x9 enlarger from fleebay. I just don't have a clue where I could set up a darkroom for printing yet...
For resetting focus, I have had good success with a fairly simple and cheap method that I found somewhere on the web: Use a simple strip of white "baking paper" (don't know the proper English term, the kind of paper you use to keep stuff sticking from the baking sheet in the oven), that is attached to two empty 120 spools via duck tape and loaded in the camera like a normal film. Then you can use the film transport knob to take the slack out of your "paper ground-glass screen". It might not be as bright as genuine ground-glass, but what counts is that this method puts the screen in the film plane and it works. A magnifying glass comes in handy for easier focusing.
Hope this helps,
John
glad the lenses cleaned well. The Record III with Solinar will not disappoint you, this camera is capable of taking excellent pictures. In fact, I like it so much I decided that scanning is just not enough and I have to get back into wet printing. So I snapped up a 6x9 enlarger from fleebay. I just don't have a clue where I could set up a darkroom for printing yet...
For resetting focus, I have had good success with a fairly simple and cheap method that I found somewhere on the web: Use a simple strip of white "baking paper" (don't know the proper English term, the kind of paper you use to keep stuff sticking from the baking sheet in the oven), that is attached to two empty 120 spools via duck tape and loaded in the camera like a normal film. Then you can use the film transport knob to take the slack out of your "paper ground-glass screen". It might not be as bright as genuine ground-glass, but what counts is that this method puts the screen in the film plane and it works. A magnifying glass comes in handy for easier focusing.
Hope this helps,
John
bigeye
Well-known
I tried the wax paper method several times and couldn't get it to work out. It looked great on the paper, but never was matched by the 3 rolls I shot to test.
If it doesn't work for you, I was successful doing it this way:Mike Elek method
- Charlie
If it doesn't work for you, I was successful doing it this way:Mike Elek method
- Charlie
xwhatsit
Well-known
I was thinking about using my Pentax S1a to collimate it. Still don't quite understand it but I'll see if I can figure it out
@joeswe: Yes, can't wait to stick one of these huge negs into my enlarger! I've only done 35mm with my Durst M609 so far, but it has holders for 6x6, and it looks like you can use the entire "sandwich" as a neg holder for 6x9. Will have to find a decent 75mm-90mm enlarging lens amongst the box I have. There's a Nikon El-Nikkor 90mm or 85mm or something in there...
@joeswe: Yes, can't wait to stick one of these huge negs into my enlarger! I've only done 35mm with my Durst M609 so far, but it has holders for 6x6, and it looks like you can use the entire "sandwich" as a neg holder for 6x9. Will have to find a decent 75mm-90mm enlarging lens amongst the box I have. There's a Nikon El-Nikkor 90mm or 85mm or something in there...
xwhatsit
Well-known
I've adjusted the rangefinder and collimated the lens. My Pentax S1a only has the 55/1.8 SMC Tak on it, so it may not be as precisely collimated as necessary. We will see. Used a hair and taped it across the film gate. Hopefully I've got it OK.
I laughed when I took the rangefinder unit out, on the bottom was stamped in white ink, "15 Dez. 1952". Almost 58 years to the day... there was no sign on the screws that it'd ever been apart before either
Went out and shot a roll today. 8 shots takes surprisingly long (noticed the same thing with my Rolleicord). You really think about setting the shot up first, even before you begin the process of taking it. The metering, setting the fiddly aperture lever, setting the shutter and cocking it, then focussing using the squinty rangefinder, transferring the distance to the dial, thinking about depth of field and looking at the depth of field computer... then you wind the film on, trying to see the GP3 backing paper in the red window, and finally re-frame and take the shot!
Just hung up the roll. Holy sweet jesus. The size of those negatives! You can read each one just hanging there. Very, very cool. I can see why the LF guys get addicted... moving up in formats is fun!
Will post up a scan or two once they're dry and if anything looks OK.
EDIT:
I laughed when I took the rangefinder unit out, on the bottom was stamped in white ink, "15 Dez. 1952". Almost 58 years to the day... there was no sign on the screws that it'd ever been apart before either
Went out and shot a roll today. 8 shots takes surprisingly long (noticed the same thing with my Rolleicord). You really think about setting the shot up first, even before you begin the process of taking it. The metering, setting the fiddly aperture lever, setting the shutter and cocking it, then focussing using the squinty rangefinder, transferring the distance to the dial, thinking about depth of field and looking at the depth of field computer... then you wind the film on, trying to see the GP3 backing paper in the red window, and finally re-frame and take the shot!
Just hung up the roll. Holy sweet jesus. The size of those negatives! You can read each one just hanging there. Very, very cool. I can see why the LF guys get addicted... moving up in formats is fun!
Will post up a scan or two once they're dry and if anything looks OK.
EDIT:
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