Camera Talk

Hi all,

In my search of a 6x7 camera I had the chance to have one of these in my hands and I bought it at first sight, it's massive and super cool!!
It came with the 180mm tele, sadly cleaning it it felt to the floor (credits to my left elbow) and the shutter blades went out of place... I have the service manual and I have written it down in my to-do-list.

I took the test roll today and Im waiting the results (done with the 90mm). I think nothing outstanding will come out but it was to check speeds, rangefinder, parallax, etc...
Its the equivalent to the Koni-Omega Rapid but was sold in the Japanese market.
No left handle but I saw one from Mamiya/Bronica that I plan to convert somehow.

Btw, I thought this camera was going to be a Japanese camera but reading its story it seems it's not, after checking the inner chamber and how its done its pure American, it reminds me a lot to the Medalist about how its done and the easiness to understand its construction, opposite as Voigtlander My second American and I like it too, I need a third guys, which MF is in your list/self worthy to have?

Ohhh, too bad about the 180mm blades. Nice camera. I hope you get the shutter working again soon.

Yes, it did begin life as an American designed and built camera, the Simmons Omega 120 in 1954 http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Omega_120 Koni bought the rights to the camera, started to evolve it, and then sold the line to Mamiya, who for some reason never put their name on it. But they did make some more improvements, resulting in the Rapid Omega 100 and 200 models.

Believe it or not, a lot of wedding photographers used the Omega line of cameras, but probably not during the ceremony. Their Rollies were much quieter, but the 6x7 format Rapid was great for the portrait sessions afterwards. That is, after everyone got used to the quash-thunk!! of the winder.

PF

Additional information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_(camera)

Philip wrote:Ohhh, too bad about the 180mm blades. Nice camera. I hope you get the shutter working again soon.

I'm on it already, I got stuck due lack of instruments for big lenses, I will pay a visit to my colleague here...

PFMcFarland wrote:Yes, it did begin life as an American designed and built camera, the Simmons Omega 120 in 1954 http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Omega_120 Koni bought the rights to the camera, started to evolve it, and then sold the line to Mamiya, who for some reason never put their name on it. But they did make some more improvements, resulting in the Rapid Omega 100 and 200 models.

Believe it or not, a lot of wedding photographers used the Omega line of cameras, but probably not during the ceremony. Their Rollies were much quieter, but the 6x7 format Rapid was great for the portrait sessions afterwards. That is, after everyone got used to the quash-thunk!! of the winder.

PF

Additional information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_(camera)

That's why the shutter is from Mamiya's nice CLAds out there to take a look.

Btw the first roll is out, only 3 photos are "decent" I explain, when I got the camera my shutter speed tester didn't work so I was unable to test the shutter, I guessed the 125 would be accurate, wrong guessing, now after seeing the results I tried the tester and now worked, result is 125, 250 and 500 works as 500 and 60 near 100. The photo were underexposed by at least 2 stops so the meter seems accurate.
Only from those 10 pictures 3 "has been recovered" and their levels allowed so. As well the roll was a try-x expired 20 years ago.


Painter.


Sleeper.


Last sunny weekend.

Promising camera, I like the 6x7 format and the lens, lets see how goes next.

Thank you for watching,
Alex

That's the problem with those lenses, keeping the shutters in good running order. If used often enough, they should stay within allowable specs for a long time. It's sitting around that gets them all sticky. Good results with what you were able to recover.

PF

A new addition to the collection.
Speeds are great, only 500 is a bit shifted (350 actually) the rest of them near to be nailed +-10%
Lens is great.
Only the viewfinder is a bit dim but pretty usable, I will open and clean it.
Now the 180mm has to be repaired and the only left is the 135mm which I have never seen any yet
Camera is loaded already

Alex, you are building up a nice collection!

Thank you Julio.

Good news, I fixed the 180mm, lenses with leaf shutters are 90% from behind and I found they way in...
Tomorrow I will finish mounting it and I will post some fixit notes.
As well Im working on transform a used Mamiya Universal Grip (left) for this camera, lets see if I can do it.

Good work, Alex! I believe the grip from the Rapid line will also fit on the older Koni's.

PF

PFMcFarland wrote:Good work, Alex! I believe the grip from the Rapid line will also fit on the older Koni's.

PF

Thank you Phil, yes they fit too, no single handgrip sold alone in the past weeks.