Asahi Pentax ME-F

Pentax were the leading 35 mm SLR cameras through the 1960s and 1970s. During the 1980s, there were a lot of technological advances (not just in photography) and Asahi (the makers of Pentax cameras) were leading the push to develop modern automatic cameras.

The act of producing cutting edge, state of the art cameras necessarily meant also making mistakes. There were a number of innovative dead-ends during this period and the result was that Asahi lost their lead as prime camera makers to Nikon and Canon.

With this particular Pentax model the innovation was auto-focus. this was the first consumer auto-focus camera but using a technique that did not prove to be very effective. Asahi's next auto-focus camera approached the task very differently. As I only have the camera body and not the special auto-focus lens I can make no comment about how well the auto-focus worked in practice.

This Pentax ME F is a development of the Pentax ME Super - itself a development of the Pentax ME. The ME series of Pentax cameras were introduced in 1976 with the ME. The ME Super was introduced in 1980 with the added option of manually setting the shutter speed and this ME-F in 1981. Other M series Pentax cameras were the MG, MV, MV1 and MX.

The M series were smaller and lighter than the Spotmatic and K series cameras - following the lead of Olympus with the OM series of cameras. They also all had aperture-priority automatic exposure (the MX had entirely manual exposure).

lens: none supplied

focal length:  n/a

apertures: n/a

focus range: n/a

lens fitting: Pentax Kf mount

shutter: Seiko metal focal plane

speeds: 4 seconds to 1/2000 seconds

flash: hot shoe and PC connector - X synch

film size: 35 mm

This camera measures 132 mm wide by 87.5 mm high and 50 mm deep not including the lens. It weighs 480g.

The top plate is fairly cluttered resulting in fiddly controls that my rather large fingers struggle to manipulate. On the far right, as usual, is the film advance lever. This moves through about 140 degrees to advance one frame but the first part of the motion - around 45 degrees - is required to engage the advance mechanism. The lever also has a secondary rest position which usually indicates the presence of a light meter switch - I do not know if this is the case with this camera, it could just be to make fast winding possible.

In front of the film advance lever is a window to the frame counter. This counts up from one. Opening the back resets the counter to -2 - indicated by an orange dot - which encourages you to waste two frames to get to frame one. I find I get get an extra frame in by starting at -1. To be honest, I actually ignore frame counters and just shoot until I cannot advance the film anymore which gives me 26 exposures from a 24 exposure cassette in the main.

Next to these is a large black mode dial. This locks in place and it is necessary to depress a (very) small white button to be able to turn the dial. For me, this is a two handed job and is the most awkward part of using this camera. The modes available are L, Auto, M, 125X, and B - more on these later. In the centre of the mode dial is the shutter release button. This fires the Seiko metal focal plane shutter.

Between this dial and the pentaprism hump are two small buttons which alter the shutter speed when in manual mode. These buttons are actually plenty large enough even for my fingers but they are in a rather restricted space. The pentaprism is of the size needed - there is not much scope fore reducing this in size as cameras get smaller as it still has to show the full 24 x 36 mm frame. On top of the pentaprism is am accessory shoe. At this date it is basically a flash shoe and has hot-shoe connections. This is a large central contact  allowing the use of any hot-shoe flash gun. There is also a small secondary contact for Pentax specific flash guns with added functionality. It is also possible to use a cold-shoe flash as there is also a PC (Prontor-Compur) connector on the front of the camera.

On the left of the pentaprism is a switch to activate the auto-focus function. This is useful even without the dedicated auto-focus lens as the camera has a focus confirm function with any lens. This switch has three positions - off, 2.8 and 3.5 The last two relate to the maximum aperture of the lens being used. Behind this switch is a second switch which turns the audible focus-confirm on or off.

To the far left of the top plate is the folding rewind crank. Around this is the film speed setting for the light meter. This ranges from 12 to 1600 ASA (ISO). 12 ISO seems very slow by modern digital standards but films available in 1980 were very slow. This setting is set be slightly lifting the outside of the ring and turning. This ring also sets exposure compensation from x4 to x1/4 (that is, +2 stops to -2 stops) which is set by turning the ring without lifting. Pulling up on the rewind crank itself unlocks the door.

