Ica Icarette A (or B?)

Ica was a camera manufacturer based in Dresden and owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung.  Ica is an acronym for Internationale Camera Aktien Gesellschaft (the Aktien Gesellschaft part is the German equivalent of the British PLC or USian Inc).  Ica is one of the companies that merged to form Zeiss Ikon in 1926.  After 1926, Zeiss Ikon continued to make Icarette cameras but this one is clearly marked 'ICA Akl Ges' (the usual abbreviation is AG rather than Akl Ges). This means it was made prior to 1926. I can date it more accurately (but not very accurately) by the Body Number (E42012). In 1926 when the merger to form Zeiss Ikon occurred, Ica were up to the letter 'L'. For each letter, Ica made 100,000 cameras so the seven letter difference indicates 700,000 cameras.  After the merger into Zeiss Ikon, production by the much larger business only used two letters of the alphabet each year. The smaller Ica, which was also trading during a much tougher time, is unlikely to have used more than one letter each year which pushes the date of this camera back to 1919 at a best guess. The Icarette model was introduced in 1918 so a date of 1919 (or perhaps 1920) is more than reasonable.

I also have a later Icarette made in about 1930 by Zeiss Ikon.

Ica Icarette A (or B?)

My particular camera has been 'well loved'. Although it has the signs of having been used well, it is in quite good condition for a camera that is 90-odd years old. The main defects are: someone has attempted to remove the rear element of the lens. The metal of the securing ring has gouge marks and there are significant scratches to the matt black paint in the area around the lens. The front two elements of the lens are also loose-ish - loose enough to remove by hand. The inside of the back has been repainted in places by hand and someone has added a home-made catch for the lens board.

Left-hand side view.

Wear and tear includes the leather (not leatherette) covering starting to peel and fray at the edges in places. The steel parts have some surface rusting. Someone has removed the wire frame from the viewfinder. The only other significant defect I can find is the locating pin for the lens standard. On opening the camera, it is necessary to pull the lens forward by squeezing the two plated lugs below the lens. The lens then pulls forward on plated rails until it locates on the pin mentioned above. This pin is visibly worn and no longer locates the lens standard properly.

Rear view of the inside.

I shall now give a general description of the camera.

It measures 125 mm by 80 mm by 30 mm when closed (by 90 mm when open). It weighs **g. The lens board is central on the front and opens downwards. The outside of the camera is very plain. It is entirely covered in black leather which is minimally decorated with straight line tooling.

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Blog (c) John Margetts
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The top of the camera has the film advance knob on the left. While the back is on the camera, this is securely held in place. Once the back is removed, the advance knob pulls upwards to release the take-up spool. On my camera, the advance knob becomes completely detached but I am not sure this is as it should be. The knob locates with two pins - one short and one long (6 mm and 33 mm, respectively). The long pin has a flattened part half way along. Inside the camera, besides where the spool goes, is a small hole that aligns with the flattened part of the long pin. I suspect that this hole once contained a screw that allowed the long pin to move the length of the flattened part and no further - about 5 mm. The knob itself contains a ratchet so that the knob cannot turn the wrong way and loosen the film on the spool.

Front and right-hand view.

The back of the camera has a red window placed centrally. The camera takes 6 x 6 cm photographs and so uses the middle row of numbers on the film's backing paper.  The film size is 117 (now obsolete) which is the same size film as 120 but on a smaller spool - a bit like 620 film. 117 has essentially the same size spool as 620 but uses the 120 size key-hole on the end of the spool, rather than the smaller 620 key-hole. I could (but won't) rewind some 120 film onto the spool that came with this camera and use it. As this camera has a focussing issue, I shall not bother.

Camera closed

ready for winding on.

Ready to use.

Using the rear viewfinder window. When the viewfinder window is all the way down (in the closed position) it covers the red window and prevents any light getting into the camera and fogging the film.  To wind-on the film, you raise the viewfinder part-way to expose the red window.  When taking a photograph, you raise the viewfinder all the way, covering the red window again.  Ingenious!

In order to load the camera with film, the back must be completely removed. This is done by depressing two plated studs on the right-hand end of the camera. The model B Icarette had an optional back for glass plates and perhaps this detachable back indicates that mine is an Icarette B rather than an Icarette A.

The front of the camera opens downwards and fits into place with a definite click. In the face of the lens board is a tripod boss.  As I mentioned, the lens must be pulled forwards until it locates on a pin to keep it in the correct position. The lens is attached to the body with leatherette bellows. These seem to be in good condition with no visible holes or splits. Focussing is achieved by moving a lever on the lens board which moves the shutter/lens forwards and backwards. Focussing with this camera is not critical - the distance on the scale between infinity and one metre is about one cm.

The lens is a 75 mm Novar lens (inscribed as being 7.5 cm, as was the fashion pre-WWII)It has a maximum aperture of f6.8 and a minimum aperture of f36.  The sequence of apertures is not the modern one. It goes: 6.8, 9, 12.5, 18, 25, 36. These numbers are very hard to read as they are behind the mount for the Iconometer viewfinder.

