Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Jun 23, 2015 10:48:45 GMT -5
The KW Pilot Super, a SLR that takes 120 roll film, just bought on Ebay. A bit tatty, but said to work. Interesting German wartime Single Lens reflex from KW, Kamera Werkstätten Guthe & Thorsch. The company was situated in Dresden and had made the Pilot from 1936, adding interchangeable lenses in 1938. After the owners, who were Jews, escaped from Germany to Switzerland, then to the USA, the company was taken over by Charles A. Nobel, an American, who put the Pilot Super in production in 1939. It was made till 1941. After the war KW concentrated on the camera soon to become the Practica, and were amalgamated with VEB Pentacon.The Pilot super camera has a metal guillotine shutter, rather like the 35mm Exa type, under the mirror. Small speed range 1/200th to 1/25th second and B. The lens is removable, on a 32 mm thread, but few other lenses were made due to the war. An Enna anastigmat of 75mm and F4.5 was fitted, with some other makers as well, like Laack. All lens versions were un-coated. The Pilot super camera was sold in the States despite the war, but never in the UK! The previous model, the Pilot, had been sold in the UK, by Sands Hunter. It has two formats, 6x6 and 6x4.5, with the spacing by window on the back. There was a shield that fits the inside of the film frame for the 6x4.5 format. The shutter speed knob also winds to cock the shutter, and is interlocked with the wind on knob to prevent double exposure. Amazingly the Pilot has a built in exposure meter...but don't get excited, it is an Extinction Meter built into the hood. The hood also has a sports finder built in, not present on all models. The main viewfinder can get a bit dim, especially stopped down, so the sports viewer is useful. Seems to be quite a lot of details on the net about servicing them, the main issue is the mirror, which had poor silvering. A Polaroid Sx type camera can have the mirror removed, and used as replacement. It may well need a service, but it is relatively easy to get to the various mechanisms, usual fault is dried up grease. The rest is cosmetic appearance to clean and re-touch the black paintwork. Stephen.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Jun 23, 2015 11:20:09 GMT -5
Out of copyright.
Advert from Burleigh Brooks Inc., in the United States for the Pilot Super, it must have been run during the war in 1939 to 1941
|
|
|
Post by philbirch on Jun 23, 2015 14:27:02 GMT -5
I saw this one and wondered...
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Jun 24, 2015 4:12:10 GMT -5
I saw this one and wondered... Did you bid on this one? Stephen.
|
|
|
Post by philbirch on Jun 24, 2015 8:29:10 GMT -5
No, I shouldn't really, at the moment - but I was tempted. I want a 120 SLR from the 40's 50's and was interested...
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Jul 2, 2015 12:39:12 GMT -5
The KW Pilot Super has arrived and all in good working order. The mirror is fully silvered, and works well to give a reasonable image for focusing and framing. After the lens is stopped down it is another matter. The magnifier built into to the hood helps greatly, and the hood shields the light from the screen very well.
The built in light meter on the top of the hood, fully works, it is an extinction type, with two ranges, chosen with a tiny knob on the meter. A table of exposures is attached to the side of the top viewing hood, which has a sports finder built in along with a magnifier.
The only issue is the aperture ring on the lens is very stiff, and needs a lube job. The lens is in good order, no fungus or scratches, and focuses to infinity. The Ennastar lens is 75mm and F4.5, interchangeable on a screw mount, and is front cell focused.
The Shutter works well, usable as it stands, the speeds are a fraction slow, but well within use. The Shutter is like an EXA, and uses the mirror to act as first blind of a guillotine shutter. It is quiet and vibration free in operation. A cable release is built into the body near the top above the side release button. The speeds are B, 20th to 200th range.
The back has three red windows for spacing, on 6x6 or 6x4.5 format, and they are covered with a proper sliding cover to prevent light leaks. These is an interlock button to prevent double exposure, but the frame spacing must be via the back windows for both formats.
The camera only takes 120, not 620, despite having no pivots on the delivery side of the spool chamber. The transport knob only fits 120 roll film.
The mask for the 6x4.5 is missing, it is a thin metal plate that clips into the film plane inside. The sports viewfinder in masked for both formats.
The whole KW Pilot camera is tiny, smaller than many 120 box cameras. There is no leather camera case, I assume they were made in the war period, as the main production went to the US in the period the US remained neutral. Production stopped at the period the US declared war on Germany. it does have strap rings fitted for a leather neck strap.
No cameras were sent to the UK, we were at war. A few turned up S/H after the war.
The rest is a cosmetic clean up, there are small rust marks and slight corrosion, which should polish out. The leather is sound apart from the centre of the wind on knob, which is missing, but replaceable very easily. The interior is pretty clean and the whole camera usable as it stands.