The front of the camera is uncluttered. Right of centre (looking at the front) is the Pentax K mount bayonet fitting. this is an adaptation of the original K mount known as Kf mount as it has four sprung electrical contacts and one unsprung contact. These allow the camera to communicate with the special auto-focus lens. This is the only camera with this version of the K mount. There were later variations on the K mount with electrical contacts in other parts of the mount ring. All these are backwards compatible. I am successfully using a lens with the later version of the K mount with this camera. I lose the later functionality of the lens but it still works fine as a fully manual lens.

On the right side of the mount is a PC connector which allows the use of flash off-camera. On the left of the lens mount is a delay action lever. This is not connected to the shutter release button. First  you wind the mechanism by turning the lever down in an anti-clockwise direction. Second, you start the process by pushing the lever back up very slightly. The delay is about eight seconds.

On the back of the camera (which is made from painted steel) are three items. most obviously is the viewfinder eye-piece. This is nice and large and works well for those of us who wear glasses. When looking through the viewfinder you get the expected ground glass screen. In the centre is a ring of micro-prisms and a split-image centre to aid focussing. On the left of the viewfinder image is a vertical list of shutter speeds. These range from 4 seconds to 1/2000 seconds. The selected speed is indicated by a small green or orange LED. There is also a reminder at the top of the list if you are in manual mode. At the bottom centre of the viewfinder is a green hexagonal LED flanked by two red triangular LEDs. The red LEDs light when the lens (any lens) is out of focus and the green LED lights when the lens is in focus. There is also a noise if the switch mentioned earlier is on.

On the right of the rear of the top plate is a small window revealing vertical red and black bars. These 'dance' when you advance or rewind the film. The idea is that if the film is not properly loaded the bars do not dance saving you taking pictures with no film in place. Personally, I always watch the rewind crank turn for the same reason. However, the dancing bars do work.

In the middle of the back is a device that all film cameras should have - a holder for the end of the film carton. If, like me, you have more than one camera on the go at a time, it is easy to forget what film is in which camera. Below this holder are two more electrical contacts for the optional data back.

On the base plate there are a number of items. on the left under a round cover is a mechanical connection for an electrical film winder. Next to this is the button to release the rewind mechanism. In line with the centre of the lens is a 1/4 inch UNC threaded tripod socket (the old standard was 1/4 inch Whitworth which is as near as dammit to the modern standard). To the right of this is the battery compartment. This holds four button batteries which are still available today. Beyond the battery cover is a release button to undo the battery cover catch.

In use.

Loading film is as easy as it can be made short of full automation. The back is opened by pulling up on the rewind crank - as was usual with cameras of this age. The film cassette goes on the left - the rewind crank is pushed back down to hold the cassette in place - and the film is pulled across the camera and the leading edge is pushed between any two of the many white bars on the take-up spool. Very simple and hard to go wrong.

Above the white bars on the take-up spool is a fairly loose plastic ring. As the film moves past this ring when advancing the film, the movement in the loose ring is transferred to the red and black dancing bars. visible through the window on the back of the top plate. Once you have loaded the film and closed the back you need to 'waste' two frames as these have been fogged while the back was open. At this point, the frame counter should read '1' - remember to put the end of the film carton in the memo holder and you are ready to go.

The photographer needs to set his choice of aperture and focus the lens and the camera does the rest. The viewfinder is nice and clear and the split-screen centre works as it should.

This is a delightful camera to use. My only real niggle is turning the camera on. this involves pressing a very small white button on the black mode dial and turning the dial to Auto or M or 125x. The L position is off and this switches off the meter and locks the shutter release button - the shutter can still be fired in this position by using the self-times lever.

Auto reads the aperture from the lens and selects the most appropriate shutter speed - this is not restricted to the displayed speeds, any intermediate speed can be selected. The M mode requires the user to set both the aperture on the lens and the shutter speed using the two buttons next to the pentaprism - in this case only the displayed speeds may be selected.  The 125x speed is used to synchronise the shutter and the flash at 1/125 seconds. There is also a B setting which leaves the shutter open as long as the shutter release button is depressed. I find using this dial very difficult and have to use both hands. Once the mode dial is set, I leave it set until I have finished for the day.

To use this camera with the full complement of shutter speeds requires working batteries. If they are flat, the camera can still work in mechanical mode but this restricts the camera to 1/125 seconds shutter speed. This is clearly less than ideal but does mean that you can continue to take photographs if you have no spare batteries.

I do not have the auto-focus lens but the auto-focus system will give focus confirmation with any lens. this is in the form of a green LED indicating focus and two red LEDs which indicate the direction you need to turn the focus ring on the lens to obtain focus. I found these to be completely useless - they did work but the audible confirmation is rather more useful - actually, my eyes offer a faster focus confirmation.

