ritzcam.com and my 2 new cameras

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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