Skyflex TLR

[davela]

Does anyone know this camera - the Skyflex TLR from Japan? I owned one a few years ago and had some fun with it till the shutter failed. I'm looking for another one if anyone knows where to find one at modest price (I check on eBay from time-to-time). The camera had a triplet taking lens of some sort that delivered results better than it had a right to. It was an interesting camera. I acquired a Canoscan 8800F flatbed scanner recently so I'm getting around to digitizing some old TLR negatives and slides. The Skyflex sample shots were from rural northern New Mexico and Colorado (near Creed) and were made on Fuji RVP color transparency film (ASA 100 I think). Pretty good optical quality from such an elemental camera if you ask me!

 

[ricksplace]

Try a Yashica A. Better built and cheap with simply astounding results. A Yashica A was my first MF camera almost 40 years ago. I bought another one for nostalgia just a few years ago. I think I paid less than $20 for it (plus shipping). Some of the results from it are indistinguishable from negs from my Rolleiflex.

 

[davela]

OK I'll give it a try, thanks for the tip. In fact I was thinking about "regressing" from the Yashica Mat 124 that I use now. I swear I'm not convinced its Four element Tessar-type lens does as good a job as the simpler TLR's with three element designs like the Skyflex, or as you imply the Yashica A. Maybe this is a function of what aperture one is shooting at, or it's a matter of how well the lenses were collimated and coated. The above shots were probably made between F8 and F16 based on my shooting habits and the available light.

 

[ricksplace]

Good triplets are capable of amazing results if used in their optimum aperture range. If you are shooting between f8 and f16, you have hit the sweet spot.