Darned auction sales .. (I hope this is the right forum)

[John Bartley]

About a week ago I bought a cheap ($50.00 cdn) supply (60 rolls) of TechPan 120 iso25 film. Yup - it's old , about 1998 IIRC, but sealed in plastic etc... only have a roll film back for my 4x5, no 120 camera ....
Today we were at an estate auction looking at milling machines and lathes and there in the parlour is this little folder. I had a quicky look at it and it looked ok so when it came up, I bid a bit and then a bit more and pretty soon I was all the way up to $20.00 cdn which is where the bidding stopped and the auctioneer was pointing at me and saying something that sounded like "SOLD!" Hmmmm ... I wonder what I bought ...Can anyone enlighten me? It says "FRAUKA" on the back and "BUNAFLEX" on one end amd "Made In Germany US Zone" on the other. It has a Schneider "Radionar" 105mm, 1:4.5 lens, serial no. 3694862 which has screw type focussing built into the lens and a scale that goes from 3.5' to infinity. The back has a little slider thing that shows two windows of red plastic and one says "6x6" and the other says "6x9". Inside was a roll of Kodak Kodacolor X color negative film in 120 size and it appears to be exposed. This is apparently C-22 process. Can it be developed? One last thing ... everything works as it should, the glass is spotless and clear, cosmetically I'd have to give it a 9, almost 10 out of 10. Did I do ok? I think so, but I've never seen one of these things.

cheers eh?

 

[Ole]

You did well, I think. The Franka (check the writing again) cameras are nice, the Radionar is a decent lens although not one to really show off the sharpness of the Tech Pan.

 

[John Bartley]

You did well, I think. The Franka (check the writing again) cameras are nice, the Radionar is a decent lens although not one to really show off the sharpness of the Tech Pan.

Hey Ole ,

Thank you very much for the reply. You are correct - I didn't read the names correctly and it is really a "Franka Bonafix" camera. I think I'm going to drag a roll of 120tp out of the freezer and after it warms up I'm going to load this thing up and give 'er a go !!

Here's a pic of it ::

cheers

 

[vet173]

I have the radionar on a couple of Bessa's. Afriend also has a folder with this lens, and his coworker was really P.O.ed when the slides of his newly aquired pentax 6x7 chromes were put to shame. I'm saying it MIGHT be sharper than Ole might imply. Although I havent shot that slow a film in mine.

 

[Ole]

I'm not saying the Radionar isn't sharp - it just isn't in the same league as the Tessar or Xenar often fitted on the top models.

I have folders with similar lenses (Novar, Vaskar, Voigtar) and some with Tessar lenses. There's no doubt which is sharper, but the "simpler" ones are not at all bad!

 

[Paul Sorensen]

It looks to be somewhat nicer than my Zeiss Bob with a 7.7 Nettar lens. Mine was a little less expensive, but I would gladly invest $5 more to get one with a better shutter, which yours has, and likely a better lens too. Have fun!

 

[John Bartley]

Ok, it's 2042Z here and I'm just cutting open the package of TP120 - I hope this works

 

[glennfromwy]

The Schneider Radionar lens is a triplet. Best performance is obtained by stopping down to at least f:8. These are a quite old design. If yours is not coated, a lens hood is strongly recommended. A dual format, 6X6 and 6X9 camera will, or should, have a mask at the film plane for using the 6X6 format. Some are permanently affixed (folding or sliding) and some are a removable mask that usually winds up getting lost. If you don't have the mask, you're limited to using the 6X9 format. Don't get mixed up and use the wrong window. I can tell you what that does. Hope you enjoy your camera. Old folders are a lot of fun.