My SLRs

[PeterW]

I decided to start listing my cameras by type, and started with the SLRs. I didn't realise I had so many. I thought the list might be of vague interest, so here they are. Got to do the same now with 6x9 folders, 6x6 folders, rangefinders and so on.

Canon A1
Canon AV-1
Canonflex RP
Canon FP
Canon FX
Canon T70
Contaflex IV
Contaflex Super
Exakta Kine
Exakta Varex IIb
Fujica ST 605
Mamiya DSX 1000
Mamiya Korvette
Mamiya Prismat CPH
Olympus OM 10
Praktica BCA
Praktica MTL 5
Praktica MTL 5B
Praktica Nova 1
Praktica Nova 1B
Praktica Super TL 1000
Praktica Super TL 2
Praktica VLC
Zenit 11
Zenit 12 XP
Zenit 3M
Zenit B
Zenit C
Zenit E
Zenit EM


Peter

[Randy]

I don't have a Medium Format SLR. I've always wanted one that takes 120 roll film. Can't afford it though.

[PeterW]

I forgot one, you reminded me, Randy. How's this for a medium format SLR?

It's a Marion Soho, the so-called 'Baby Soho' as most of them were larger format. This one takes pictures 3 1/4 x 2 1/4 inches (6x9 cm) on plates or cut film. It was made by Marion & Co in London, but I think the mirror box was made by for them by Kershaw. It was made for many years in the 1920s and 1930s. The lens is an f/2.9 Ross Xpress, and the focal plane shutter runs from 1 to 1/1000 sec.

I was given it by my old Uncle Matt about 20 years ago when he was in his eighties. Matt had been a professional photographer in the 1920s and 1930s specialising in stage work and portraits of theatre personalities and normally used halfplate for this work, but the Baby Soho was his personal camera. When he was in his eighties he found it too bulky and heavy to carry around, and got a 35mm rangefinder.

It came in a hard fitted leather case with six double wooden darkslides, six cut film sheaths and a film pack adaptor, all in beautiful condition. Unfortunately my RADA 6x9 roll film adaptor doesn't fit nicely so I've never tried it.



Peter

[John Parry]

See you prefer the Prakticas to the canons Peter (LOL) Or is this a reflection on the relative prices!

Regards - John

ps - I'd love to see a shot taken with that Marion Soho - what a show-stopper on the high street!!

[PeterW]

Hi John,

See you prefer the Prakticas to the canons Peter (LOL) Or is this a reflection on the relative prices!

Very much the prices!

Peter

[mickeyobe]

Marion Soho.
That's my kind of camera.
It looks like it was treated with plenty of TLC.
Mickey

[PeterW]

It was, Mickey. My Uncle Matt's professional cameras showed signs of hard use, but this one was his personal camera and he treated it with care.

I'd like to cut down some 5x4 sheet film to try it out, but I don't have a darkroom any more and cutting down film inside a changing bag isn't very convenient to say the least .

In some old photo mags from the 1920s and 1930s you sometimes see a letter from someone who was disappointed with the results from these 'big' SLRs with focal plane shutters, complaining that parts of the negative were 'out of focus'.

What they didn't realise, as editors of the time pointed out, is that it's fairly easy to achieve a short exposure by making the slit between the shutter curtains smaller. But the slit takes an appreciable time to travel across the film plane (hence the well-known elongated bodies and oval wheels on moving vehicles) and the camera had to be held steady for the whole time of the slit travel. You had to hold the camera just as steady for a 1/1000 sec exposure as for a 1/100 sec exposure, otherwise you could get someone's feet sharp and their head fuzzy!.

This slit travel time was, I undertand, one of the reasons for Zeiss Ikon making its rather complicated metal slat shutter on the Contax travel across the shorter 24mm dimension of the frame intead of the longer 36mm travel of the Leica shutter. Also most, if not all, much later metal blade shutters travel across the shorter rather than the longer dimension of a 24x36 mm frame, so getting a 1/2000 sec exposure is physically easier than with a cloth bind shutter.

Peter

[mickeyobe]

Peter,
I have mentioned this before.
When I test one of the big cameras up to and including 8x10 I cut enlarging paper to size and rate it at 10 ASA.
Total darkness is not absolutely necessary and the processing trays can be covered with newspaper or aluminum foil.
I put the resulting paper negative through my scanner and reverse it in Photo Shop.
It certainly is makeshift but it works quite well.
Mickey

[PeterW]

Thanks for reminding me about that Mickey. I have used it in the past but not since I had to give up my darkroom. I was rather spoiled with a proper darkroom.

When it was no longer feasible to have one I gave away all the small equipment - dishes, print driers, printing frames, safelights and so on not thinking I would ever use them again!

But never mind, they went to a good home and no doubt I can cobble up something that's dark enough for that job and find a suitable dish or three.

Peter