Focal ES Auto Rangefinder

[Doug T.]

Hi All!

It's been a gloomy day, so I thought I'd start to take on a new project.
It's a Focal (K-Mart house brand) rangefinder, produced by Petri (also called an ES Auto). It was produced in the mid 70's.




It doesn't work, is electronic, and uses #640 batteries. They're very large !
As you can see, it's in rough shape. I don't have any money in it, so I think I'll take it apart and see what makes it tick
I'll report any progress as I go along.
Doug

BTW, see the corrosion around the bottom? That's where I'll start digging.

[truls]

On the bay there are lenses called "Focal". Is your "Focal" camera the same manufacturer as the lenses having the same name? You have a nice PS camera, hope you get it going.

[Stephen]

Yes, Trules, Focal was the brand name used by K-mart in the United states for all the lenses and cameras marketed by them, they seem to have mainly come from Japan, made by Cima, and several other lens makers for more specialist long focus and wider angle lenses, (which look like Cosina made). As usual with "generic" lenses the quality is usually very good as being a larger retailer this would mean good inspection and standards applied. Against it is they also bought in cheaply, to sell for low prices, but I have rarely seen bad Japanese SLR lenses!

Petri were a very sound quality manufacturer of compact cameras, the ES model was pretty standard in design, and that's to it's benefit.

[Stephen]

An example would be generic Japanese 135mm lenses, I sold hundreds of them, and got a lot of very bad shots shown to me by customers, but it nearly always turned out that it was the user, not the lens, too large an aperture, too low a film speed, too low a shutter speed, or a camera like the Zenit, where the dim viewfinder made accurate focus difficult for the new comer to telephoto lenses.

I always advised using a monopod or tripod for the best results, but the main improvements came with higher speed film, ensuring as higher a shutter speed as possible, and just being extra careful with holding the camera!

I checked out lots of makes with test films and most were pretty near the expensive brands sharpness, colour varied a bit more than expensive lenses, but they all worked!!

Most of the time Vivitar seemed the best brand overall, Cosina were the main maker. Contrast could be lower with plain lenses, and you could tell the two qualities apart with a contact sheet in colour, branded lens have a consistent colour balance, there is such a thing as the Nikon or Leica "look", which generic lenses only got by accident!

The only issues were occasional bad assembly, or physical damage in transit etc., nicks to the edge of lenses, or cosmetic damage tolerated more on cheaper suppliers, but the glass worked.

The better makers collimate (centre), the glass better, with lasers in the days from the mid 1980's, or visual target microscopes before this. A top maker could take hours to do the work by a single lab technician, a cheaper producer would be quick assembly line check only, so the image might have more distortion or fringing than the same lens put together very carefully, this saved money, and gave products to sell cheaper.

The glass would also be a lower grade, more inclusions, bubbles allowed, or cheaper bulk melt glass grades, no special grades. The body would be cheaper materials and fewer adjustments possible.

But it boils down to the basic position that at medium to small apertures you would be hard put to spot the difference between an expensive branded lens, and an independent make, especially on colour slide or negative film. It would just show on critical black and white, the top lenses had a crisper contrast etc.

So when looking for Generic brands, check the physical condition, no damage or drops, and no fungus!... they should deliver the goods.

In the UK there was one bad example, from a major chain store brand, who supplied hundreds of 135mm lenses with the elements all wrongly set, they would not sharply focus and amazingly a lot were never returned for exchange by customers, despite a complete re-call. They were not Japanese though, they were made in the Philippines, supplied to a Japanese wholesaler who added "Quality Stickers" themselves, and engraved Made in Japan on them! Once caught like this the chain then sought independent checks on all the further batches, raising the quality greatly. I have one of the later versions and it optically compares to any quality German 135mm at medium settings, and is sharper than a pre-war Leica 135.....

The deep problem with Ebay is the inability to handle and check the lens, the descriptions sometimes border on ridiculous!!, and now people know that lenses fit digital cameras the prices are often a joke!!