Newbie to folders looking for suggestions

[Roger Hicks]

The faster lens options are almost always (even today) the more 'premium' grade lens in the eyes of the manufacturer and customers. They cost more too. So they often are a better lens than the slower one.

BUT NOT ALWAYS ... The faster a lens is the more sophisticated its design and manufacture must be to achieve high quality performance.

So it's a little hard to predict lens performance solely by lens speed.

G

For example, the only Tessars I REALLY like are f/6.3. At f/4.5 they're OK and at f/3.5 they're good portrait lenses on LF (I have a 300/3.5).

Cheers,

R.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Um, no. Every older camera I've used has benefitted dramatically by having it serviced. Lubricants get hard and crackly over time, particularly for 60 year old cameras. Shutters get slow, focusing mounts get sticky and rough, folder bed struts and mechanisms get sticky and imprecise, etc etc. Periodic servicing extends the life of the camera and keeps it feeling good, a pleasure to use.

Every single folder I've bought, including the "minty mint" Perkeo II that I bought from the original owner who treasure it like the family jewels, needed a clean, lubricate, and adjust service when I got it. In fact, the ONLY older cameras I've bought in the past ten years (a lot of them, from Hasselblads to Polaroids) that didn't need a service where those that had just been serviced before I bought them.

I always budget a CLA service into the price of every camera I buy. This is rewarded by accurate shutter speeds and reliable operation of all my cameras.

G

You could be right. I pretty much stopped buying 'em 20+ years ago when they were 20+ years newer and a lot more likely to have been used recently. But I'm happy enough with more recent acquisitions too after exercising the shutters a bit.

Cheers,

R.

 

[ZeissFan]

There are things to consider with any folding camera.

Typical problems can be tears or holes in the bellows. Those with leather-covered bellows are less prone to damage. Agfa cameras with plastic-covered bellows are notorious for having holes in the corner folds. Some Agfa cameras used leather-covered bellows.

For shutters with slow speeds, it's common for the slow-speed mechanism (the escapement) to stutter and not run smoothly. Same goes for shutters that have self-timer mechanisms. Both of these usually are simple to correct.

When parts stick, some heavy-handed users begin to force levers and knobs. Never a good thing for a camera.

It's not unusual for lens helicals to require removal of old grease and be re-lubricated.

With a Voigtlander folding camera, check the lens standard to ensure that it is rigid when the lens bed is extended. It shouldn't have any play.

Look for impact damage on lens doors and camera corners. Impact damage on lens doors, particularly on the corners, could mean that the camera was dropped. That could knock the lens out of parallel with the film plane.

Don't buy a damaged folding camera. There are enough out there, so there is no reason to buy one that has damage.

Oddly enough, I've had my best luck buying cameras that have sat untouched in closets for decades. They usually are described as "grandpa's camera, and I don't know anything about it."

I like cameras with integrated rangefinders (coupled or uncoupled). I'm so-so on guessing distances, especially when forced to use my feeble brain to convert meters into feet. The toughest are those that have markings for 1.2m, 1.4m, etc.

The little slide-in rangefinders work very well. Voigtlander made one that works quite well. If you can, get two -- one marked in meters and the other marked in feet.

For those of us who use folders, we like them in spite of their drawbacks and restrictions.

 

[jnoir]

[...]
I like cameras with integrated rangefinders (coupled or uncoupled). I'm so-so on guessing distances, especially when forced to use my feeble brain to convert meters into feet. The toughest are those that have markings for 1.2m, 1.4m, etc
[...]

I suffer the opposite, specially being used to think in meters but fond of Ensign cameras, and I simply divide by three to get ''my distance''. Multiply by three and you are good to go 🙂

 

[Roger Hicks]

A few cameras I've had are calibrated in yards. Near enough metres...

Cheers,

R.

 

[charjohncarter]

I not a gear freak, but I do have 4 MF folders, don't ask. My favorite is the lowly Balda Hapo 66e.

 

[dboeren]

Well, I failed to win either camera so I'm still on the lookout 🙂