Test photographs - Agfa Vista colour negative film.

Hand held, indoors 

A nosey of twitchers

Asahi Pentax MX

This is a very nice, if rather simple, compact film SLR from Asahi. It is intended as a professional camera and gives full manual control of exposures. In fact, all the camera uses the battery for is the light meter and it works fine with no battery.

Pentax MX (c) John Margetts

lens: n/a

focal length:   n/a

apertures: n/a

focus range: n/a

lens fitting: Pentax K mount

shutter: cloth focal plane

speeds: 1 to 1/1000

flash: hot shoe plus 2 PC sockets

film size: 35 mm

The layout of the camera is pretty standard for SLR cameras from between 1960-ish and 1985-ish. The top plate is metal (as far as I can tell. The three ME series cameras from Asahi had metallised plastic top plates). On the right is the film advance lever. This is metal with a black plastic tip. When not in use, it returns flush with the top plate. In use, it sits slightly proud. This allows easier access for your thumb when advancing the film and also allows easier access to the shutter speed dial. In front of the film advance is a window to the frame counter. This automatically resets to -2 (shown as S) when the camera back is opened. The counter then counts up from zero - two frames being used to remove the film fogged when loading the camera.

Next on the top plate, right at the front, is the shutter release button. This is chrome plated metal and is threaded for a standard cable release. Around this is a moveable collar. When turned anti-clockwise, it turns off the light meter and locks the shutter release. However, the shutter itself is not locked as it can still be fired using the self-timer. In the off/locked position, a small red 'L' is revealed to remind the photographer to unlock the camera.

Pentax MX (C) John Margetts

On the left of the shutter release button is a very small window to an indicator for the shutter status : white = not cocked/not ready

red = cocked/ready

Next along is the shutter speed/film speed selector dial. Shutter speed is set by simply turning the selector dial to position the required speed against the red mark - speeds are from 1 second to 1/1000 seconds plus B. To select the film speed, it is necessary to press a small button on the dial and turn.

Next is the pentaprism hump. This has a hot-shoe accessory shoe on top with then usual central electrical contact. It is marked with a red 'X' to signify that it is synchronised for electronic flash. For flash bulbs, there is other provision.

To the left of the pentaprism hump is the rewind crank. As had become usual by the time this camera was made, the rewind crank pulls up to both unlock the rear door and to free the film cassette for removal.

The front of the top plate is graced with the letters MX which are embossed in the metal and the name Pentax above the lens mount.  The Asahi logo and the name Asahi appear on the front of the pentaprism. Immediately above the name Pentax is a small window. This allows the set aperture to appear in the viewfinder above the image. Below the letters MX is the self-timer lever. This is activated by turning it anti-clockwise (which winds up the timer spring) and then pressing the small button revealed by moving the lever. This gives an eight to ten second delay and also (as mentioned above) will fire the shutter even when locked by the collar around the shutter release button.

On the other side of the lens mount are two PC connectors. One marked FP for flash bulbs and one marked X for electronic flash. These allow for off-camera flash as well as giving provision for using flash bulbs. These come with black plastic caps to protect the contacts when not in use.

The rear of camera is rather plain. There is the viewfinder eye-piece and the rear door. This door is opened by pulling up on the rewind crank. The door is made from black painted steel - on my camera, much of the paint has worn off and the steel has started to rust. In the centre of the door is a holder for the end of the film carton to act as a reminder as to which film is in use - an item all film cameras should have.

The base of the camera is intended to have a rapid wind attachment fitted and to accommodate this there are two holes to act as locating devices and a covered linkage to the film advance mechanism. As I do not have this rapid wind attachment, I can say no more about it. Also on the base plate is a covered battery compartment. This holds two button batteries - those fitted to my camera are marked 'GPA76'. Fortunately, Pentax did not rely on mercury batteries and these batteries are readily available.

The only other thing to mention is the lens mount. This is a K mount camera and any K mount lens will fit and work with the single exception of modern digital lenses with no aperture ring which, while fitting, will not be able to have their aperture adjusted. There are no electrical contacts on the MX version of the K mount as this is a fully mechanical camera but it does not mind lenses with contacts. I have three K mount lenses - a Tokina zoom, a Ricoh Riconar 55mm and a Sirius Automatic 28mm. All three work well with this camera.

Test pictures.

