Camera Talk

The man with the camera looks like Howard Baker, without his glasses. He would have been the Senate Majority Leader at that time, so would have fit in with others in the photo. He was an avid photographer. I agree, Leica CL seems most likely - hot shoe in the middle of the top and no rewind knob on ...

Nice looking example. I actually have one of these myself - minus the meter. But mine has an M42 thread mount, rather than a bayonet mount. I ran a roll of film through it a few years ago, but the shutter is showing its age. The lens is a nice, compact and heavy piece of glass with the oddity of bei...

To expand on PF's test just a bit - with the lens off and back open, watch through the shutter as you wind the camera. I have an Exakta VX IIa with a capping problem. As I wind the camera there is one place where the curtains separate just slightly as they're being wound back to the other side of th...

Most Ponys that had standard marked speeds & apertures had 1/25th to 1/200th and around f/4 - f/16.

F/1.4 at 1 second is EV1, f/2 at 1 second is EV2 and so on. So EV10 - EV 15 should approximately correspond to between f/4 at 1/50th to f/11 at 1/200th.

If the Contessa 35 is like the Ikonta 35, the rewind button is reverse threaded. I'm guessing that was done to keep it from working loose as the wind knob is turned. I've seen several Ikonta 35's with this button twisted off (I have one I recently bought like this) from someone trying to torque it o...

Re: F2 photomic head on an F body without name plate - it will fit, I just tried with a dead F2 photomic head I have on an F body that I bought that had the nameplate missing. But I couldn't get the "claw" linkage at the back of the F's finder opening to lock the head on. May just be a sli...

"sprocket chomping" - If you're referring to what I think you are, I suspect this is common as these age. I've had three over the years, still have two of them. Only ran film through one. All had or would have had this problem to a degree. I think it comes from the sprocket axle tensioning...

Very nice save Mike.

From the clothes, I would agree, early 60's seems possible. But in the background of the first photo is what appears to be a hearse parked down the street. It's hard to tell for sure, but the grill looks more like a 1970 Cadillac rather than something from the early 60s or 50s.

Canon AE1. Had it about 2 years by which time it had done the two things AE1's became (in)famous for doing - the battery door cracked and had to be taped to hold it shut and it started squealing every time the shutter was released. Traded it in on a Nikon FE.