raydm6
Yay! Cameras! 🙈🙉🙊┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ [◉"]
Great! Thank you fireblade. I'm confused though: my camera just has a viewfinder - no rangefinder - unless the top-plate is common to other models with a rangefinder and is shared with the Contina-matics?
That button is a curiosity and mystery. I have it on several other cameras and there is nothing to its function to be found in manuals - although it appears in image views.
Attachments
raydm6
Yay! Cameras! 🙈🙉🙊┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ [◉"]
Ok, mystery kind of solved: I was able to unscrew the button with my fingernails. It uncovers an access hole (cover and washer) for a tiny slotted adjustment screw. I am guessing maybe to null the internal meter for calibration/adjustment?
My Contessa has a similar "exposed" small slotted screw right below the meter area. I am guessing the same? You can see it to the right. Interesting.
My Contessa has a similar "exposed" small slotted screw right below the meter area. I am guessing the same? You can see it to the right. Interesting.
Muggins
Junk magnet
How about the box the Barnacks live in?
Shawn
Brilliant! Love that!
shawn
Veteran
WJJ3
Well-known
Wow! That's some negative real estate
Ambro51
Collector/Photographer
My only “new” camera
ChrisLivsey
Veteran
Recently acquired in lovely condition.
The received wisdom I understand is:1968: From #3,029,230 the rewind bearing is made of black organic polymer. V-shaped lock on camera back.
This camera has a serial of 3029635 and still has the original shaped lock and metal rewind bearing. This pushes out the change point by a few hundred cameras.
The Zeiss lens serial is correct for 1968.
Added following conversations with Ferdi Stutterheim of <a href="Rollei 35 User’s Site." rel="noreferrer nofollow">rollei35.eu</a> on the "hard" serial number cut off for the change and reproduced with his permission:
The way the cameras were produced makes that (the precise serial number) rather difficult. I have visited the Brunswick (Braunschweig) factory on several occasions in the 1980s. The production process was more like a craft than industrial. Imagine 5 rows of twinned desks with a transport belt running between the twinned desks along the 5 rows. On each desk a number of parts are built on to a camera body. Then on the belt to the next desk. Etc. They produced only a small number of cameras each day. When I was around 20 TLRs per day. At the start of production the technicians check their stock of parts and when necessary they grab a hand-full to supplement their stock. That includes the top covers with pre-printed serial numbers. These were not stored in sequential order. The numbers were printed by a machine on the covers by the hundreds and dropped into a basket. All in all it is quite possible that a technician had ample stock of metal bearings but needed top covers (with higher numbers) than his colleague who needed more bearings and ended up with black ones but had enough top covers (with lower numbers). Needles to say that finished cameras did not pass final inspection sequentially numbered and there probably was not a hard transition from metal to black bearings.
The received wisdom I understand is:1968: From #3,029,230 the rewind bearing is made of black organic polymer. V-shaped lock on camera back.
This camera has a serial of 3029635 and still has the original shaped lock and metal rewind bearing. This pushes out the change point by a few hundred cameras.
The Zeiss lens serial is correct for 1968.
Added following conversations with Ferdi Stutterheim of <a href="Rollei 35 User’s Site." rel="noreferrer nofollow">rollei35.eu</a> on the "hard" serial number cut off for the change and reproduced with his permission:
The way the cameras were produced makes that (the precise serial number) rather difficult. I have visited the Brunswick (Braunschweig) factory on several occasions in the 1980s. The production process was more like a craft than industrial. Imagine 5 rows of twinned desks with a transport belt running between the twinned desks along the 5 rows. On each desk a number of parts are built on to a camera body. Then on the belt to the next desk. Etc. They produced only a small number of cameras each day. When I was around 20 TLRs per day. At the start of production the technicians check their stock of parts and when necessary they grab a hand-full to supplement their stock. That includes the top covers with pre-printed serial numbers. These were not stored in sequential order. The numbers were printed by a machine on the covers by the hundreds and dropped into a basket. All in all it is quite possible that a technician had ample stock of metal bearings but needed top covers (with higher numbers) than his colleague who needed more bearings and ended up with black ones but had enough top covers (with lower numbers). Needles to say that finished cameras did not pass final inspection sequentially numbered and there probably was not a hard transition from metal to black bearings.
Attachments
largedrink
Down Under
I repaired this Minolta Hi-Matic SD today, it had a stuck shutter mechanism. A bit too much plastic for my liking but it's kinda cool, with its 38mm 2.7 lens and manual date printing function, though the years can only be set from 1979 to 1992 
largedrink
Down Under
A couple more recent acquisitions: Fujica Mini and Ricoh FF-1. I'm looking forward to putting a film through the Ricoh, the lens has a good reputation.
D
Deleted member 65559
Guest
Closed, it's not much bigger than a cell phone.... but love the Color-Skopar lens and 6x6 neg. Voigtlander Perkeo ll
Godfrey
somewhat colored
The Voigtländer Perkeo II is just about my favorite MF folder.. so compact, so well made, and such a fine lens!
Kai-san
Filmwaster
FED Zarya with KMZ Russar MR-2 5.6 /20
hap
Well-known
If I run across a nice one I'll bite.
hap
Well-known
Is that a Leica R 21/4?
MISH
Well-known
In memory of my mother that passed away last year at 102 I am taking her old camera out for a spin today. My dad bought this for her used around 1974. It became a bit of family joke as when ever she took a photo she would ask “does this look like eight feet?”
Retro-Grouch
Veteran
My Horseman Convertible. 6x7 or 6x9 interchangeable backs, stunning 62mm f5.6 interchangeable lens (although no others were ever made), accepts a ground glass back with standard Baby Graflok. I've fitted it with a Voigtlander 25mm bright line finder, which matches the coverage perfectly.
I'm guessing that these were made as an alternative to the Hassie SWC, primarily for architectural use, but they seemed to have flopped miserably, as only about 5,000 were made. That probably explains why no additional lenses ever arrived.
A great walking-around camera that also excels for wide angle landscape photography. It has one of the most astounding lenses I've ever used, and virtually none of the fall-off you would expect from such a wide angle. They were in the Calumet catalog in the Seventies, but I don't know if they ever actually got imported. Dirt cheap a few years ago when I bought mine, but a nice one will now set you back about $700.00.
I'm guessing that these were made as an alternative to the Hassie SWC, primarily for architectural use, but they seemed to have flopped miserably, as only about 5,000 were made. That probably explains why no additional lenses ever arrived.
A great walking-around camera that also excels for wide angle landscape photography. It has one of the most astounding lenses I've ever used, and virtually none of the fall-off you would expect from such a wide angle. They were in the Calumet catalog in the Seventies, but I don't know if they ever actually got imported. Dirt cheap a few years ago when I bought mine, but a nice one will now set you back about $700.00.
Jonathan R
Well-known
I am 6ft tall, so I imagine myself lying prone between myself and the point of focus. I can imagine up to 5 of me, and beyond that it doesn’t matter. For shorter distances, if I can touch it with my fingertips, it is about 3 ft away.
lxmike
M2 fan.
aw614
Established
Recent antique store/thrift store pickups. Second go around with the Minox, and the shutter is working after adjusting it. First one I had I didn't realize what I needed to do, its reading 2 stops under with 2cr1 batteries. 
