I shot a roll of Fomapan 400 back with my post-war Novar Ikonta 521/0 up in Bremen a few weeks ago.
A few things to note:
- The shutter release is on the left. This is unusual for me and made it a little difficult to hold the camera still. I think this caused shake in some frames.
- Uncoated lens. I shot without a lens hood or yellow filter, so unless I was ideally positioned there was some loss of contrast/veiling especially with diffuse/bright sunlight.
- Sharpness. When everything comes together (I guess this can be said for any lens) the Novar performed well with good contrast and sharpness.
- Viewfinder. The VF is a reverse Galilean pop-up finder which is sturdy and surprisingly accurate even up-close. The catch is that you have to put your eye *right* up to the eyepiece to see the whole frame.
- Film advance. I really like the film advance. The spools sit snug, there's no wiggle in the winding mechanism and the double exposure protection lets go with an audible "snick" in addition to the indicator turning red.
Here's a shot from Bremen's old town "Schnoor" quarter:
Crop:
Early morning on the Wümme river. A beautiful moment but not a great scene for the BW Fomapan with lots of diffuse bright light to boot:
