getOBphoto

  These great cameras show up everywhere in Europe. Flea markets, second-hand shops, car boot sales, you name it. AGFA cameras were sold for decades, in many models, much like the Kodaks. I've had the pleasure of using two of them. And I own three. The magic shutter buttons! The AGFA Compact. It's an auto exposure compact camera with manual focusing! The lens retracts when you shut the camera off. AGFA Silette LK which has full manual exposure control and a built-in light meter. The lens is super duper sharp with pleasant out-of-focus areas. It does not have a rangefinder. Nor does the... ... AGFA Optima 335 which has auto-exposure and manual focusing. The aperture numbers you see are for flash photography with 1/125th of a second fixed shutter. I will not write much about these my cameras now, but will in the future. The Compact isn't working properly, so I am in search of advice on how to repair it. It (auto-) winds the loaded film to its end, without giving me an opportu

Each month for a year I will use one pair of cameras, then next month switch to another pair. They are all fixed-lens compact cameras. I will use the same film stock in both cameras. Each month I will share my impressions from using the cameras, while showing the photographs I make. Part #7: November 2021 Film type: Fomapan 400 ASA exposed at 1600. The first camera is the AGFA Silette LK There's not much to say. There is full manual control of everything needed to make a photograph. Plus a selenium lightmeter which works just fine, as it turns out. This camera I have not used before. I did use a sibling a year before - a similar model, but with automatic exposure. Next up: AKA Akarette This is actually where I diverge from my own simple set of rules. The Akarette is a system camera. There are at least a 45, a 50 and a 75 mm lens for it. I have used a 50 mm Schneider-Kreuznach in the past, but here I used my 45 mm S-K. Why did I diverge? I only own the 45 lens and the camera h

Each month for a year I will use one pair of cameras, then next month switch to another pair. They are all fixed-lens compact cameras. I will use the same film stock in both cameras. Each month I will share my impressions from using the cameras, while showing the photographs I make. Part #6: October 2021 Film type: Kodak/Fujifilm 800 ASA redscaled and exposed at 100 ASA. It took me more than seven months to get the films developed, and I didn't make any notes, so I don't have much to say about the photographic process. What I can tell you is that both cameras are favourites of mine. One - Beirette - is fully manually controlled, with a 45 mm. The other - Hi-Matic C - is semi-automatic, with a 40 mm. I wrote about both cameras in the past here and here , for instance.  The films: Redscaled Kodak and Fujifilm 800 ASA I redscaled two fast films and exposed them at 50-100 ASA. See how I use redscale here . Minolta Hi-Matic C photos These are the only two that came out witho

I wanted to know why my Ilford Sportsman C Instant jammed. I still don't know, but now it works. Problem As you can see I applied a dramatic modification to my camera. It's a very simple camera that takes instamatic film cassettes and it displayed a phenomenon that I'd encountered in one of the few other instamatic cameras that I'd tried: The winder lever jammed and/or the spool-winder (for the film cassette) didn't engage with the cassette properly for film to be wound. So I did what any sane person... wouldn't do. I removed the top cover to see if I could discover what caused the jamming. After some time I saw a lever that engaged with a cogwheel that stopped it from turning. When I pushed the lever to the side it stuck in another position with a click. Then I could wind the lever and push the exposure button. After which the lever return to engage the cogwheel. Hmm... How this happened and why it couldn't be undone from just using the camera with a casse

  I made a Kodak Ultramax 400 ASA colour film into redscale last summer. I exposed it at 25 to 100 ASA. These are some of the photos. Visit my  Etsy shop  for cameras and related stuff,  the  facebook group  on modding lenses and cameras or my Instagram accounts ourbooksmalmo or flashknappen .