getOBphoto

I picked up my 6x6 cm medium format Seagull camera a few months ago. I wanted to consciously explore the square format as opposed to the 24x36 mm format that I am used to. These pictures are from my first roll, taken in August. It is a slow process since there is only 12 pictures on a roll of 120-film and they cost a bit of money to buy and develop. Also the process of taking pictures is slow, but in a good way. Slow for me at least, since I am rusty in using this kind of camera - a TLR (Twin Lens Reflex) held at chest level. This is a topic that I aim to come back to in future posts.

  Read another version of my Vito & Akarette review on the Emulsive blog!

Fed 2 with 35 mm lens On and off for a couple of months I've been trying to decide whether to bother to save up for a Voigtländer Bessa T. And I've not yet come to any conclusion. A T seems to be a very good camera, from what I've read about it. But apart from a couple of features, that I seem to be able to live without, other rangefinder camera bodies seem to be just as useful. I've only once held a T in my hands - in a camera shop in Stockholm - and the handling felt truly great. The thing with setting focus through one finder and composing through another doesn't seem to me particularly troublesome. Using most consumer grade rangefinder cameras from 1980 or earlier did consist of several movements that demanded previsualization of the desired outcome - i e: Metering the light (in or out of the camera); setting exposure; composing the picture - like with the T. Even the most automated cameras demanded that you at least set the focus before snapping away. In t...

I dug into a Belmira camera yesterday to find out what was missing from the rangefinder focusing. Once opened I discovered that there was no projection screen. It had been removed. The camera was returned to the remorseful seller. See on the left - the two gaping holes after the screws that held the rangefinder projection screen. A vital piece.