Deleted
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Perfex
Dec 18, 2012 16:17:39 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2012 16:17:39 GMT -5
My new (to me) Perfex 55 arrived yesterday. The camera was built by the Candid Camera Corporation of America in Chicago from 1940 until 1947. This appears to be a prewar model. The body is cast and the lens is a 50mm f/3.5 Graf (of questionable quality). Some were equipped with the better f/2.8 Wollensak. The leatherette covering on the back was completely detached when it arrived (the seller admitted that in his ad). But the covering was undamaged and now is stuck down tight. When the camera arrived the shutter curtain was wrinkled and there was a gap between the curtains when winding to the next frame. Didn't bother me much because I didn't intend to shoot with it anyway. But after some exercising the curtains seem to be closing properly. The Perfex lens is screw mount but not interchangeable with Leica lenses. I'm not sure if the company made accessory lenses. One interesting point is this is just about the first camera made with a hotshoe flash. Another interesting aspect is that the shutter speed should be set when the shutter is uncocked rather than cocked. On Soviet Leica copies changing the shutter speed when uncocked can cause all sorts of problems. The speed setting dial is a collar around the shutter release.
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Stephen
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Perfex
Dec 18, 2012 16:34:17 GMT -5
Post by Stephen on Dec 18, 2012 16:34:17 GMT -5
Nice example, the shutter was it's main problem, they redesigned it from Leica type to get round patents, and messed up a bit, using too low a blind speed requiring accurate release of the second to make the narrow gap, a risky approach. I have one of them, still in pieces, to replace the blinds on. The Graf lens was definitely worst than the later Wollensak, which was quite decent in quality. The Screw mount was again a patent issue, they could not use Leica. Stephen.
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Deleted
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Perfex
Dec 18, 2012 20:02:41 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 18, 2012 20:02:41 GMT -5
BTW:
At the time my Perfex was produced the fastest 35mm films available had an ASA (ISO) speed of 100. One was Agfa Ultra Speed Pan and the other was Kodak Super XX. Daylight Kodachrome has a speed of 8!!!! Info from the owner's manual.
W.
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Stephen
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Perfex
Dec 19, 2012 11:13:22 GMT -5
Post by Stephen on Dec 19, 2012 11:13:22 GMT -5
BTW: At the time my Perfex was produced the fastest 35mm films available had an ASA (ISO) speed of 100. One was Agfa Ultra Speed Pan and the other was Kodak Super XX. Daylight Kodachrome has a speed of 8!!!! Info from the owner's manual. W. But it does not say it works in Perfex Cameras........only Retina, Leica, and Contax..............!
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Deleted
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Perfex
Dec 19, 2012 14:01:27 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2012 14:01:27 GMT -5
Shooting with an f/3.5 lens and ASA 8 film pretty mUch limited shooting to a bright, cloudless summerday on a beach!
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Stephen
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Perfex
Dec 19, 2012 15:54:29 GMT -5
Post by Stephen on Dec 19, 2012 15:54:29 GMT -5
Pity then the Technicolor Cameramen of Hollywood, the Technicolor process used slow black and white negative film, about 20ASA, but then this was filtered for each colour, and taken through gold coated mirrors and prisms, plus heavy filters, causing a light loss, basically leaving a speed equivalent of about 2/3 ASA. The Cameraman and lighting riggers used meters with foot candle figures marked, giving a comparison with sun light, under which all Technicolor types from the 1920's onwards worked fine.
Indoors they had to use the equivalent of sunshine levels, although they found tricks to allow only highlights to be illuminated, allowing more shadows than usual.
Gradually faster B/W film was used as the basic film stock for Technicolor, and for the Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, the equivalent ASA was about 22/30 ASA, the base stock being about 100ASA. Still required huge lighting rigs though.
In the late 20's Technicolor used 2/3 meg watt rigs on some films, the light was so bright it was said to be able to burn things, and certainly tanned actors and melted makeup. Winnie Lightner, the star of several of Warner Brothers early Talkies made in colour, blamed her eyesight problems in later life on the bright lights, the equivalent after all of sunshine, and you do not stand around looking at the Sun! Her films were comedies set indoors in the main, so they had the lights on for all the shooting.
Stephen.
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mickeyobe
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Perfex
Dec 21, 2012 5:44:37 GMT -5
Post by mickeyobe on Dec 21, 2012 5:44:37 GMT -5
I used Kodachrome in the early 50's. It was ASA 10. I then switched to Anscochrome with a blinding speed of ASA 32. I tried other films - Ferrania, Agfa, Ilford and some of those off cuts sold by US processors. I liked Ilford the best but it was expensive and scarce. And then Fujichrome arrived. I stayed with it until I digitized.
Mickey
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Berndt
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Perfex
Dec 21, 2012 6:11:29 GMT -5
Post by Berndt on Dec 21, 2012 6:11:29 GMT -5
I think, the relatively low ASA in the past had also something good - people have been forced to use a decent lighting. If I look at especially TV-productions of today ( at least here in Japan ), they can and do work mostly with natural light, because digital cameras can easily be used at 800-1600 ISO nowadays. But ... the purpose of light is not only "causing brightness", I think. It's also a very important element of dramaturgy IMHO. I would like to call it the "depth of exposure", similar to the depth of field for the focus ... if somebody can imagine, what I mean
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