Scale focus cameras?

[BILLC]

Right up front I must say that I like this forum as RFF, owning 40 or so rangefinders. However I do like other cameras as well and I welcome this new scale focus list. I do like scale focus 35's haveing many but my favorite format is the 645 folder. The best of the lot have a rangefinders but many great cameras do not. So could the scale focus list be less selective? Is there interest in a MF scale focus list?
Bill

 

[charjohncarter]

I have a Nikonos II which is an all weather as well as an underwater scale focus. It is build like a brick......and I don't have to worry about dust, sand, water or rain. The 35mm lens is easy to scale focus. An added attraction is my Leica thread mounts with adapters for my pentax thread mount 28mm lens and a Zenitar 16mm fisheye, these have to be scaled focused. It's corny but at times it sure is fun and everyone wants to talk about them.

 

[KameraKev]

I have a Olympus Trip 35 that is a great little shooter, and a pair of Smena Symbols that I like to take out now and then, it's capable of great photos for such a simplistic design.

 

[Michael I.]

I am waiting for a project minox el and kiev 35a as well as a working kiev35a that a member of this forum donated me to try this scale focus all the kids are talking about

 

[surlysimon]

3 Olympus Trips
2 Ricoh A2s (springwound motors)
Rollei 35 T
Olympus Pen D
Canon Demi 17
a lot realy!

 

[ballfresno]

I love my Minox 35GT!

 

[Abbazz]

My favorite scale focus are my Olympus XA4 (great 28mm lens) and my chrome Rollei 35S & black 35 SE (superb Sonnar lens).

Cheers,

Abbazz

 

[JMP]

Right up front I must say that I like this forum as RFF, owning 40 or so rangefinders. However I do like other cameras as well and I welcome this new scale focus list. I do like scale focus 35's haveing many but my favorite format is the 645 folder. The best of the lot have a rangefinders but many great cameras do not. So could the scale focus list be less selective? Is there interest in a MF scale focus list?
Bill

There is a "120 RF Folders" Forum where I'm sure scale focus 120 folders would be at home- I like them too. To me they seem more similar to those rather than scale focus 35s.

Isn't the rangefinder basically just a focusing aid. I feel that any camera where the view is not through the lens or nearby lens (TLR), but through a viewfinder, is pretty much in the same vein insofar as composing goes. All viewfinder cameras deal to a greater or lesser extent with the difficulties of parallax, different coverage on film vs. through the viewfinder at different distances etc, and most make up for them with quiet shutters and compact, lightweight bodies (certainly folders are great for this, and if they lack a rangefinder, they're usually lighter and smaller). I have a 1930s Balda Six (120 square format) which is just larger than a Retina IIa and slightly lighter.

 

[cbass]

...to try this scale focus all the kids are talking about...

Be careful, or you'll get hooked. 🙂

I learned to scale focus on an XA2, which I regreattably sold. Now I use a Voigtlander Bessa L and two scale focus lenses - the CV 25/4 and the CV 15/4.5. I love the freedom and speed of scale focus. It's very liberating; allowing one to focus on composition.

 

[wintoid]

My stepmother gave me her late husband's camera (he died in the early 1960s), which is a Zeiss Ikon Contina IIa. No way I would have bought this camera, but having been given one, I can say that it's beautifully engineered, a bit fiddly to use, and takes a wonderful (and I do mean wonderful) picture. It's scale focus, which I thought would be an issue, but is actually a walk in the park. I just have to abandon my usual ambitions of taking indoor portraits with blurred backgrounds.

 

[richard_l]

...So could the scale focus list be less selective? Is there interest in a MF scale focus list?...

I think "Scale Focus 35's" is too restrictive and that the forum should be open to discussion of all scale focus cameras. I.e., change the header to "Scale Focus Cameras."

Richard

 

[shutterfiend]

The Rollei 35S I got recently is kicking my ...! The light meter doesn't work. No biggie, I have a drem instoscope. But this guesti-focus thing is HARD! Especially at 2.8. The close-ups came out okay. Pictures are tack sharp! But boy, am I short focusing!?! Beyond 10 feet all the pictures came out short focused by a foot or two. I think I'll have to recalibrate myself.

Well, since the name of the forum changed, let me add that I am yet to take my Ikonta 521/16 for a test drive.

PS: Sorry I didn't have the facts right. The above sentence should read, "In anticipation of the name-change,..."

 

[Kent]

Hi!

