Bell & Howell Foton

P

PhilKaskela

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Just picked one of these up for $25 on craigslist.
My heart was pounding when the guy verified the price and handed it over.

Anyone have on of theses? Any tips?
I did feel bad for getting it so cheaply, I see they are running between 1,300 and 1,800 USD on ebay these days. Do you think I was unethical for not paying more?

Excuse the cameraphone pic. The Foton with my Kiev & Ricoh 519 Deluxe

9206645868_bd679745fe_b.jpg
 
The Foton was a fine camera in its day. In the late 1950s a photographer for a major metro newspaper took a sequence of me skydiving (which was a pretty new thing then) and splashed the photos all over the front page of the paper and inside, too. This was in the days before the Nikon F and the electric motor drive. Praktiflex ad a spring-wound motor drive and there were the old Robots if you could find them but the Foton was the best. It was not cheap when purchased new.
 
squareshooter said:
and there were the old Robots if you could find them
Click to expand...

Oh, Robots were not that hard to find, nor old. They had a firm global hold on just about every technical application for serial photography deep into the seventies, apparently outselling Leitz by numbers.

The Foton tried to be both a rangefinder and a motor driven camera. And that will have been its failure - while Robot sold plenty of its Star series and even more of the purely technical Recorders, their Royal rangefinder was no success either, and the USSR Leningrad (arguably their best made camera) failed as well. Apparently the notion of using a motor drive on a regular, hand operated camera took a long time to catch on - not until most press Nikon F grew a motor drive in the early seventies.
 
It is a very odd camera, but built extremely solidly. No doubt because the of spring inside.
The motorwind works and the shutter speeds seem to be good to the ear. The shutter is LOUD! I can imagine taking this to an event and startling everyone as I rip off 5fps.
The lens is in great shape, the RF is clear and seems accurate.

One major negative that I'm not sure how to solve: it's missing the VF diopter lens, so framing/composition is a problem. Anyone know anyone who can fabricate parts or has one lying around?

It's not everyday you luck into something like this. The guy wanted to sell me a Canonet for $55 and just wanted to unload the Foton for $25!
I politely declined the Canonet; he thought I was nuts.
 
Foton

Foton

I bought a Foton for about $100 with the flash attachment and its original warranty.... there have been several Fotons offered for many years on ebay at silly prices. there are rare 4inch and eight inch TTH lenses which are offered for $2-4K but I cant believe they are ever sold for that.

David
 
The only practical fix is to get a 50 mm external finder and slip it on the camera's accessory shoe. It would be far better optically better than the original. I'd expect parts would have to come from another camera which is impractical.
 
I wouldn't feel guilty about paying so little for it; if the seller knows how to work a computer to post it on CL, then presumably they are capable of checking eBay, Google, worthpoint, etc. for current market value.

Hope you get to use & enjoy it... please share some photos from it !

LF
 
9297590448_bd65e3e80d_c.jpg


Got an old leica-style lyre viewfinder and it's finally whole.
I'm loving this camera. The lens flares like crazy even with the hood, but I don't mind.
Excuse the poor scan quality, I have a very cheap scanner. It's next on the list for upgrade.
 
Congratulations!

I have 2, & although I got them for reasonable prices, they were a lot more than $25/each. The lens hood by itself is worth more than $25! 🙂

Re: diopter, there was no diopter adjustment built-into the Foton for either the RF or VF windows (unlike later "Barnack" Leicas that had it for the RF). The RF window is just plain tiny & squinty.

The best technician I know of (in the U.S., anyway) for the Foton is Ken Ruth of Photography on Bald Mountain (http://www.baldmtn.com/ ). He can install a new mirror/beam-splitter if the 1 on yours is too dim from oxidation.

The Amotal shouldn't be particularly flarey, but perhaps yours has some cleaning marks or haze?

PhilKaskela said:
It is a very odd camera, but built extremely solidly. No doubt because the of spring inside.
The motorwind works and the shutter speeds seem to be good to the ear. The shutter is LOUD! I can imagine taking this to an event and startling everyone as I rip off 5fps.
The lens is in great shape, the RF is clear and seems accurate.

One major negative that I'm not sure how to solve: it's missing the VF diopter lens, so framing/composition is a problem. Anyone know anyone who can fabricate parts or has one lying around?
Click to expand...
 
They probably didn't sell many because 1: it was expensive, and 2: it looks like a Mercury II. I wouldn't mind finding one for $25. That's a couple of swell cameras you have it sitting with.

PF
 
Nice shots. So you're in DC (I thought I recognized the Metro escalator)? We now probably have more Fotons being used here than anywhere in the world! 😛

For me, the main problem w/using the Foton on the street isn't the noise (the street is generally already noisy) or looks (no more unusual-looking than a Leica for non-photographers), but rather the squinty RF & VF (I normally try to minimize zone focusing).

Shots I've taken w/my Fotons over the years (nothing recent as I'm way, way behind on my Flickr updates):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/furcafe/tags/bellhowellfotonc194850/

PhilKaskela said:
. . .

Just a couple shots from around DC. It's not the best camera for street work (loud, noticeable), but it's fun to use.
Click to expand...
 
@fur

oh wow, very cool stuff in your flickr. nice to see it can handle color film so well.
I am still quite a neophyte when it comes to proper exposure without a meter - and especially with scanning film instead of wet printing, but I am having a lot of fun with this camera.
Very cool to know that someone else nearby is using a foton(s) too.
 
Thanks. Practice makes (more) perfect.

I have a lot of meterless cameras, so have been forced to devote a considerable amount of time to develop my own workflow w/a handheld meter (Gossen Digisix). The advantage is that now I can use it w/all my meterless cameras (same goes w/general RF shooting techniques).

Hope to run into you on the street sometime.

PhilKaskela said:
@fur

oh wow, very cool stuff in your flickr. nice to see it can handle color film so well.
I am still quite a neophyte when it comes to proper exposure without a meter - and especially with scanning film instead of wet printing, but I am having a lot of fun with this camera.
Very cool to know that someone else nearby is using a foton(s) too.
Click to expand...
 
9552505430_816b6e39e0_z.jpg

You guys may be getting tired of these, but I'll keep posting them until you tell me to stop
It can't match the quality of most of my cameras but I just enjoy using it.
 
PhilKaskela said:
9552505430_816b6e39e0_z.jpg

You guys may be getting tired of these, but I'll keep posting them until you tell me to stop
It can't match the quality of most of my cameras but I just enjoy using it.
Click to expand...

Excellent!
I thought you're talking about Fotron, which is way less inspiring than your Foton 🙂
 
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