I am quite pleased with these - no light leaks, shutter working as it should - no pin-holes in the curtains and no hesitating curtains. In the second to last photo, there is severe vignetting. this is caused by me using a lens cap designed for a 50 mm lens with a 28 mm lens - the vignetting is actually the lens cap in view!

 This next one shows the joy of using the wrong lens hood - severe vignetting!

Using types of cameras 1: folders

Using types of cameras.

There are quite a large range of old cameras out there.  I am going to look at using serious amateur cameras. So, I am going to ignore point-and-shoot cameras (mainly box cameras as far as vintage cameras are concerned) and large plate cameras.

The cameras I am going to look at can be divided into three groups – folders, viewfinder and SLR (single lens reflex) and I shall deal with them in that order.

Folders

These date from the early days of film photography (as opposed to glass plate photography). The basic structure is a compartment to hold the film taut over the film gate and an open-able door revealing a lens that either can be pulled forward into a  locked position or will spring forward as the door is opened. This means that they are very compact when not in use and so make ideal pocket cameras. They have been made since the late 19th century and are still being made today. They were made in a variety of film sizes and those using 120 film (also called BII by German manufacturers) and 135 film (35 mm cassettes) are still usable today.

The viewfinders on folding cameras tend to be designed to be physically unobtrusive in line with their being thought of as pocket cameras. This can cause problems for the user. The best are the folding finders which are relatively large in use. The worst are the fixed finders such as on early Balda and Kodak Retinas. These have been made as small as possible so as not to get in the way but, as a result, are very difficult to use while wearing glasses.

Some cameras (Zeiss Ikon's Icarette, for example) have a choice of finder – the easiest to use being a large wire frame mounted by the lens and a small frame at the rear of the camera. These are direct vision finders with no lenses and allow the camera to use rise-and-fall mechanisms for the lens and have the finder view the the scene the same as the lens. Using these requires the photographer to align the edges of the rear frame with the edges of the forward frame. This is not difficult but does require attention.

All of these viewfinders are set up for a distant landscape. For close work, the viewfinder will see a slightly different view than the lens does (called parallax error). Sophisticated cameras (Balda Baldina, for example) have a distance adjuster on the viewfinder to slightly alter the direction that the viewfinder points in to remove the parallax error. In the absence of a parallax adjustment, the photographer needs to remember to avoid the area at the top of the viewfinder.

On almost al cameras made before 1939, the shutter is going to need cocking. Cheaper cameras had 'evereset' shutters that were spring loaded and did not need cocking. Typically, an everset shutter only offered two or three shutter speeds.

On most shutters, there are two protruding levers. One cocks the shutter and the other releases the shutter. Here is not usually any indication as to which lever is which but the cocking lever is generally at the top. When cocking the shutter, the cocking lever will move quite a long way and will move against resistance (as it tensions the clockwork spring inside the mechanism). If the shutter is set to its highest speed, the resistance to moving the lever might be considerable when compared to the slower speeds. This is quite normal and not to be worried about.

The way you set the speed varies with the age of the camera. Originally, the speed was set by turning a dial above the shutter. These are known as dial-set shutters for the obvious reason. In the very late 1920s this method was replaced by a ring around the shutter housing to set the  speed – known as rim-set shutters. It took a few years for rim-set shutters to completely replace dial-set shutters and dial-set shutters can still be found on cameras made in the mid 1930s.

The speed numbers on a shutter refer to a fraction of a second – 50 being 1/50th of a second and so on. Just about all shutters have a B setting and with this the shutter will remain open while the shutter release is pressed. Pre-war (i.e. before 1940) shutters will usually have a T setting as well. With T, pressing the shutter release will open the shutter which will remain open until the shutter release is pressed a second time. This is intended for very long exposures – films were no faster than 25 ASA/ISO and frequently slower – and the advent of modern fast films made T unnecessary. None of my post-1940 cameras have a T setting (exception being my 1950s Asahi Pentax SV).

Shutter releases can be found in a number of places. Originally, they were always near the lens (I am ignoring focal-plane shutters as I have never seen these on a folding camera). This is rather awkward physically and moves were made to move the release to the camera body. Doing this involved a flexible linkage which need to fold when the camera was closed. By the mid-1930s both Zeiss Ikon and Agfa had body releases. Voigtlander and Balda had their releases on the lens door initially – Balda moving to a body release by 1938 (Balda Jubilette at least) but Voigtlander still used door releases into the 1950s on their Vito folders.

