Camera Talk

Hi all,

Why if I don't play lottery I keep buying cameras from non photographs sellers without asking if everything is ok? (well I do not ask in such cases because they know nothing most of the times).

Two weeks ago taking a look of 127 film cameras I saw one Certo made for that format, from that I finally ended with this Certo Super Sport Dolly, it has 3 versions it seems and one with coupled rangefinder, lucky me (we will see this...) I found something in France that accepted the offer for a camera not saying anything about its condition, but just the look of a Xenar 2.8 took my attention.
Something good buying from France is they always use EMS, the camera took a week to get Moscow and here it's:






5 elements Xenar, not a myth.

I have cleaned the saw myself the Xenar 5 elements I read about sometimes, after fixing the shutter and rangefinder I will do the shoot test and let's see how it performs.

I think I got luck this time...
Alex

That looks to be in great condition and well-featured. I think I've seen photos from that model posted somewhere. I'll be eager to see the photos you make with it.

Bill Delehanty

Go by a lottery ticked some other day as you used all your luck on that one. 127 was the format I learned on.

LarryD wrote:Go by a lottery ticked some other day as you used all your luck on that one. 127 was the format I learned on.

This is 120 film version, 6x6. The first version I saw was the 127 Dolly and I finally wanted the rf version.

Most folks I know that own a Certo Dolly are quite happy with them. I've seen some really good work done with them. With your talent, Alex, I expect to see some more.

PF

Pretty camera!

Thank you, Phil and Santiago, for your compliments.
I just shot a test roll using an external rangefinder, tomorrow I will scan if they are any good and went well.

Well, it not the first time and it won't be the last a test roll goes wrong.
Two issues, framing and focus point.
I think I put upside-down the viewfinder glass, I hope this is the problem, other would be about lens/shutter inclination etc... Results are too much ground on the photo and it happened in all the photos.


Test shot.


Kremlin walls.

Focus point I think is before the distance marks, about 50cm-1m my guess.


Gogol.


Two amigas.


Me and the last shot.

Lens is great as I expected, camera is easy to handle and the shutter release is very smooth. Negatives are bigger than any 6x6 I saw so far, about 57x58mm, my homemade holder was not enough for all the image.
When the mirrors for the rangefinder arrive I will address above issues, now it's time to test another camera...

Thank you for watching,
Alex

The first problem is easy to fix, it's just a matter of training yourself to compensate more towards the sky in your framing. The second is likely just needing some fine tuning to get the lens and scale to agree with each other. Looking good so far.

PF