getOBphoto

I put my mitts on an Agfa Isomat-Rapid camera. It is (yet another) a camera which uses a now obsolete 35 mm film cassette format - the Rapid. Back in the day you would purchase a film cassette - in appearance much alike the common 35 mm one - which fit into the Rapid system cameras produced by several brands. The film cassette has a peg which tells the camera which ISO/ASA the film is to be exposed at. So you didn't need to keep track of that when loading the camera. In the camera there is also a take-up cassette which collects the exposed film. It is the take-up cassette - which also can be reloaded - that is handed over to the lab for developing. I use the camera mainly with the intention of using it as a cheaper testing/trial camera for square format composition, which usually is the standard for 120-film cameras (middle-format) but is more expensive to buy and develop. Using the Isomat I can expose something like 40 pictures on 35 mm film which I myself load into a feeding...

Industar 69 is a 28 mm lens originally made for a Soviet manufactured half-frame compact 35 mm film camera. I use it on my digital Fujifilm X-Pro1 half-frame sensor camera. And it produces very nice pictures. These were taken indoors during the Christmas week. The closest focusing distance is something like 25 cm which is great! There is a softness to the pictures, but not much circular bokeh which is otherwise common (and appreciated) in older lenses. Visit my camera shop getOurBooks at Etsy for more vintage lenses!

Some time ago I connected these three items with each other. ( Here .) A Foth Anastigmat lens was permanently stuck to the M42 mount ring, then screwed on to the Chinonflex TTL SLR. Now I've exposed and developed one roll and learnt some things about taking pictures with the lens. Lesson 1: The lens is very sensitive to flare. The front glass is very exposed to light from the sides. Note to self: Get a lens hood. Lesson 2: For some reason the aperture markings on the lens are not correct. All my pictures were under exposed. I used an external light meter. The next time I will use the TTL:s internal light meter and corroborate with the reading I get from the external one.   The difference in aperture could be due to the age and fogging(?) of the glass. It could also be because the lens was designed for another camera altogether - and a 127-film bellows camera at that. When push comes to shove the external light meter can be at fault, though I doubt it. Note to self: Corrobo...

Read my guest post at 35mmc!

I got myself a Miranda SLR a year ago. It is a functional fully manual camera which has the rather rare distinction that you can change the ordinary prism viewfinder for a waist-level one. I also found out that I at a good price could get an adapter to use my M42 mount lenses on it. I mostly use a Helios model 44 58 mm lens on it, and have taken some pictures with ND filters too. The lens is a favourite. It was made in the former Soviet Union and came as a kit lens for Zenit 3 and 3M cameras. Zenit sold a lot of cameras in Western Europe as well. I certainly like the pictures the lens produces. The kit with Miranda equipped with a waist-level finder makes you a very slow photographer since it's difficult to focus with such a small matte-screen inside the finder. And you almost always have to use the loupe for focusing. It takes a while to get used to, but once you're on a roll (no pun intended) the process goes smoothly. I got my d...

I modded a lens from a very compact fixed-lens camera to my very compact Olympus Pen F. The originating camera is a (how's that for a name!) Zeiss Ikon Voigtländer Vitessa 500 AE Electronic. The lens is a Color Lanthar 42 mm 1:2.8. On the Pen, which takes half-frame pictures, the lens will show what a 63 mm lens would on a full frame 35 mm camera. That's the insides of it. I would have loved to used it but there were several issues with it that I couldn't get my head around.   The distance from the lens to the film plane on this camera is very short. I figured I could mount it on an M39 screw mount and use it on my X-Pro camera but there wasn't enough space. And M42 mount was out of the question since SLR:s have to leave room for that lovely mirror slapping up and down. I did try it on the Pen F and I could get focus! However the albeit differently constructed mirror was in the way. The cylinder which the lens is mounted in was protruding as to collide with th...

I am in the process of making a special lens mod. Just waiting for a part to be shipped to me. It will result in a rare combination of two rare parts... Oh, all right. On the camera end I am using my Olympus Pen F. Above you can see the lens without its mount. It will be a true 'pancake' lens - which protrudes very little from the camera body. I will not tell which is the lens. Though the camera providing the lens has Ikon in the name... Any guesses? You can't find the lens in my Etsy shop getOurBooks . Nor in the facebook group Analog Cameras & Lens Modding and DIY .

I've modded an old Ernemann bellows camera made for an obsolete film format. It can now make 10,5 x 6,5cm panorama images on standard middle format 120-film. All geared up and ready to go! It began with the purchase of a roll film back for my camera, which is of the obsolete but common large format standard which exposes on 9x12 cm film sheets, glass plates or - lucky me - the odd roll film. Here you can see the modded original wooden take-up spool and the modded inserts for the feeding spool. What I first did was trying to lessen the width of the take-up spool. Otherwise the 120 film would not wind up in the middle but go from side to side and the images would all have leaning horizons. Loading the film. It goes from where the arrows are to the wooden take-up spool. The whole spool/winding insert also acts as a pressure plate. I then found a way to make inserts which would hold the film feeding spool in position. Some rather stiff packing foam "drille...