Where the body shutter release is linked to a lens-based shutter mechanism, the release provided by the shutter manufacturer is still there and just about usable. In addition, there is usually a cable release socket on the shutter housing.

As the release button migrated to the camera body, the makers tried a variety of methods to prevent the photographer taking a second photograph without winding on the film. In old cameras. These mechanisms can fail. My Voigtlander Perkeo will allow me to take as many pictures as I like without winding on – unless I give the camera a sharp slap right after pressing the release (indicating the need for lubrication!). On the other hand, my much cheaper Adox Golf has a double exposure mechanism that still works as intended.


Where there is a double exposure prevention system, there is usually an indication as to whether you can take another photograph. This is usually a white/red dot but the Perkeo has a forward/backward arrow and the Nettar 518/16 has a flag in the viewfinder.

Asahi Pentax SV

This is the archetypical 35 mm SLR from Asahi - marketed in the Americas as the Honeywell H3v. It wasn't Asahi's first 35 mm SLR - that was the Asahiflex - and there were earlier S model Pentax SLRs - but it is the direct ancestor to the famed Spotmatic.

Pentax SV with Super-Takumar lens

Mine is an early SV which is indicated by there being a green R on the rewind crank. Later models had an orange R which indicated that there was room for the 50mm f/1.4 lens which protruded further into the lens mount. It is an entirely mechanical camera: no batteries, no meter, little to go wrong. To look at, it is just about identical to my Spotmatic SP1000 - the photos will show you the differences.

Pentax SV top - Pentax Spotmatic SP1000 bottom

My particular camera has been very badly treated. It has been stored somewhere very damp causing extensive corrosion of what appears to be nickel-plating on the top plate and fascia. this corrosion is bad enough to leave the surface of the metal very pitted after I have cleaned the verdigris off. This, however, does not affect the workings which are fine (as far as I can tell). Also, someone has repaired this camera and re-assembled it incorrectly. I know this for two reasons. Firstly, there was a black painted thin brass plate hanging down into the mirror cavity. While this did not obstruct the light path, it did foul on the diaphragm pin on the automatic M42 mount lens. I suspect that this plate was some sort of light baffle and should have gone upwards in front of the pentaprism rather than downwards into the mirror box. This plate was so distorted by fitting and removing the lens that it is no longer there - I just hope it was not a critical component.

Secondly, when I removed the fascia (to aid removing the jammed lens) the screws, while not loose, were surprisingly easy to remove for screws that had been in place for over 50 years.

As I said earlier, this camera has a standard Pentax layout. On the far right is the film advance lever. this advances the film one frame with one easy movement. As was usual by the 60s, it also cocks the shutter. There is a frame counter built into the film advance which automatically resets to -2 when you open the back. Next to the film advance lever and slightly forward of it is the shutter release button. this is threaded for a standard cable release. Next to this is the shutter speed selector. This goes from 1 second to 1/1000 seconds plus B. It also has a T setting. With T, you press the shutter once to open the shutter and then a second time to close the shutter again. This was normal on most cameras in the first half of the 20th century but rather unusual in the second half. The T setting has a large groove cut into the dial. This is a locating device for the optional light meter, allowing the meter to 'read' the selected shutter speed.

Next to the shutter speed selector is the pentaprism viewfinder. This is good and clear with a bright micro-prism centre spot for accurate focussing. Outside the central spot is a Fresnel lens area to give even illumination of the image.

Left of the viewfinder is the rewind crank. This is a typical fold-out small crank the same as just about every Japanese camera. Below the rewind crank is a film speed reminder. This has two scales - one silver for monochrome films and one green for colour films. The silver one goes from 25 to 1600 ASA and the green scale goes from 12 to 400 ASA (ASA is broadly the same as ISO, but technically different).

Below the ASA reminder is a delay action timer. You set this by turning the knurled ring clockwise. If turned as far as it will go, you get a ten second delay, but you can choose a shorter delay by only turning the knurled ring part way. There is a 'V' on the ring (V = Vorlaufwerk which is German for a delay timer and is the reason for the V in the name Pentax SV) and supposedly the shutter will fire when the V reaches the front of the camera. This is another reason I know the camera has been "repaired" as this camera fires when the V is at the back of the camera - it does, though, still work well. The front of the camera has the lens which is almost central. To the right of the lens (as in looking at the lens) are two PC sockets for flash synchronisation. The top one is for fast flash bulbs and the lower one for electronic flash a M flash bulbs. Synchronisation shutter speed is 1/50 seconds marked on the speed selector as a red X.