Apart from my RFs I use those scale focus cams:

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Regula Sprinty[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] (Isco Color-Gotar 2.8/45)
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Franka [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] (Isco Color-Isconar 2.8/45)
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Kodak Retinette 1A [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] (Schneider Reomar 3.5/50 )

and with a focus display:
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Zeiss Ikon Voigtländer Vitessa 500AE [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] (Voigtländer Color-Lanthar 2.8/42)


Medium format:
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]6x6: Adox Golf 63 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] (Adoxar 6.3/75)
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]4.5x6: Dehel - Demaria Fréres 1941 [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](Demaria 4.5/75)[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]

Those cams are fun to use and to get really good images you need to think... I like that!
[/FONT]

 

[Welsh_Italian]

I have a Cosmic 35 (http://regis.boissier.free.fr/fotofexcameras/cameras%20for%20trade/ru%20lomo%20cosmic%2035.htm): it's a lovely little camera. The lens isn't superb but it's not bad
but what I like most is that the shutter is primed separately from the film wind. Double-exposure city!

But for a camera, it's surprising: shutter speed, aperture and focus are all set manually so you have complete control over the camera. It's a lovely little machine but it seems to have light leaks when I fire the shutter (it's not the casing because the light leaks only show up on the frame not the entire negative).

The viewfinder is 1:1 (ie, it's just 2 pieces of glass!), but the whole camera is so sweet and delightful.

 

[varjag]

I used to have Kiev-35A, a Minox 35 copy: it shattered in pieces. Wasn't such a good camera though 🙂

At the moment I have Zeiss Tenax, neat little p&s with square format on 35mm film. Ran only a couple of rolls thru however, real cameras take all the use.

 

[shadowfox]

My favorite (look-wise):

picture quality-wise, the Trip 35 surprises me most.

 

[sweathog]

I am often surprised at the shots I get out of my Trip 35. A lot of the shots are good, but some of them are <I>great</i>. Mind you, it has got a lovely lens on it.
I often find myself focusing short though, very frustrating. Although I have heard of a way to rig it so that when you fire, having set the aperture manual, it will fire at 1/200 rather than 1/40. If I can get my hands on another (very) cheap body I might give it a whirl.

 

[sepiareverb]

The Rollei 35S I got recently is kicking my ...

...But this guesti-focus thing is HARD! Especially at 2.8. The close-ups came out okay. Pictures are tack sharp! But boy, am I short focusing!?! Beyond 10 feet all the pictures came out short focused by a foot or two. I think I'll have to recalibrate myself...

You and me both! I have a great sense of direction, but can't say what's 7 feet or 10 feet away to save my life apparently. When I'm right the lens is incredible- sharp as you could want- on this 35SE. But I'm not right often. Upside is a great appreciation of the delicious bokeh the sonnar gives! Actually got one image that is probably much improved over what I'd have gotten if I knew I was further away than I did.

I think I'm going to switch to HP5 for a while in this camera!

 

[bmattock]

I have a pre-Petri Karoron 120 6x4.5 scale focus folder, like the one here:

http://www.pibweb.com/ross/Campix/Kuribayashi_karoronb.jpg

I also have a 'Frank' (Japanese clone of a 'Franka') Six scale focus 120 folder, made by Tosei Optical, but it is 6x6; I never got the 6x4.5 insert for it.

I also have a number of old Nettars and Isolettes. They're OK but not great.

I shoot Kodak Brownie Hawkeyes - 6x6, no focus (meniscus lens), no shutter speeds, no aperture adjustments. Nominally 620 film, but they will work with a normal 120 roll of film on the feed side and an empty 620 reel in the take-up side. Lovely old-timey images at anything past 5 feet distance. Press-on filters available for more fun.

And of course, the Kodak Brownie Bullseye - 6x9, but must respool 120 onto 620 to use. 6x9 is a lot of negative, which forgives any sins of the cheap Twindar lens.

My favorite, though, is a 6.5 cm x 9 cm Voigtlander "Avus" folding glass plate camera. It has scale focus - or you can use the ground-glass like a mini Speed Graphic. It is not front-cell focusing - it instead racks the entire lens up and back using a knob to focus or set the distance scale, which is less of a design trade-off. It has a 6x9 rollfilm adapter back. Focus with ground-glass, remove and insert 120 rollfilm back, get great well-focused portraits with that nice blown-out background too. Uncoated SKopar 105mm f/3.5 ensures that lovely German glass glow. Ed Romney used his for many of the product shots in his books, he loved the Skopar (rather good Tessar clone).

 

[pixman]

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Hi I have been out in the rain this morning to get a few shots on my Zeiss Icon Contina.I thought you might like to see them and how well the meter copes with poor light.