Cheap Thrills - the Precision of an Agfa Optima 200

This was a €4 bargain. I have to admit I didn't expect much from the camera, but I am humbled by what came out on my roll of film.

I bought it from a second hand shop on my way to IKEA the other week. I figured that even if the selenium cell light meter doesn't work usually the shutters on these old cameras work anyway - at flash speed (1/125 or 1/60) - and similarly, apertures can be tweaked into a couple of settings.

This time the meter did work - and darn accurately at that!

What is more: The lens is really sharp as well!

The lens tends to haze a little around strong light sources. I don't mind. It lends some mystery to photos.

This exposure was made to see how much is actually in the frame compared to what the markings in the finder indicate. I framed after the window, but can now see that more is included on all sides.

That's a robot lawn mower crossing!

This one's made to see how the closest focus (1 m) depth of field looks. It was an overcast day.

And this exposure was made to see how infinity focus (at 3 m) looks. I did certainly not expect such sharp rendering!

The compulsive cat photo!

I exposed on my standard film Fomapan 400. The photos were overexposed by 1,5 steps since the maximum ASA setting on the camera is 164.

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Chaika Leica

Well, here's a Chaika 2M that I bought from Alex Helios via Instagram. It's a great full manual viewfinder half-frame camera. The wheel on the top is for shutter time selection, from B to 1/30th to 1/250th of a second. The square button on the front right of the camera is the release/exposure. The lens mounted on the camera in the picture is not the original Industar-69. The Chaika is a rare model compact camera since the prime lens is detachable. What is more is that it has M39 screw mount. But - like with the Paxette M39 system - you can't get focus with a lens from another M39 system. Unless you adapt the lens or - in this case - the camera (mount)! The Chaika mount is easily detached from the body by loosening four screws. If I want to mount the Leica thread mount M39 (LTM) lenses on the Chaika - which is my goal with this mod - I have to add 1.3mm to the mount. That is what is needed to change the camera's flange focal distance (FFD) from Chaika system to L

A busy photographer

This photographer is now an owner of a house with all that entails. That is my focus since October and will be for some time.

Lomo-Modd-Orama

A Lomo Smena 8 camera with a faulty shutter. An Olympus Pen F camera. Part of a microscope adapter for the Pen. That's what I started out with. 45 minutes later I had a new lens! Mount The mount came off a microscope adapter. I got the adapter from my first (of two) attempts to buy an Olympus Pen F. There seem to be some unscrupolous ebay sellers around peddling useless Pens with microscope adapted prisms. Luckily - in hindsight - I got a microscope adapter with this first Pen. Which I now trashed when a Lomo Smena 8 without a future landed on my doorstep (figuratively speaking). Conversion / Havoc Smena I only knew the camera as a half-frame camera [Correction - it's a full frame camera!] called Smena 8 and hadn't thought to place it in Lomography-land until I read the name Lomo on the lens when it was already modded. Unwittingly I had tread the tiles of lomo-dom twice in as many weeks, also having put two rolls through a Praktica CX-1 which appears to be Gr

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