The base of the camera has little on it - a tripod boss (1/4 inch Whitworth) behind the lens and a button to release the internal mechanisms for rewinding then film.

In use.

The camera is a delight to use as all the controls fall easily to hand. Focusing is easy with the micro-prisms clearly showing when the image is in focus. The camera came without a lens and for my test film I mostly used my Soviet Helios 44M lens.  While testing the camera, I bought a Super-Takumar f/2 55 mm lens. This is not the lens supplied with the SV but was supplied with the sister model S1. I used this Super-Takumar for the last three frames of the test film.

Although it does not seem to be a design feature, the camera almost has mirror lock-up. I initially thought this might be due to wear on my own camera but I have seen it mention elsewhere on the Interweb. If you press the shutter release button half way, the mirror will come up but the shutter will not fire. You can then press the shutter release all the way and the shutter will fire. This allows you to have a second or so delay for vibrations to die away before the shutter opens.

A selection from the test film are below. Indications are good. I can see no real problems with the camera at all. The lack of the lack of the mysterious black plate I mentioned at the start and had to remove does not seem to have caused any problems.

Pentax SV, Helios 44M lens. Southwell Minster

Rowan leaves and berries 

A flower

Ragwort flowers

Vetch flowers

Grazing bullock

Messingham gravel pit

Child's bike - Super-Takumar lens

Busker, Lincoln city centre - Super-Takumar lens

Nixon Nixette 120 camera

This is a simple camera. A well designed and well made simple camera. It takes 120 film producing 12 off 60 by 60 mm negatives.

Nixon Nixette (C) John Margetts

lens: Supra anastigmat
focal length:  7.5 cm
apertures: f/5.6 to f/16 (marked, probably to f/22)
focus range: 3 feet to infinity
lens fitting: fixed
shutter:  Vario
speeds: 1/25, 1/50, 1/200
flash: PC connector, no synch selector
film size: 120

The body of the camera is made from cast aluminium alloy with pressed steel back and lens door. The camera is covered with heavily textured leatherette with an anodised aluminium top plate. Apart from the top plate, the camera is low-gloss black.

The camera measures 140 mm by 95 mm by 50 mm (105 mm when the lens door is open) - two knobs on the base and the accessory shoe extend beyond these measurements. It weighs 477 g when loaded with film which  is sufficient heft to give stability but not too heavy to carry around.

The top plate is plain and nearly featureless. On the left hand end (left as when using the camera) between the top plate and camera body is a recessed wheel to advance the film. About a quarter of the way along the top plate is an accessory shoe - at this age it is a 'cold' shoe. Below this is the viewfinder - a reverse Galilean finder. This is small as was usual at this time - the eye-piece is circular and 5 mm in diameter. The other side of the viewfinder is 10 mm square. The only other feature on the top plate is a small button beside the accessory shoe to release the lens door. Press this and the lens door opens with a satisfying 'clunk'.

Nixon Nixette

The rear of the camera is featureless apart from a circular red window to allow for the reading of the frame numbers when advancing the film. On this camera this window is orange - I am not sure if this is the standard colour used by Nixon or if the original red has faded. The rear door is made from pressed steel. There is a ribbed pressure plate on the inside.

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Blog (C) John Margetts 2015)

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The front of the camera is plain while closed. there is a central logo stating 'NIXETTE' in the middle of the lens door. This lens door is convex. This allows the camera to stand securely and levelly on a flat surface for 'selfies' (not as new an idea as you might think!).

Lens supporting struts

When the lens door is opened, the lens comes forward on a die-cast aluminium frame. This is very different to any other folding camera I have ever seen. The lens/shutter assembly is attached to the camera body with a folding bellows. The bellows are also different to any I have ever seen. The bellows are not the usual concertina style and has many less folds which will reduce the likelihood of pin-holes forming.

The shutter is a Gauthier Vario shutter. This is a very simple shutter offering only 3 speeds (1/25, 1/50 and 1/200) and B. The available apertures are from f/5.6 to f/16 Actually, f/16 is the smallest aperture marked, but the adjuster moves significantly beyond f/16 and reduces the aperture size beyond f/16 - judging by eye, at least to f/22.

The lens is marked as a Supra anastigmat. I doubt Nixon made the lens themselves - there were plenty of lens makers in Germany who could easily and cheaply supply lenses. The focal length is 7.5 cm and is marked with a 'V' which I assume means that the lens is coated The lens has a serial number but without knowing who made the lens the serial number is not of much use. the focus scale goes down to 3 - I assume feet as 3 m would not be an impressive close focus.

