Another Pilot 6!

[tunalegs]

My rather worn out, painted all over, Pilot 6 camera has become one of my favorite cameras. But because of the way I am, I kept an eye out for the even more basic Pilot 6 with the f/6.3 lens. I finally snagged one.


mirror replacement by Berang Berang, on Flickr

First order of business - install a new mirror. Lucky me, the old mirror had a date stamped on the back. August 15, 1936. That makes this a very early Pilot 6, the serial number for the body and lens are also pretty low. First roll of film showed promise:
saab by Berang Berang, on Flickr sale by Berang Berang, on Flickr pipes by Berang Berang, on Flickr

This lens shows that a triplet can be pretty sharp if it's a slow one! Unfortunately this roll also showed the lens needed some internal cleaning. The haze was not too bad - and honestly has some vintage charm of its own - but I needed to get it cleaner.
inside by Berang Berang, on Flickr

The lens came apart and I cleaned the internal surfaces. I also needed to open the front of the camera to get to the aperture plate which was jamming up. Very interesting, simple mechanism, but getting it to operate smoothly without jamming took a lot of fiddling, patience, and tiny adjustments. This most basic version of the Pilot 6 is really barely more than a glorified box camera - at US$16 it was $9 cheaper than an Argus C2 - $9 being a pretty considerable sum in 1936. Second roll:

Saab by Berang Berang, on Flickr Saab by Berang Berang, on Flickr Toyota by Berang Berang, on Flickr

I'm impressed honestly. This camera's worst enemy is its own mirror slap, but if you can hold it still, that tiny 6.3/75 triplet is super sharp. In case anybody wants to know more, I give a pretty detailed (albeit a little rambly) look at this camera in my youtube video about it.

I may take this little guy to Japan with me next month, I like it that much. Surprisingly the focusing screen is not noticeably darker than that on my f/4.5 version - although it is a little harder to focus, perhaps because of the larger depth of field wide open with the slower lens?

 

[Mr_Flibble]

I know what you mean about that mirror slap. I have a few shots from my Pilot-6 where the top half of the image is slightly blurred and the lower half is perfectly sharp. I guess that happens when the closing edge of the shutter is already halfway through it's upward travel when the mirror slaps home at a certain speed 🙂

Mine has a f/4.5 lens on it by the way. I did not know the f/6.3 version only has 4 fixed aperture openings.

You got some fine results with this camera by the look of things.

 

[tunalegs]

Yes, I was surprised to see the camera had a waterhouse style aperture plate in it. But it is just another character quirk. One advantage of this though is that each aperture click-stops into place, so it's possible to set the aperture without having pull one's eye away from the viewfinder.

 

[ray*j*gun]

Wow a 2 stroke Saab in Texas!!!

 

[farlymac]

That little puppy cleaned up nicely. I'll have to give that 6.3 over in the next town another look when I'm over that way.

PF

 

[tunalegs]

I recommend it. These are obviously not "serious" cameras, being rather slow in use, and of limited flexibility. But they are a nice change of pace for an occasional roll, and the results are pretty good when they're in good, clean condition. Plus they're so small it's easy to tote one alongside your "real" camera.

 

[Spanik]

I'm really impressed with those results. Compared to the folders of that age I would say it takes them to the cleaners. And it looks a fun box as well. Going to look out for one.

 

[tunalegs]

I'm really impressed with those results. Compared to the folders of that age I would say it takes them to the cleaners. And it looks a fun box as well. Going to look out for one.

It does have the advantages of a rigid lens mounting, and pretty guaranteed light tightness. But this has to be balanced against the difficulty of focusing a slow lens on ground glass (although one could just set the focus by scale I guess). These early lever-set versions also only have three (very nominal) shutter speeds, although the later knob set version is more accurate and has more speeds. It's a camera for a slow, dedicated approach to photography. But all old cameras require a bit more time I guess.