Autocord Results!

[Darkhorse]

So I snagged an Autocord RG v.2 from scottkathe this past week. I had mentioned before that I wanted a more robust camera than my 124g and, oh, well, let's just say I just wasn't feeling it with the 124g and leave it with at that. Anyway, the Autocord I got from scottkathe was indeed a beauty. It was love at first sight.

To test it out I went to the Muckentaler Motor Car Festival in Fullerton CA. I kind of feel that taking photos of cars is sort of cliché; I mean I see Lomo squares of vintage cars on flickr all the time. But cars are easy and pose nicely.

I shot a roll of Tri-X 320 first... unfortunately I had the ISO on my hand meter set to 160 as well as the #2 filter factor I adjusted for, so that roll came out a stop overexposed. Luckily I scanned the roll of Plus-X first. Looking at a results from the first scan I sat back in my chair with a grin, saying to myself "Dammit, this is the kind of look I was going for."

I also shot a roll of Ektar 100 but I have yet to get it processed.

 

[Doug]

Neat photos, darkhorse, and illustrate the benefits of a larger neg. Great tonality. The subject matter appeals to me, as these vehicles are within the range of years where I can usually distinguish one model year from another. Oh, and the young lady looks like a sweetie too! 🙂

 

[ishpop]

Of the car shots I really liked the 1st one the best, really immense feeling to it.

The shot of the girl is really nice, perfect balance of sharpness, lighting and DoF.

 

[Darkhorse]

The first car is my favorite too. My fiance thinks she looks dumb and fat in the photo of her... I'm not sure if she was serious or not.

I'm going to the Planes of Fame vintage airplane museum in Chino this Friday, that ought to be a good place for the Autocord. I think I may try some Velvia 50 while there, too.

The camera gets a positive reception from people as well. I was wandering around and people were smiling at it, asked some questions, I heard people in the distance saying stuff like "I like that guy's camera... that's an old one!"

 

[ChrisN]

Nice camera work there - very nice compositions of the cars, great scanning and pp too to show off the tonality in those negs. And the young lady - wow! Tell your fiance that she is beautiful, and that we said she can trust you to take wonderful photos of her!

 

[scottkathe]

Darkhorse,

I see my camera is in good hands, great work! I like all the car shots and as to your fiance, if she is half as nice as she looks you will have a long and happy marriage 🙂 I assume all the shots were hand held, what shutter speeds were you using? And if you don't mind my asking what are you using for a scanner?

I was out again with my 'new to me' Mamiya 7 (I got from someone here as well) yesterday taking some pictures of an old historical stone school house and some millstones, another cliche. I can't seem to get away from the tripod for serious work. I was using Acros and tried a one hour semi-stand development in Rodinal 1:200 for the first time last night. The negatives look pretty good to me, can't wait to start working on them 🙂

Scott

 

[Way]

I agree with the wonderful tonality (and your fiance looks very nice, too!). I need to take my MF cameras to some car shows!

 

[Darkhorse]

Thanks, everyone.

All the shots were handheld, the shutterspeeds used were typically 1/125 and 1/250, but I know the portrait was 1/30. They were developed in 76, and scanned with an Epson V500 and VueScan.

 

[shadowfox]

Very nice. The Autocord lens looks sharper than a Yashica 124G.

 

[Darkhorse]

I got back some color today. And, as I expected, the colors I got from the Autocord kind of kicked the ass of anything I got from the Yashica-Mat. I used Kodak's new Ektar 100, I kind of like it but it looks more like a slide film than a color negative (not that that's a bad thing of course, I'm just saying). The film will also burn a hole in you retina apparently, as you'll see below.

However these negs were scratched badly by the lab... which is surprising since they're usually pretty competant.

My eyes! But it was that red in real life I guess.

The following are cropped, I felt they benefited more from it.

 

[scottkathe]

WOW! Can I have it back? Pretty please 😉

I thought you'd like it 🙂

Scott

 

[Darkhorse]

Naaaah I think I'll keep it 😉

Thanks again, Scott.

 

[ChrisN]

Very nice! How does the Ektar film go with skin tones?

 

[fidget]

Great shots. Now I want an autocord....

 

[Al Kaplan]

The Autocord had the best 4 element lens of any of the twin lens reflexes, better even than the Zeiss Tessars and Schneider Xenars on Rollies. Also, the film fed off the top roll in an Autocord, not the bottom, so it didn't make the right angle bend before the exposure. If you didn't shoot that next frame for a day or two the film would take a set and that shot might not be sharp where the bend was. It also had a button under the wind crank. Slide the button with your thumb and you could crank backwards to cock the shutter without advancing the film and make easy double exposures.

The focusing lever under the lens panel can be moved back and forth with your middle or ring finger while keeping your index finger on the shutter release button. After awhile you seemed to know exactly where that lever should be, just by feel, for various shooting distances, so when using the sportsfinder with flash you never had to look at the ground glass. The lens accepts standard Rollei series I hoods and filters but the best accessory is the Autopole, which will also fit Rollies and Yashicas that take Series I accessories. It fits over both lenses and has two rotating polarizer filters geared to rotate together.

Look for one of the metered models. The forty or fifty year old meters never work so the cameras are usually cheaper than the unmetered models. I paid $10 for the last one I bought.

 

[Darkhorse]

Very nice! How does the Ektar film go with skin tones?

Here are some skin tones from a roll from my RC last month:

 

[le vrai rdu]

Got a 1955 optiper MXS autocord

Very nice camera, much nicer than my dead yashica 🙂

I will try it this afternoon 🙂

 

[hans voralberg]

Nice! Darkhorse, could you comment on the quality of the ground glass? I've never seen the Autocord before and wonder how bright it is, I've used Yashica Mamiya and Rolleicord and I'm not impressed by any of them. My Rolleiflex is best but I still have an itch for the Autocord!

 

[le vrai rdu]

Mine has no fresnel lens (not sure it is the exact word in english) so it gives some vignetting in the WLF , but it is okay 🙂

It looks to me nor brighter nor darker than the yashicamat 🙂

But the building quality is much more nicer tahn the yashica 🙂

 

[behhl]

this is a sick poisonous thread - all that metallic colour on ektar is sheer FUWOH!

i will now go recuperate far from this thread and promise only to come back to peek if there are any more shots of metal on colour ... sheesh ... as they used to say in the Marvel Comics 'Nuff Said!