The distance scale has two Happy Snapper settings in red. To use these you must first set the aperture to the red dot (just slightly wider than f/11). The first happy Snapper setting is at 10 feet (just about 3 m) which, with the aperture at the red dot gives a depth of field from 7 feet to 15 feet - ideal for portraits and small groups. The next Happy snapper setting is at 30 feet. Again, aperture at the red dot, the depth of field is from 15 feet to infinity - this is the hyperfocal length at f/11 for this lens. Incidentally, this is a front cell focussing lens. That is, the entire lens does not move to focus, only the the front piece of glass (I suspect this is a triplet lens with three pieces of glass).

Closing the lens door is somewhat different to most folders. Normally, to close folding cameras, you collapse the struts holding the lens/shutter in place. With this camera, the die-cast assembly hinges from the top - first you have to depress a small chrome lever on the right of the lens opening near the door hinge. The tip of the assembly then will move down - the lens door will also move down slightly before folding up.

Shutter and lens

Inside the camera is as would be expected. the new film goes on the right - unusual but from from being rare. The roll of film has to fit under a sharply curved blue steel spring. On the take-up side, the empty spool is put in place by pulling out the chrome knob on the camera base plate. Incidentally, the camera serial number is located inside the camera, just below the film gate.

Camera in use:

The camera is now loaded with Fomapan Creative 200 black and white film. I am going to expose the as 125 ISO as the 35 mm Fomapan I have used has produced very thin negatives - to be on the safe side with checking the camera, the first two frames I will expose at box speed (200 ISO). That way I will know that any over-exposed negatives are down to the shutter, not my exposure.

The camera is easy to use. There is enough room for my hands either side of the lens door. The shutter release falls easily enough to hand - and will be very comfortable with practice. The film advance wheel is easy to move while holding the camera with your left hand.

Pictures will be about another week when I will submit them here.

Balda Baldi

This is a small (very small) folder from Balda. It measures 100 mm by 80 mm by 35 mm (closed) or by 85 mm (open). This is slightly smaller (by 20 mm) than the 35 mm Balda Baldina of the same date. It takes 127 film - no longer made and very difficult to get hold of: it is currently (29-5-2015) available from http://www.retrophotosupplies.com/ with whom I have never had any dealing - and is a half-frame camera. That is, it takes two pictures on one standard frame which is 40 mm by 60 mm. That gives us an image measuring 30 mm by 40 mm.

Balda Baldi, front view

The camera is made out of pressed steel. This is shown where the paint has worn and the steel has started to rust. The body of the camera is covered with leatherette - this is now threadbare and very thin. The leatherette has also shrunk in places and has come away from the metal around raised parts leaving significant air bubbles between the leatherette and the metal. The edges of the camera are bright plated - I suspect with nickel - and the rust is showing through this plating in places. When new, the leatherette was embossed with writing - presumably the maker and model - but only small parts of the writing are left, far too little to read. The only sign of the maker now is the word 'Balda' on the fascia of the shutter. There is also the legend 'Made in Germany' embossed on the leather handle.

Outwardly, it looks much like a 1930s Balda Baldina or Jubilette and I suspect that the later 35 mm cameras are based on this camera. The top plate  has only two items - the film advance and the viewfinder.
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Text and pictures (C) John Margetts, 2015
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The film advance is different to all other roll-film advances I have come across. Firstly, it is on a ratchet which can be clearly heard when turning the advance the wrong way. When you do this, the take-up spool inside does not turn.

Balda Baldi, side view

Secondly, there is a mechanical stop which prevents the advance knob from turning more than one complete turn in either direction. this means that after advancing the film, it is necessary to turn the knob the wrong way before you can turn it the correct way to advance the film I suspect that this is a way of automatically advancing the film without looking at the red windows. Once I source some film I shall find out for sure. The top of the advance knob is marked 'DRGM' which stands for Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster - it signifies copyright protection rather than a patent and was much cheaper to obtain than a patent, lasting just three years.

Right next to the film advance knob is a small nickel plated button. this is the lens release button. Pressing this causes the door in the front of the camera to spring open. This is designed to fully open by itself - the springs are quite strong - but my particular camera needs a bit of initial help. It is 80 years old so perhaps this is to be expected.

