melek
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Posts: 87
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Post by melek on May 21, 2013 11:59:55 GMT -5
You got a great deal. I hope you enjoy using it. The Olympus XA has become a cult camera - much like many of its other cameras.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on May 2, 2013 18:27:17 GMT -5
Bob, that's a nice little Ikonta. Plus, the photo is very nice. You really got the focus correct on that shot of yourself. It makes you look very dapper, which is how my mother would have put it.
Among certain circles, there is a knock against the front-cell focusing Tessars, but I've always been very pleased with the results. Like Hans, I am a big fan of the older 10.5cm Tessar on the Ikonta/Super Ikonta 6x9 cameras.
The 6x4.5 Ikonta is very small when folded. The Super Ikonta 520 is just a bit bulkier but still rather compact.
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melek
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Posts: 87
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Post by melek on May 2, 2013 18:17:12 GMT -5
You can tell that whoever owned this really used it. And it certainly looks better cleaned up. It looks like it's in its prime again.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on May 1, 2013 18:32:16 GMT -5
These are excellent cameras. The film advance knob can be a bit tight on some of these cameras. You'll enjoy shooting with it.
You have one that seems to be in excellent condition.
One bit of trivia: The Konica I, II and III all have six shutter blades in a five-blade configuration. One of the posts holds two blades. I don't know why.
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melek
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Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Apr 15, 2013 5:40:18 GMT -5
Actually, I was thinking about the Ricoh/GAF/Ansco Memo II from the 1950s-1960s.
The original cameras are very interesting, and I'm always surprised that they command such a high price today.
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melek
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Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Apr 14, 2013 10:12:46 GMT -5
I don't have a big preference as to chrome vs. black, although I did buy black bodies for my first Nikons. But of all of the other cameras, I just bought what was available.
As far as re-covering your cameras, there are two primary vendors: CameraLeather.com and Aki-Asahi.
There have been some complaints about the response time for CameraLeather.com. I suspect that he is unable to keep up with the volume of orders. Aki-Asahi is in Japan. He mails promptly.
I've bought from both. I like the variety of CameraLeather.com, but dislike the fact that some orders were sent promptly while others took weeks and weeks and repeated follow-up emails to fill. Aki-Asahi has a more limited selection, but the turnaround is very quick.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Mar 31, 2013 12:52:31 GMT -5
I sold a bunch of cameras a few years ago to pay off bills. I do regret selling them, but paying off some big bills was more important, and I was glad that I had them available.
What I sold:
- Leica IIIf with Summitar. Very clean camera. Hardly ever used it.
- Nikon S with f/2.0 Nikkor. Very clean, somewhat heavy. Used it once in a while. But it had to go.
- Hasselblad X-pan. That one hurt.
- Kodak Super Six-20. I had bought this simply to resell it. It took me several weeks to find a buyer at the depth of the recession (even though the government said the recession was over).
- Rolleiflex Automat with Xenar. Great camera, which I owned since the 1980s. But I also had a Rolleiflex Automat with a Tessar.
- Rolleiflex 3.5E with Planar. Excellent, but I had a 3.5F with Planar.
- Rolleicord with a Triotar. Nice camera, but I had a duplicate model. Plus, I also had the "art deco" Rolleicord I.
- Contarex Bullseye. Big, heavy. Another duplicate.
- 250mm Sonnar for the Contarex. Had to sell this twice, after the original eBay buyer backed out.
Of these, the two that I regret selling are the X-pan and the Nikon S. But they brought me some much-needed cash at that time, so I don't feel that bad.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Mar 31, 2013 12:42:55 GMT -5
I bought one of the Memos a few years ago. It's an interesting camera, for sure. Took me about two hours or so to fully restore. Regarding the Memo II, I've been trying to pick up one, but the price for them is surprisingly high. Often $40 or more
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Mar 31, 2013 12:32:09 GMT -5
I bought my F2A in 1980, and it's always been a very sturdy, reliable camera. It was my second Nikon, having first picked up an FE.
30+ years later, both are still great shooters. The F2A has needed very little service. I replaced the seals and mirror bumpers a few years back. Otherwise, it works fine.
In the mid-1980s, I was doing a lot of newspaper work, and I shot both cameras quite a bit. I usually carried both cameras, which let me continue shooting and then reload when I had the time.
I just came across a couple of screens that I had bought for the F2A.
I never had a huge stable of lenses: 20, 28, 50 and 105. I also had two Vivitar Series 1 zooms, with the hefty variable-focus 35-85 being the most used of them.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Mar 12, 2013 15:27:18 GMT -5
Interesting blog post. That is indeed a rare camera. Good job on finding one. Did it take long to locate this particular model?
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Mar 12, 2013 15:16:16 GMT -5
I think it's because me (and fellow Yanks) don't really know or understand the metric system, despite the best efforts of the U.S. education system to teach us otherwise. Immediately upon graduation, nearly all knowledge of the metric system is wiped away from our brains.
We photographers are a bit of an odd bunch, because we do deal with metric when measuring our non-U.S. chemicals. And of course, our lenses are marked in centimeters, but we like to judge our distances in feet.
And the film we use is 35mm, 120mm, 6cm x 6cm and such.
Of course, all of our road signs are miles per hour, and our American football fields are 100 yards long, and our baseball fields are measured in feet.
Our car tires are a bit of a mix-and-match: 225/50 on a 16-inch rim.
By the way, I love the Retina cameras.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Jan 29, 2013 21:46:02 GMT -5
I shot a lot of 110, including K-64, with a Rollei A110 back in the early 1980s. I loved that little camera.
It had some plastic parts, which ended up breaking. I bought another around 2002. Still a nice little camera.
I have the Pentax 11, which is an amazing piece of gear. And also a Minolta 110 SLR, which I haven't let used. I have the flatter Minolta model and not the chunkier one.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Jan 1, 2013 22:03:16 GMT -5
That looks like it could be a fun camera to use. Give us an update.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Dec 18, 2012 22:20:30 GMT -5
I should also add that there is no rapid-return mirror. The viewfinder goes dark and stays dark when taking a photo. Overall, a nice camera with a clean design.
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melek
Senior Member
Posts: 87
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Post by melek on Dec 18, 2012 22:13:20 GMT -5
Here's my Focaflex Automatic. As you can see, it doesn't look like an SLR at all, as it lacks the SLR pentaprism hump. I didn't realize that it has such a unique viewing system. It has a very clean minimalist design. I find it to be attractive and very usable. The camera is simple to operate. It uses a trap-needle autoexposure that you activate with the button with your left hand. It's on the front of the camera, at the 2 o'clock position on the lens. The nameplate swings up to reveal the selenium meter cell. The rewind crank is revealed by using a fingernail to pull up on the crank, which normally is recessed into the top deck. The back is removed to load film. The shutter release is the small domed button that iss slightly recessed. I've used a Oplar-Color on a Foca Sport II and was impressed with its sharpness. Aperture range is 2.8-22, while shutter speeds (leaf shutter) run from 1 second to 1/250 plus B. ASA range is 8 to 400. There is no DIN scale. The lens is marked in meters, and the lens is 5cm rather than 50mm, which became how focal lengths generally were marked postwar. The viewfinder is a bit dark. It has a central split area surrounded by what I think is a ground glass screen. I don't think it's a fresnel screen. At the bottom of the viewfinder is a semi-circular aperture scale with a meter needle. The needle only moves when you press the black button on the front of the camera. I'll load it with some film and shoot a roll.
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