ritzcam.com and my 2 new cameras

[Foto Ludens]

So, I finally got around to replacing (sort of) my Pentacon 6, which gave its soul to the series I've been printing so far. After all the abuse I put it through, both the body and the lens are now jammed, so a new camera was needed if my 6x6 needs were to be met.

Seeing as I could not decide which route to take in replacing it, I decided to buy a cheap 6x6 folder to keep me shooting in the mean time. Ebay seemed too iffy, and I happened to follow a random link to ritzcam.com. I'm glad I did.

I ended up buying 2 folders, both from Agfa.

The first one is an Isolette V, which cost $12.00. It has an 85mm Agnar 4.5 lens, a shutter with B, 25, 75 and 200.

The second one is a Speedex B2, which cost $20.00. It has an 85mm Anastigmat 4.5, shutter with everything from 1/2 to 1/250, B and T.

Both are scale focused by moving the front element, both shutters are smooth as a baby's behind, and neither bellows leak.

And these were rated 9 in their website...

Anyway, just giving you guys a heads up on a store that seems to be very good (to say the least).

I'll be putting some film through these this weekend (Hurricane Rita allowing), and I'll post the results ASAP.

André

 

[Phillip P. Dimor]

I purchased a 50mm Nikkor enlarging lens from them, I was very pleased with their service as well.

 

[stark raving]

The Agnar is a triplet - stop it down a good deal. Suggest you also check infinity focus before you put a lot of film through these. For some reason, I hear a lot of stories of infinity focus being off on scale-focusing folders. If it's off, there are folks around here (or in the classic camera forum on Photo.net, or at Nelsonfoto.com) who can tell you how to put it right.

 

[Foto Ludens]

cool, thanks for the heads up on the focus...

I'll put at leat a roll through each camera today, testing various focusing settings and aperture positions. I'm fairly certain that these will be good enough for what I want...

André

 

[L Gebhardt]

An easy way to check focus is to just put a ground glass on the thing (at the film plane) and focus at various distances with a loupe. You might be able to steal the one from your broken camera (if it has one). I got one from an old Yashicamat that bit the dust. It proved my Ikonta rangefinder was spot on.

 

[Foto Ludens]

Good point. While the GG on the Pentacon is way too small for that purpose, the one on my busted Flexora will definately do the job.

Either way, I have just shot a test roll on each camera, which if nothing else will tell me how the camera performs as I'll probably use it (f/8 and smaller). The slow shutter speeds pretty much dictate small apertures in sunny conditions... I think I only got as big as f/5.6 (shade), but mostly it was f/16.

Anyway, I'll try to develop these tomorrow, and we'll see how they turned out.

Hopefully better than a Holga, definately better than no 6x6 at all.

 

[r-brian]

I found Ritzcam.com about a year ago. Ordered once from them. No problem. I have not heard anything but praise when it comes to them. Just don't confuse with with the giant Ritz Camera.

Brian

 

[noseoil]

Andre, I got my Mamiya C330F and a Nikon FM from them. They're just up the road from Tucson, so it's a day trip for me. The C330F came with an 80mm lens which got sticky after a roll of film. They took it back and did a CLA for nothing (I paid shipping) and all is still well. They are good folks to deal with from what I've found, and are reasonable on prices. tim

 

[Foto Ludens]

Yeah, the focus was off on both cameras, but the shutters are right on (or at least all the exposures were).

I checked the focus with a ground glass, and the speedex can focus from .8m to 3.22m. I'll keep it that way, and use it as a portrait/close up camera.

The Isolette is another story. The lens was set near infinity, and turning the focus wouldn't change it. After a quick search on google, I found out that this isn't uncommon on Isolettes, and its due to the 2 front elements being stuck together. This was indeed the case with mine.

The original grease had turned to rock, and I was only able to free the lenses by using a heat gun and a couple of pliers. I then cleaned out all the green grease with Kerosene, paper towels, cotton, and toothpicks. Took a while, but I got it out. After applying some lube (a mix of graphite powder and skate board bearing oil - don't ask...) it seems fine now. I'll set the focus for infinity tomorrow, and see how that goes.

André