The viewfinder is exactly the same as on the Balda Baldina  except that the image is in portrait format - a consequence of this being a half-frame camera. The nice touch is the provision of an anti-parallax device. This is in the form of a wheel with a distance scale under the rear of the viewfinder. If you turn this wheel to the focus distance, the viewfinder is tilted so that it points at the subject rather than always pointing at the horizon. this should mean that portraits avoid having the tops of their heads missing.

The base plate is entirely clear except for a central tripod boss. This is the original 3/8 inch Whitworth thread with a 1/4 inch Whitworth slug in it so it will fit modern tripods.

Balda Baldi, closed, front view

When opened, the lens is held rigidly in place. The lens itself is a Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan - clearly a triplet and seems to be of the Crooke's Triplet design. It has a 5 cm focal length (focal lengths were usually quoted in cm up to 1940 and usually in mm after 1945). its maximum aperture is f/3.5 and the minimum is f/16 - actually a very usable range, my own photography is usually between f/5.6 and f/11.

The shutter is a Compur offering speeds up to 1/300 seconds. There is no flash synch or self-timer. As is usual with old leaf shutters, the slow speeds are way off - 1 second is very close to 3 seconds. mind you, that is only 1.5 stops and so is well within the exposure latitude of film. The shutter also offers B and T. B is where the shutter remains open while the shutter release button is depressed and T opens the shutter when the release button is pressed once and closes the shutter when the release button is pressed a second time. On this camera neither B nor T works at all but there is a possibility they will free up when the shutter has been fired a few dozen times.

Being an old camera, the shutter needs cocking before it can be fired. The cocking lever is on the right side of the shutter housing when the camera is in use. As it is a Compur shutter, it needs to be raised to cock the shutter - moved clockwise while looking at the lens. Prontor shutters have the cocking lever move anti-clockwise while looking at the lens.

Balda Baldi, rear view

Lens focusing is by turning the front element only. This degrades the image slightly but the degradation is theoretical rather than meaningful. The focus range is marked from 5 feet to infinity but it will focus a bit closer than 5 feet. The fact that the lens is calibrated in feet shows us that the camera was an official import into either the British Empire or the USA.

The shutter release is on the top of the lens door and is strictly left-handed. This seems to have been fairly common once a body release was fitted and has the advantage of allowing the right hand to have a firm and steady hold on the camera.

The rear of the camera has the red windows to allow then user to see the frame numbers on the film backing paper while advancing the film. As this is a half-frame camera, there are two red windows and each frame number is used first in the left-hand window and then in the right-hand window. The windows are provided with a sliding shutter to prevent panchromatic film being fogged by light coming in through the red windows.

One last thing to note on the outside of the camera is the usual plated folding leg on the lens door which allows the camera to be used while placed on a table or similar. used with a standard cable release (for which the shutter is threaded) this allows the slower shutter speeds to be used.

Balda Baldi, inside

Inside the camera is nicely designed with no surprises. On the inside of the hinged back is the pressure plate which keeps the film flat. It is significantly larger than the film gate - it measures 50 mm by 50 mm - so should keep the film nice and flat. The film gate itself measures 30 mm by 40 mm - this is significantly larger than a 35 mm frame. The spool holders are on swivels which makes loading the film much easier. the left-hand spool holder (for the new film) has a hinged base which drops away as the spool holder is swivelled out and then moves back up to place to hold the film securely once the spool holder is pushed back in place.

The right-hand spool holder is held in place by the film advance knob which needs to be pulled up before the spool holder can be swivelled out to receive the empty take-up spool.  There is a plated roller either side of the film gate to ensure the film is not scratched when winding-on.

Test film.

127 film is not so easy to get hold of. I bought a roll of Rera Pan 100 film which is new to me so this is a test of both the camera and the film.

The film was quite easy to load and the camera as easy to use as any camera of this date is.  The camera is a half-frame camera so I got 16 shots on a roll of film. - each frame is slightly bigger than a 35 mm film frame is.

The film has ended up well exposed - a visual inspection of the negatives shows the light areas are nice and dark, the dark areas are nice and light and there is a good range of tones between.  I was not sure of the development time so I guessed on 18 minutes with ID11 diluted 1+3 - I based that on the development times for Fomapan for want of a better idea. My guess was clearly close to ideal.

The film was scanned for me by Snappy Snaps and the scans also have a good tonal range.  Alas, there are significant scanning artefacts (mostly dust and fibres) but nothing a session with Gimp will not cure.