Ilford Sporti

[Akki14]

Think of it as a metal Holga ... with working aperture arm. I think it actually has nicer vignetting than a holga and i'm quite happy about my impulse purchase of it. This is one of the "original" Sportis so only 2 aperture choices - sunny or cloudy/flash (sound familiar?).

Excuse the poor contact prints, i should have a proper contact printer soon rather than a scummy piece of glass I manhandle in dim safelight conditions.

 

[mtbbrian]

Nice!
Where did you find this gem? How much did you pay?
Brian

 

[Akki14]

ebayUK. £3 + £4 shipping. Quite a few on ebayUK and seem to be going for less than the typical Holga.

I just tried a roll of Fomapan 400 through it and I think the larger exposure latitude of fomapan has meant I totally lost all that lovely vignetting! Going to have to bulk buy HP5 since that seemed to work better.

 

[Schlapp]

Are you still using that Sporti Heather? I love mine although needs a bit of sun to havee enough contrast I find.
Me this week - posing

 

[Akki14]

Well I took it to Norway in December but I think it mostly had boring landscape shots on it... I'll have to look again. I'm drowning in negatives at the moment.

Bah I forgot my clockwork selftimer gadget doesn't fit my sportis (the pokeystick bit sticks out too far to screw it into the shutter release)

 

[Schlapp]

Good stuff. I have that issue as well. A roll from the Hassie awaiting looking at - the snow got me out and I'm trying to recover energy from that.

Well I took it to Norway in December but I think it mostly had boring landscape shots on it... I'll have to look again. I'm drowning in negatives at the moment.

Bah I forgot my clockwork selftimer gadget doesn't fit my sportis (the pokeystick bit sticks out too far to screw it into the shutter release)

 

[Steve Smith]

I posted in another thread that I bought a Sporti 6 a couple of weeks ago for 20p ($0.40). I think I was overcharged! It produced images which were sharp on one side but blurred out of focus on the other side. I think it will become a pin hole camera soon.

I liked the portability of it though so I started looking for another one but I ended up buying a Balda Baldixette which is fairly similar. It has a collapsing lens too which makes it even more portable.


http://www.geocities.com/jgpyke/baldixette.htm



Steve.

 

[Schlapp]

I posted in another thread that I bought a Sporti 6 a couple of weeks ago for 20p ($0.40). I think I was overcharged! It produced images which were sharp on one side but blurred out of focus on the other side.

Steve.

Don't let the Holga-heads know about this, they'll all want one.I had the same issuue on a Koroll 24s - but then I did drop it onto the llens and it bent it in a bit. Like the snaps with it tho.

 

[Akki14]

One of my sportis did that but it's not a shutter issue like the sporti6 problem probably were... I've figured it was due to the film not rolling on correctly. The *tiny* little "handle" that helps pull out the takeup spool is missing on that sporti and having compared to another one, that actually serves another purpose - to keep that metal piece from falling inwards too far and making it roll up badly.

 

[pauliej]

A working aperture arm??? What the heck is THAT all about?? What size film does the Sporti take, or is it general 35mm or 120/620 etc like the Holga? I wish I could find some cheap old folders for sale around here, dang it. Enjoy.

Paul

 

[Steve Smith]

A working aperture arm??? What the heck is THAT all about?? What size film does the Sporti take, or is it general 35mm or 120/620 etc like the Holga?

the Sporti is 6x6 on 120 film with a lens which I think is just a little bit wider than standard for that format. It was not actually marked on my Sporti 6 but I think it was around 75mm. The lens on my 'new' Balda is 72mm, also on 6x6 format.

The thing I liked about my brief time with my Sporti was the fact that it easily fit into an inside jacket pocket and being mainly lightweight plastic, you couldn't really tell that it was there.

I think the 'working aperture arm' refers to the fact that the aperture selection on the Holga doesn't actually do anything.



Steve.

 

[RH Designs]

As a lad my first camera was an Ilford Sporti 4, the "junior" version that took 127 film. It wasn't too light-tight but it worked. I have no idea what happened to it eventually when I graduated to 35mm in my teens. There's a good site about the Sporti and other Ilford cameras here.

 

[Neil Purling]

I have got an Ilford Sporti too. I got it from ebay as usual. I have been through a bunch of these to find one where the lens is clear and the shutter can be un-gummed. Either you get one with a good shutter & the lens is misty or the shutter sticks. As there was nothing to lose I used some electrical contact cleaner. This is some sort of alcohol. The shutter worked until the cleaner evaporated so I then used cotton a wool bud sprayed with WD40 and the shutter now worked. I decided to put a film through it.

You can see the results for yourselves. I under-developed the film by mistake, but this worked out OK, because a scanner exaggerates contrast (as well as grain). Please bear in mind these images were done hand-held.
I don't know what the lenses were on the original Sporti, whether one element or a cemented pair. I think the later Sporti 6 had a achromat composed of what I assume is a cemented pair. Maybe this is true for the early Sporti.

I have also got a Goldixette by Goldammer. This one has a chromed pull-out lens barrel. The original Dacora Digna is similar but the barrel is plain alloy, and that sometimes produces fine debris inside the camera.
Has anyone with more experience of the Sporti know if it tends to vignette in strong lighting. So far i have not seen any evidence of this behaviour.

 

[Steve Smith]

I have also got a Goldixette by Goldammer. This one has a chromed pull-out lens barrel. The original Dacora Digna is similar but the barrel is plain alloy, and that sometimes produces fine debris inside the camera.

I had not heard of a Goldixette but a quick image search shows that it is very similar to the Balda Baldixette which I mentioned earlier in this thread.


Steve.

 

[petefoto]

ilford sporti was not the first name

hi there i think the first name this camera had was a dacora digna, hopefully the photos are attached to this reply

they are really cheap here in New Zealand, our form of ebay is called trademe.co.nz
take a look you can find some really odd stuff that has been long gone in the state and the uk

 

[Akki14]

Not quite the same camera. The ilford sporti does not have a pull out lens like that one. It was made by the same company, though.