Krosya
Konicaze
I have been rather slacking in photography department. Even more so in film photography. And I did realize that I miss it, but needed something exciting to get me back into it. So, I started to restore some TLRs.
I bought a few - all in somewhat poor condition, as I wanted to keep things on budget. Yet I wanted to have something rather uncommon. So, one I came across was - Tower Reflex TLR - made in japan for the Sears Tower company. There were several models, from what I understand, but this one seems to be most interesting. It looks kinda like Rolleiflex T due to it's sideways shutter release button. It has rather uncommon Fujitar 8cm 3.5 lens. Has a light meter.
When I got this camera - it was in terrible condition - all controls were frozen, shutter didnt respond, focus barely worked and dirty lenses and screen. Had to take it all apart - front, sides, clean and lubricate and adjust everything. Took a while. Some parts inside were broken - poor camera went through some abuse. I did everything best I could, but I got it back to working condition. Its not perfect, lenses still show cleaning marks and couldnt be fully cleaned. Meter works - but far from accurate, so its more for looks than anything else. Shutter works great now, aperture is smooth, and focus is working pretty well. Focusing screen is rather dim on these, but Ok for outside in most cases.
Here are some pics of it - I did what I could to recover with new leather, but again - not perfect:
So, at the end - I have a pretty cool and somewhat rare camera.
Of course - big question is - how does it perform?
Well, I had just one roll of film through it so far. I have just rather poor scans of the prints, but I think it looks very promising . I love the bokeh it creates - very smooth. :
I think it was worth the effort
I bought a few - all in somewhat poor condition, as I wanted to keep things on budget. Yet I wanted to have something rather uncommon. So, one I came across was - Tower Reflex TLR - made in japan for the Sears Tower company. There were several models, from what I understand, but this one seems to be most interesting. It looks kinda like Rolleiflex T due to it's sideways shutter release button. It has rather uncommon Fujitar 8cm 3.5 lens. Has a light meter.
When I got this camera - it was in terrible condition - all controls were frozen, shutter didnt respond, focus barely worked and dirty lenses and screen. Had to take it all apart - front, sides, clean and lubricate and adjust everything. Took a while. Some parts inside were broken - poor camera went through some abuse. I did everything best I could, but I got it back to working condition. Its not perfect, lenses still show cleaning marks and couldnt be fully cleaned. Meter works - but far from accurate, so its more for looks than anything else. Shutter works great now, aperture is smooth, and focus is working pretty well. Focusing screen is rather dim on these, but Ok for outside in most cases.
Here are some pics of it - I did what I could to recover with new leather, but again - not perfect:
So, at the end - I have a pretty cool and somewhat rare camera.
Of course - big question is - how does it perform?
Well, I had just one roll of film through it so far. I have just rather poor scans of the prints, but I think it looks very promising . I love the bokeh it creates - very smooth. :
I think it was worth the effort
