Camera Talk

I bought this about seven or eight years ago and found it to be a nice little camera.

It takes VP 127 film, which is now being offered again. It's from the 1960s, and was made by Kowa Optical and unlike most of the company's other cameras, it didn't use a variation of the Kowa name.

I had to re-cover my camera. When I tried to clean it's original covering, it pretty much crumbled in my hands. Some of it turned to a goo.

For a small camera, it makes quite a "thwack!" when you release the shutter - nearly all of it because of mirror slap.

It's the only SLR to be sold in non_Japanese markets (or so says Camerapedia).

This camera needed the typical amount of work, and I might go back and replace the seals a second time with different material. I think that I still have a light leak.

This has a front-cell focusing four-element Tessar-type lens.

What a neat looking machine. Is the finder reasonably bright? I sorta like some "thwack."
--- James

Cool looking machine! What scanner did you use for these images?

Gerry

This has a fresnel screen with a ground glass spot in the middle. No grid lines. The image is reasonably bright, and I found it very easy to focus the camera.

I scanned with my Epson Expression 1600. Years ago, I found a plastic 127 negative carrier. I think it originally was for 4x4 but enlarged it so it could handle those few negatives that were wider. Of course, it makes scanning slow - one frame at a time, but I don't shoot 127 that often, so I can live with it.

It really is a nice looking camera, although surely part of that is the excellent job you did recovering it. And you've made some really interesting images (especially #2 & #3) with it.

Very interesting camera and sharp Tessar-like images. Is this an interchangeable lens SLR? Are other lenses available?

You made me read about this camera, which I had never heard of. Should be quite handy, and the lens is obviously good, as shown in your test pictures (BTW, excellent - were these at full aperture?).

According to the Internet there were two add-on lenses available, for tele and wide.

A lot of quality equipment was made for 127 format.