Tessina, anyone?

R

Roger Hicks

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All right, it's not a rangefinder and it's terminally weird: a 35mm TLR giving laterally reversed 14x21mm frames and using a non-standard cassette. Over 40 years ago I had one, but I sold it. Then a friend lent me another. If I hadn't already owned one, I'd probably buy it. Who else has had one or wondered about one? And if you've got one, here's the instruction book -- which took me quite a long time to scan and format.

Cheers,

R.
 
The guy on the left been shredded by a Lazer beam is ultimately cool !

a58f59a7-b255-4f13-b1bc-bef4b6f8c5f0.jpg


I remember reading about them some years ago on practical photography, these cameras were nice as curiosities but never practical. Surprised to see the wrist watch belt.
 
p.giannakis said:
The guy on the left been shredded by a Lazer beam is ultimately cool !

a58f59a7-b255-4f13-b1bc-bef4b6f8c5f0.jpg


I remember reading about them some years ago on practical photography, these cameras were nice as curiosities but never practical. Surprised to see the wrist watch belt.
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Dear Pan,

This is the ONLY time I've ever seen static in my own photography -- and what a wonderful piece of luck that it panned out as it did. The other end of the bolt is really boring. Shame it's such a bloody awful photograph in every other way. My only defence is that I took it over 40 years ago.

Cheers,

R.
 
presspass said:
The Tesssina is one of those cameras I have always thought I should have but for some reason rational thought intervened each time. I hope I can continue to resist, as I already have too many cameras I don't shoot regularly.
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Hold on to that rational thought! As I say in the piece, they're fun, but hardly practical. As far as I recall, I paid £40 for mine in the 70s as a bachelor in my 20s with quite a good income. Paying £500+ now for another one looks pretty silly. Even if you wanted to take up plumbing....

Cheers,

R.
 
TESSINA:
It uses standard 35mm film. There is a loader that accepts the standard cassette and rolls the film onto the Tessina cassette. It is foolproof since I did it on the first attempt.
The image is approximately 1/2 frame 35mm and they accomplish that with a very clever folded optics design. The downside: you should have tiny fingers, but with my large hands I manage.
 
I have one. The loader works fine. But I have to develop the film by myself. So long te camera is not used since several years. I have cassettes left, if somebody needs one?
 
jankap said:
I have one. The loader works fine. But I have to develop the film by myself. So long te camera is not used since several years. I have cassettes left, if somebody needs one?
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North Coast Film Processing will develop Tessina film from a Tessina Cassette and will return the cassette if you remind them. Don't lose them. They are precious and scarce.
 
I've owned a couple of Tessinas and found them to be very fiddly and unfriendly to use. On one of them, the spring wound film advance was not strong enough to advance the film properly. I eventually gave up and concentrated on the my Minox cameras which are much friendlier and can make some amazing images if a fine grained film is used. ---jb.
 
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