I will get a Black and White film through it this week, and then a Fuji colour negative. The uncoated optics should only lower contrast on the colour shots.
Have to find a Box camera case to fit, maybe a canvas case would be fine.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Jul 2, 2015 12:55:50 GMT -5
No, I shouldn't really, at the moment - but I was tempted. I want a 120 SLR from the 40's 50's and was interested... Not many 120 SLRs then, the Pilot, Graflex, Agiflex, Hassleblad, Kiev, and Pentacon......were there any more in the late 40/50's? Stephen.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Jul 3, 2015 12:03:45 GMT -5
I have run an Adox B/W 100asa film through the KW Pilot Super today, and all seems to have worked fine, so a Fuji colour film will be tried over the weekend. I will process the B/W this evening to negatives for scanning. The colour film will have to go by post to the processors.
The lens, as it it front cell focusing can easily have a Micro 4/3 to Pilot Super thread made. The mounting thread appears to 32mm x1mm, not Leica 39mm as some quote. Some mention 31mmx1mm, so it will require careful checking with wire gauge to check.
I will make the outer thread Pilot , and the back one M39, to screw into a Leica to Micro 4/3 adaptor. This will result in the equivalent focal length of 150mm at F4.5 on the Olympus Pen micro 4/3. The un-coated lens should produce a nice portrait length lens.
Stephen.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Jul 7, 2015 15:33:38 GMT -5
The cosmetic work is completed bar a leather patch for the wind on knob centre. The chrome and metal has cleaned up well with Brasso polish, mostly like new. The scale for depth of field has two tiny corrosion patches that will not clean. Most of the painted areas cleaned up with the Brasso as well. Some needs a bit of a re-spray.
The Shutter setting knob now has readable lettering and numbers! The extinction meter guide on the hood side is not metal, but paper, and it may be possible to do a new one in the computer to print on a laser printer.
Although classed in some modern reviews as a cheap camera, when it went on sale in the US it cost almost $700 equivalent. Apparently it was never intended to be sold anywhere but the States, few were sold in Germany. The owners were Jews, and had escaped to New York, with a friend taking over the company in Dresden. The abrupt end was an investigation into him by the Nazis, and the company was turned to war production until the Russians arrived. KW returned to the old owners, but was nationalised by the East Germans, and went on to make the Praktiflex etc., and Praktica Cameras under Pentacon.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Oct 22, 2015 6:19:01 GMT -5
The Pilot developed a minor glitch during use, a screw came loose in the shutter mechanism, so I took the opportunity to service it. The Colour film was removed to use later, and will be processed soon for colour results. No damage to the simple shutter, a clean and lube has made it a bit smoother in operation. The paintwork has been re-sprayed to very much better finish.
Stephen.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Oct 22, 2015 7:35:51 GMT -5
From the black and white Adox film, scanned and cropped negative, a shot of Old Scotney Castle in Kent, Nr Lamberhurst. Taken with red filter, Stephen.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Oct 22, 2015 15:16:16 GMT -5
The colour shots were in the post, this was taken in Rochester High Steet, The Old Clock on the Corn Exchange building, which is a hall these days, but was a cinema at one point in the 1920's. Under The Clock, Rochester, Kent, UK, scanned Fuji negative. Stephen.
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Oct 23, 2015 10:38:09 GMT -5
And a B/W from Hastings Beach, a beached fishing boat, Adox with red filter. Stephen.
|
|
|
Post by julio1fer on Oct 23, 2015 20:46:49 GMT -5
Very nice results there. The lens looks more than decent at those apertures, and probably the red filter improved contrast in the B&W.
How did you find the camera as to ease of operation or ergonomics?
|
|
Stephen
Lifetime Member
Still collecting.......
Posts: 2,718
|
Post by Stephen on Oct 24, 2015 7:05:32 GMT -5
It's always been quoted the Pilot Super was a bit awkward to use, but it handles quite well, the tiny size helps, and the lens is very good at stopped down apertures. It does fall of in brightness at the corners, correctable in the Gimp,etc. The reflex view is hopeless at working apertures, but it has a good sports finder. Even the Extinction meter works, after a fashion! The whole camera is smaller than most 120 box cameras
You have to develop a routine to wind on, and cock the shutter etc, but no worse than any other 1930's design camera.
Minor quibbles with the finish, thin steel parts, thin chrome etc., were common on German cameras with the war material restrictions. The company was Jewish owned, but changed to an American owner before the war period the camera was made in, the first two years of the war. Noble, the new owner, was arrested after the US came into the conflict, and the company was seized by the authorities, and used for munition work.
The Russians returned it to work on cameras, and it was nationalised, and went on to become the Pentacon company, with Zeiss.
|
|