MOVED OVER TO WORDPRESS

Hello anyone who reads this, this  blog will no longer be updated as I have moved over to wordpress, I can be found at this link
https://kylescameras.wordpress.com/ 

Polaroid 600 SE

In the past I've owned one other medium format rangefinder, and that was a Mamiya press, this Polaroid camera was intended as a professional camera of the highest standard, the basis for the camera is the Mamiya Press, which has created a very unusual camera, with a fairly good following, and not without good reason.

The Polaroid 600SE accepts Polaroid Type 100 film which includes Fujifilms offerings of FP100C, FP100B and FP3000B, the last two have been discontinued but can still be found.
There are three lenses available in the system, 75mm wide angle, 127mm standard and a 150mm slight telephoto.

The camera itself is a fairly simple design, a rangefinder with a well designed patch, framelines for the 127mm and 150mm lenses, the shutter itself is housed in the lenses with speeds from 1second all the way to 1/500th and includes B. The backs are interchangeable and can use a special adapter to use standard Mamiya Press backs so allows access to 6x9 images on 120 film with the backs from a Mamiya Press, also in that range is 6x4.5, 6x6, 6x7.

From my brief experience so far, it seems a well made camera with a unique ability to use Fujifilm PackFilm and be in full control over focus and exposure.
The 127mm lens seems to be quite sharp and has decent rendering and can produce some nice out of focus rendering which would be useful for portraits.

Leica M2

The Leica M2 is a rangefinder camera made in Wetzlar, Germany, and Midlands, Canada for a very small number of now collectors models. My M2 was made in 196-, it shows significant signs of use and has been serviced sometime in the past in Sweden by an official service centre, this camera seems to have been around a fair bit before it got to me in the UK. The M2 is the model after the M3 it was designed as a cheaper model, with an inferior viewfinder, but has more useful framelines than the M3, having 35,50,90 as opposed to the 50,90,135 of the M3. It also has an inferior user set frame counter.

The specifications are fairly simple, cloth focal plane shutter, speeds from 1-1000th and B, frame lines for 35,50,90mm lenses and an M Mount, which can use LTM/L39 lenses with an adapter.

As you would expect from Leitz, this camera is of the highest quality, with everything being smooth and precise and well fitted, right down to the take-up spool. This camera comes in several variants, mine is a common M2 with a selftimer and rewind lever, as opposed to an M2 with no selftimer and a button rewind, the M2 is one of the cheaper ways to get into the Leica M series, but still an expensive way to get into this system, otherwise a much cheaper alternative would be a Cosina Voigtlander Bessa R2 and that even has a built in meter.

Zenit C

The Zenit C was one of the first Russian SLR cameras, it has a basic set of shutter speeds and a lens mount based on the Leica L39 but extended to allow for a reflex housing.

The Mirror is not of an instant return type, when you wind on it is pulled down into place by a string, the viewfinder is rather average with no focusing aids. The camera itself is very small and compact and rather good looking, however it is not a very good camera, it has plenty of flaws, such as it’s small viewfinder, non-instant return mirror, and the lens mount which limits the lenses available.

The lenses available for the Zenit M39 mount are all Russian lenses, such as the Industar-50, Helios 44, Mir-1 and other lenses, these lenses are all of good quality and are generally made of a brushed aluminium finish which tarnishes rather quickly, but the glass is normally very good.  The shutter speeds are the standard for a Zenit, 1/25^th-1/500^th and B following the older scale rather than the international scale.

This is a good camera for a collector but not for most users, as it is just awkward in use.

Olympus Trip 35

The Olympus Trip 35 was made in Japan, it a rather nice compact viewfinder camera, equipped with a 40mm f2.8 lens, the camera works in auto exposure due to the selenium front ring it doesn't require batteries. Also it has a shutter blocker if the exposure falls beneath it's settings.

It operates at 1/200th in Auto mode and at 1/40th in flash mode where you change the aperture, the auto mode works well and the lens is nice and sharp. I once relied on the Trip as my Praktica was not working with the flash gun, the images came back nicely exposed and very sharp for such a small camera.

Overall it is a camera I could recommend to someone who is looking for a cheap decent film camera.

Praktica Super TL1000

The Praktica Super TL1000 is an East German made SLR which uses the M42 screw mount.
It is normally sold with a Carl Zeiss or Pentacon branded 50mm Tessar lens. Due to the M42 mount, there is a large number of lenses that can be used made by dozens of companies, including the Soviets and Carl Zeiss, and many Japanese third party companies.
It handles fairly well and has the shutter release on the front right side. The body itself is almost rectangular in shape, with only very slightly curved corners.
It has a wide range of shutter speeds from 1sec to 1000th and B. It uses a coupled match needle meter which is activated by the stop down lever next to the shutter release.
Overall, it's a good user camera that can be found cheaply on most used markets in the world.

Nikon F3

The Nikon F3 is not like the previous "Pro" Nikons, as it relies on batteries for use at any speed other than 1/60th, which is the mechanical back-up speed.

Now, aside from the fact it requires batteries, it's fantastic to use, because all the metering circuits are in the body. This means that it allows the prisms to be compact and it can even meter with a waist level finder. The camera also features an "automatic" mode which is aperture priority based.  Personally, I didn't like the more modern styling at first, although I have grown to like it. The Nikon F3 is a very solid, high quality camera. This is due to the fact that the majority of parts are metal and very few parts are plastic. This makes the camera itself more durable, and increases the weight so that it is more sturdy to hold.

I have been using my Nikon F3 with a variety of films, mainly black and white and it is yet to let me down yet. I have been using a non-ai 50mm Nikkor-H which requires you to use stop down metering; this is a slight disadvantage, although I have been using Zenits which work in stop down metering. The Nikon, however is a much more refined camera.

The Nikon F3 is a very effective camera system. It has accessories ranging from interchangeable backs, focusing screens, viewfinders and a motordrive. On the whole, I enjoy using the Nikon F3, despite my initial dislike of the camera.