Recent content by 1957ExaktaVarexIIa

Zwinger castle, Dresden, Germany, early spring. Fomapan R100 slide, 1937 Zeiss Jena Sonnar 50 mm f/2, orange filter, Contax IIIa

I have been taking a lot of pictures using 135 mm lenses - I have fallen in love especially with Ludwig Bertele's 135 mm f/4 Sonnars for my Contax RF. I was surprised by this effect I watched on an Ektachrome 100D colour slide (a coated Zeiss-Opton lens, wide open, Skylight filter KR1.5) - when...

An article written by the late Contax RF expert Henry Scherer may also be helpful: https://web.archive.org/web/20240909222215/http://zeisscamera.com/articles_cnrfdr.shtml

To be precise, the former GDR up to autumn 1989 was a communist-ruled country, but not a Soviet one. According to the late Henry Scherer, the problem with Soviet lenses was the wide variation in quality. It seems to me that the lenses from Jena were considerably more consistent and better.

As I learned from about 70 or 80 rolls of reversed films, permanganate bleach works well. Sorry I would never again take the health risk to use dichromate bleach. I know persons who suffered from cancer.

Autumn afternoon at a lake between the Netherlands and Germany Rollei Infrared 400 slide, reversal development in Dokumol, 720 nm filter, Zeiss Planar T* 85 mm f/1.4, Yashica FR I

As it has been written already... Yes - I think that's absolutely right. Just to demonstrate the effect dokko mentioned: I agree. As for the developer: When I started reversal process I got the advice to use a strong first developer, back then it was Tetenal Dokumol which has always worked...

As a medium format newbie, I have been trying a 1967 YashicaMat EM (before selling it for a friend) and a 1938 Rolleiflex Automat (borrowed). Both were nice but I wanted a camera for my 180 mm Sonnar that I have had for more than 40 years. So today: a 1980 Kiev-6C which has recently been CLA'd...

Welcome to the forum . I LOVE to travel through France on the petites routes and to take pictures of la France profonde 😍. Such a beautiful country and culture...

Interesting questions! I must admit that I have not yet thought about these aspects when I use the Canon FD TS 35mm f/2.8 😊. As for your first question: I suppose it might be an appropriate method - for example if you take a picture of a house in front of you: first to make sure when setting...

In general, I suppose, Helioses might be softer than the original Biotars: Henry Scherer has written about the quality range of Russian lens copies ...

This spring I've bought a 1980 Kiev-6C from Photo Skoda in Praha, Czech Republic. Sure it's the opposite of a fine Leica 😉 , but it works well with my Zeiss Jena Flektogon, Biometar and Sonnar lenses. I've sent it to a CLA at ARAX in Kiev, Ukraine, afterwards and got it back 2 weeks ago. My...

With regards to... ... I'd also recommend: I've been using such a IIa camera (together with a IIIa and a II and the Zeiss Ikon pre-war universal finder which can be replaced by a Soviet one) for several years. It's a real pleasure. Even on the street. Service should definitely include a...

Meanwhile I have developed about 60 b&w slide films at home, using this DIY process (Dokumol/Eukobrom can be replaced by Ilford PQ Universal for example, first developing time might be a bit shorter) with pleasant results 👍.

In the first moment I used slide films - back in early 80s, I did it because you didn't get reliable results when you asked a "normal" professional laboratory to make prints from C41 films. Some were too bright, others were too dark, others had unpleasant colours... With slide film, I always...