The shutter has no name or other identifying marks but I am sure it is a Gauthier Derval shutter. It has two blades only and offers 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100 speeds as well as B and Z. Z (marked as T on export models) opens the shutter which then stays open until the release lever is pressed a second time. There is a threaded socket for a standard cable release.

On the left side of the shutter housing is a Brilliant viewfinder. It was normal at this time to offer two finders - a brilliant and a frame finder. This Brilliant finder is in remarkable condition. the mirror in brilliant finders seem to be plated straight onto steel and in old cameras is usually corroded enough to make using the finder very hard to use. This one is quite usable.

The top of the shutter housing is supposed to mount the wire frame part of the other viewfinder (called an Iconometer by Ica). The mounting is still there but the frame is missing.

The shutter is made with a sideways movement of 8 mm either side of central - a total movement of 16 mm. I am not entirely clear what this is for. I understand vertical shifts of lenses to reduce/remove perspective problems in architectural photography  but not horizontal shifts. It might be that, given this camera produces square negatives, that it was intended for the photographer to use the camera on its side when this becomes a vertical shift but I have not convinced myself.

Olympus C-315 zoom

OK.  I am going to use a naughty word - digital. There - said and nothing bad has happened.  This blog has always been about my old film cameras - not digital for the simple reason that I do not collect digital cameras. I have nothing against digital cameras and I do own a rather nice digital SLR - a Canon 650D - but they do not entice me in the same way that film cameras do.

Olympus C-315 zoom - closed

So why have I bought this 'old' digital camera? Well, last summer Bestbeloved and I went to Edinburgh for the day. I wasn't feeling particularly well and could not face carrying a camera around all day. My collection of old cameras are all metal and even the lightest are heavy after a day walking around the delights of Scotland's capital. My single digital camera - the 650D - is also heavy and requires lenses to be carried as well.

Of course, I spent the day seeing things I wanted to photograph and couldn't. I decided then that I needed a modern, small and very light plastic digital camera that would sit in my pocket unnoticed until I needed it.

Olympus C-315 zoom - open

It has taken me until this week to find one at a price I was willing to pay. I ought to say that I have not been looking very hard! Having bought the camera, I found that I needed an XD card which are no longer made. So, today I have camera, card and batteries and I have been out and about Lincoln trying the camera out.

The camera is small - 10 cm by 5.5 cm by 4 cm - no so small by very modern standards, perhaps, but it is the smallest camera I own - and it weighs 200 gram with the batteries fitted. I would certainly be able to carry this camera around all day with no trouble.

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Being digital, it is mostly controlled by menus. There are minimal external controls. On the top are two controls - the shutter release and a zoom control. On the back there is a small 36 mm by 26 mm LCD display which takes up about half the back. Above the display is a small viewfinder and next to that is the on/off-playback-photograph switch.

To the right of the display is what seems to be the standard four direction buttons with a central 'OK' button. Above this is a quick display button so you can chimp your work. On the left-hand end of the camera is a power input socket. The right-hand end is rather more cluttered. There is a door covering the XD card slot, another door covering the battery compartment and an attachment point for a wrist strap.

Olympus C-315 zoom - back view

The base of the camera has a central tripod boss and a small electrical socket. I am guessing that this last is concerned with the 'Imagelink' mentioned on the front of the camera - that is, a direct connection to an Olympus photo printer. The front of the camera is also fairly plain. There is a small telescopic lens, the front of the viewfinder, a small flash window and a red LED.

I shall now go over the controls individually before discussing how the camera behaves in action. The main control on any camera is the shutter release. this is to the modern standard - a plain, smooth button basically flush with its surroundings. unlike the shutter releases on my film cameras, there is no thread for a cable release.

When you press this shutter release, several things happen. First, the lens is focussed. Then the exposure is calculated and set, then the shutter opens. This is not a fast camera and there is a delay of two to three seconds between pressing the release button and the shutter opening. You can forget about the decisive moment with this camera. Once the photograph has been taken, there is a further delay while the picture file is written to the card. On all quality settings the write time is about five seconds which much reduces your photographic ability.

The button next to the shutter release is the zoom control. This is marked 'W' and 'T' - wide and telephoto with no indication of focal length. This control works quite well and is about the only control with no time lag. What I did find impressive is the way that the zoom control also zooms the viewfinder keeping the viewfinder image close to what the sensor sees. There does not seem to be any parallax adjustment when the lens is close focussed but that might be asking a bit too much. 

Moving to the back of the camera, the on/off switch suffers from a great deal of delay. When you switch the camera on there is a delay of three seconds before there is any noticeable activity. A feature I do not like is the way that the camera reverts to defaults when you switch it on. That is Program mode and HQ quality. I have been using the camera in landscape mode and SHQ quality but that is not retained. Yes, I can easily reset those but that is inconvenient and it would be nice if the camera made a note of the settings when it was switched off.

