Two old folding MF cameras added to my collection

Recently, my 80+ year old neighbor was moved to a care home and her belongings removed from her house. What was left was sold off. Among the items sold was an old US Camera Corp Comet camera, a very simple folding 6X9 camera with a meniscus lens, no aperture controls, and only two shutter speeds (B and 1/30 sec). It's in great shape but the lack of shutter speeds or aperture controls had me worried about usage (I still have not run a roll of film through it, yet) so I looked on eBay and found what appears to be a Franka Rolfix 6X9 folding camera with a back that has detached from the body. If this one ends up being unrepairable I'll salvage the lens from it and figure out a way to use it.

I'll document the results of mods planned for both cameras as well as photos taken with them here. So far I plan on making a spool for the Comet to allow it to take up 35mm film and I might make a mask to reduce it to 60mm width. Then again, trimming a 120 roll film plastic spool edge to use it in the Comet seems like a good idea as well.

There was also a Kodak Duaflex camera that the guy selling my neighbor's stuff wanted too much money for...

If you get it going, you should pay the neighbor a visit, and bring the camera to show her. It's not uncommon to have relatives remove personal possessions from seniors when this happens, and the seniors are often left wondering what happened to the last things that they owned.

We live in a senior retirement community, and I could tell you some tales about relatives. I'd rather depend on the kindness of strangers! Often the senior is not in as bad a shape as the relatives think (or wish), and if she still has her wits about her, I'm sure she would be very grateful to see the camera. Old people get NO respect in this country.

1/30 + B and a single aperture should not be a problem with modern films. I've been using my Kodak Brownie Six-20 E (same specs) with Kodak T-Max 400 and Ilford HP5+ in daylight without any problems, developed in D76 1+1 or HC110. Portra 400 should be good too. It is really a point and shoot camera. Sometimes I carry a ND filter but it has never been used. Used a red filter once for that effect.

The results are to my liking:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cl3mens/tags/kodakbrowniesix20e/

Thanks for the comments.

Yeah, I'll need to stop by for a visit and let her see that I'm the next caretaker of her old camera.

Nice photos, cl3mens. Yeah, the Comet has no focusing so it's a point and shoot pretty much. I really just need to worry about parallax when shooting once I get the film loaded which shouldn't be an issue at all. As far as processing my own film, I think I'll leave that up to the professionals. It's been 30 years since I've developed film and I don't think I'm going to start back up any time soon.

Just a thought (not being nit-picky, just appropriate place to get the most info)...

I don't think these old folders are considered "toy (or lo-fi) cameras" - they get a lot of respect around here...

The Medium Format area may get you more info… just a thought!

A 120 folder will be one of my next purchases… love the idea of big fat negs from a carry-around camera...

I was looking at the descriptions and the "limited exposure controls" line for Lo-Fi Cameras caught my attention since neither camera has aperture controls and one has just two speeds. The Comet is definitely Lo-Fi because it is basically a folding medium format point-and-shoot camera. Not trying to disrespect the cameras, just trying to fit it to where it should go. Mods please move if this isn't the right place.

An update: I bought a roll film back for the 4X5 view camera and it came with an empty 120 spool. I installed it into the USCC Comet to see what kind of clearance I would need and it dropped right in with about a half millimeter clearance all around. I moved it from the take up side to the supply side and found that there was no binding at all and the winding knob worked just fine with the 120 spool. Looks like I'm good to go. I just need to go out and buy some film and start taking photos.

Update #2: The Rolfix arrived. It's basically unsalvageable. The lens and case can be repurposed, though, and it came with the 6X6 mask. I'll keep my eyes open for another one but won't be looking for one seriously. The shutter was inoperable so I opened it up and got it working again. Can't tell if the shutter speeds are accurate or not. I also noticed that I can't get B to work consistently. Maybe I should send it out to be CLA'd.

I loaded a roll of ISO200 color negative film into the Comet and took it out yesterday. Yes, I taped over the frame counter window. Need to take a few more photos to finish the roll then will need to rewind the film back into the cartridge in a very dark place since I'll have to do it by hand. I hope to get this roll processed in the next few days.

Update #3: processed the roll of color negative film that I ran through the Comet and realized that I was winding the film too much beep tween frames and it didn't help that the gaps between frames were getting larger as the take up spool got larger in diameter. Still, got a few decent shots but can't really tel if they're good or bad since I didn't get any pei to from then.

The lens from the Franka Rolfix, a Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 105mm f!4.5, was mounted to the recessed lens board on my Toyo View 45E and the image looked good. I tried it on a pair of extension tubes on my D610 and it appeared to be working okay. I tested the shutter today by setting the aperture and shutter speeds to the same as metered on my D610. I then cocked the shutter and held it pressed against the extension tubes. The D610 was set to manual and ISO to 400. I then selected Bulb and in quick sequence, held down the shutter on the D610, tripped the shutter on the Radionar, then released the shutter on the D610. I repeated this with reciprocal settings, checking the picture after each shot and found that 1/10 and 1/5 second were too fast but the remaining shutter speeds seemed spot on. Oh, the longer shutter speeds seem to be longer than rated so I'll need to watch for that as well. Mounted this to my 4X5 view camera I was pleasantly surprised to find that the image circle appears to cover the much larger image size! I'll need to run some sheets through the camera using this lens before saying that this lens can cover a 4X5 piece of film.

Two photos of the Golden Gate Bridge taken with the Comet on expired 200 ASA color negative film. The images were scanned, cropped, and slightly massaged before posting.

I've decided to try to do a resto-mod on the old Franka. The bellows is leak free and the body in very good condition. The problems with this camera when it arrived were: the rear door separated from the hinge; the front cover closing catch snapped off; the folding finder rear part would open past vertical; and the lens was locked up. I've already addressed the lens issue (the shutter is accurate at 1/200, 1/100, 1/50, and 1/20 seconds. 1/10 fires at around 1/200 and 1/5 fires around 1/100. 1/2 and 1 second are slow). The finder was fixed last night. That leaves the rear door and the catch. I've thought about adapting an optical finder to this camera in place of the fragile folding setup that's on there now.

The hinge has been repaired and that leaves the peeling leatherette and the front latch. The latch can wait as I'm using a long strip of Velcro to hold the camera shut. Tomorrow I'm going to machine a take up spool and spacers so that I can load 35mm film in this camera and that's what I'm going to shoot to test its overall function (the film had expired years ago).

Te USCC Comet will be going under the knife and will be getting a really small Copal shutter that I had mistakenly bought from eBay. The meniscus lens will be transferred over as well.