Franka Solida II

[MPerson]

Today a neighbour gave me a camera he found whilst clearing out his fathers house. Apparently he had it from new and bought it whilst serving in Germany in the late 50's. It even came in the original box, owners booklet, lens shade and leather case. Apparently his father was still using it up until he was taken ill and subsequently died back in October.

It's a Franka Solida II with uncoupled rangefinder, Prontor-SVS shutter and Enagon 75/3.5 lens. Nothing to write home about but the bellows were replaced last year and the camera given a CLA and everything is working very sweet. Now the owners booklet has answered most of my questions except for the following:

Green Dot Position: V = self-timer
Red Dot Position: X= standard shooting?
Yellow Dot Position: M = ????????

Whilst it says it is synchronised for flash does anyone have any tips for this. I plan on playing around with a Metz 20-C-2 with a flash lead connected. It does trigger the flash OK.

I will be loading Rollei Retro 100 to test it all out.

 

[VictorM.]

The M setting is for flash bulbs. It gives a very small delay before opening the shutter to give the bulb time to become bright enough to expose film reliably. The X setting releases the shutter and fires the flash at the same time and is intended for use with electronic flash.

 

[MPerson]

Many thanks for that Victor.

 

[hanskerensky]

Nothing to write home about but the bellows were replaced last year and the camera given a CLA and everything is working very sweet.

Did you replace the bellows yourself ? I'm asking this question because i'm looking for sources for Agfa Isolette and Franka Solida bellows.

Whilst it says it is synchronised for flash does anyone have any tips for this. I plan on playing around with a Metz 20-C-2 with a flash lead connected. It does trigger the flash OK.

Maybe you should make some photos of an evenly grey background but with different (quickest) shutterspeeds at an aperture of say 11. Would be nice to see if there is any difference.

 

[Muggins]

If it's got an X-sync, it should sync at all speeds, shouldn't it? So if the slow speeds are OK, you should be able to have some fun with fill flash in lowish light...

Adrian
(who has never tried this, so take with appropriate amounts of salt!)

 

[oftheherd]

Did you replace the bellows yourself ? I'm asking this question because i'm looking for sources for Agfa Isolette and Franka Solida bellows.


Maybe you should make some photos of an evenly grey background but with different (quickest) shutterspeeds at an aperture of say 11. Would be nice to see if there is any difference.

For bellows replacement you might want to contact our own FallisPhoto. I think he does it, or at least could point you to a good place.

 

[MPerson]

Did you replace the bellows yourself ? I'm asking this question because i'm looking for sources for Agfa Isolette and Franka Solida bellows.

No I didn't. The bellows were replaced by the previous owner last year.

 

[hans voralberg]

In the UK you can also contact CustomBellow for a bellow replacement.

 

[FallisPhoto]

Did you replace the bellows yourself ? I'm asking this question because i'm looking for sources for Agfa Isolette and Franka Solida bellows.

The least expensive replacement bellows for an Isolette can be harvested from a Kodak 66. They were horrible cameras, so bad that none of them ever saw much use, but they did have very good 6x6 bellows that fit into an Isolette very well indeed.

 

[hanskerensky]

The least expensive replacement bellows for an Isolette can be harvested from a Kodak 66. They were horrible cameras, so bad that none of them ever saw much use, but they did have very good 6x6 bellows that fit into an Isolette very well indeed.

I know Charles, but everytime you write that fact in a forum the prices of Kodak 66s surge !

No, just kidding, the Kodak 66 is unfortunatly a folder which was almost not sold in The Netherlands so there are only few on the secondhand market. The cheapest i saw was about € 25,--.

 

[FallisPhoto]

I know Charles, but everytime you write that fact in a forum the prices of Kodak 66s surge !

No, just kidding, the Kodak 66 is unfortunatly a folder which was almost not sold in The Netherlands so there are only few on the secondhand market. The cheapest i saw was about € 25,--.

Really? I've bought most of the ones I used for between $5 and $15. lately though, the prices DO seem to have been going up... Hmmmm.