If you do not use the camera for a short while it goes into a suspended mode to conserve power. When you press any button the camera powers back up - but with a considerable delay. The screen is below the on/off button and takes up most of teh left half of the back. Information on the screen when shooting is: the current mode (there are seven to choose from), the focussing point (centre of the screen), shooting mode (single or burst), image quality and remaining shots. There are four quality settings. SHQ and HQ are the same resolution (2592 x 1944 pixels) and I assume that SHQ saves the file with less compression. SQ1 has a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels and SQ2 a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixels. The proportions of each is 4:3 which is rather more square than I am used to with either 35mm film or my Canon DSLR. That is not to say it is bad, it is just not what I am used to.

Next to the screen is the quick view button. Pressing this displays the last photograph taken. Initially, the quality and frame number are displayed but only for a few seconds - after that you just get the uncluttered picture. In SHQ and SQ the display also shows the date and time of the picture, but not in HQ for some reason. While you are viewing a picture with the Quick View button, moving the zoom control to 'W' will display 16 thumbnails at a time (or 9 or 4 - the number can be set with one of the menu items). You can manoeuvre through these using the direction buttons - moving the zoom control to 'T' will display the highlighted picture full-screen. 

The direction keys do various things depending on the mode the camera is in. In shooting mode, they are as follows: the up button sets/resets macro mode, down button sets/resets the delay timer, left button allows you to choose shooting mode and the right button sets/resets the flash - the flash can also be used to prevent red-eye. The central 'OK' button brings up the shooting menu. This allows you to set quality, white balance (auto, sunny, cloudy, artificial light) and the mode menu (exposure compensation, digital zoom, secondary macro mode, single or burst and (if you have the right Olympus XD card) panorama mode. A further menu allows you to format the card and a third menu I am not quite sure what it does. I have no manual or operating instructions and I am doing this by experiment. When you are at a menu item, the central button confirms that particular item.

When viewing your pictures, the left and right direction buttons move to the next/last picture and the up/down buttons toggle between the first and last image. A second press on the up/down buttons moves ten images.

On the right-hand end of the camera is a USB port for downloading pictures to a computer. I do not have the CD-ROM that came with the camera with instructions and software, but this works well without either on my Linux (Ubuntu 14.4) computer. As an experiment, I tried formatting the XD card with my computer rather than with the camera - the camera did not like this and insisted on formatting the XD card again before I could use the camera again. As a further experiment, I tried to upload a photograph from my computer to the camera - this did not work. Rather, it did but the camera would not admit to the photograph being there.

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Using the camera.

The camera I easy to use - I have been doing so with no instructions at all and I have had no problems. The test pictures I have taken are below. I am generally pleased with these. One thing that is worth mentioning is that they are all a bit flat. The light was good and I would have expected a bit more contrast and colour saturation. No real problem as this can easily be fixed in the Gimp (or Photoshop, for my rich readers).

What is worth noting is the second interior shot. This was taken at the lowest resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. If you look at the top of the black picture frame you can see the effects of the individual pixels as the frame is stepped rather than smooth - compare with the first picture which is at the maximum resolution of 2592 x 1944 pixels.

All pictures in Lincoln and copyright John Margetts.

Same as above but tweaked in the Gimp

using the macro setting

High quality

Lowest quality

Zorki 4

The Zorki 4 camera was made by KMZ ( Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory)  in the former USSR near Moscow. The name 'Zorki' means 'sharp sighted' in English. Over 1,700,000 Zorki 4 cameras were made in total. The original Zorki was a direct copy of a Leica II camera but the camera underwent many alterations and improvements and the Zorki 4 was an entirely Russian design. Zorki cameras were supplied originally supplied with an Industar-22 lens ( a copy of a Carl Zeiss Tessar) but the Zorki 4 was supplied with a Jupiter-8 lens which is a copy of a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar lens. Zorki cameras were made between 1956 and 1973.

Zorki 4, front view (copyright John Margetts)

lens: Jupiter-8

focal length:  50mm

apertures: f2 to f22

focus range: 1 metre to infinity

lens fitting: LTM (or M39)

shutter: cloth focal plane

speeds: 1/60 to 1/1000 (there are also slower speeds but the numbers have worn off the dial and I cannot read them)

flash: PC socket synch for M and X

film size: 35 mm

The camera measures 145 by 35 by 85 mm (not including the lens) and the lens adds another 40 mm when focussed on 1 metre.  It weighs a significant 720 grams when loaded with a 24 exposure film.

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blog copyright 2014, John Margetts

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The controls are as you would expect and hold no surprises. On the far right is the film advance. This is a knob - rather antiquated for 1973 (when this camera was made) - which I rather like. I certainly do not miss having a film advance lever, the winding action of the knob allowing a valuable pause for thought. Set into the top of the film advance knob is the frame counter. Next to the film advance knob is a central raised section. On the right of this section is the shutter release button. This is towards the back of the camera which I find a little awkward but it is quite usable. It is threaded for a standard cable release. Around the shutter release button is a knurled collar which you turn clockwise to release the mechanism for rewinding the film.

Next to this is the shutter speed selector. The standard advice for Soviet cameras applies here - always advance the film before changing the shutter speed or risk damaging the selector mechanism. This is important enough for the original retailer of this camera to have supplied a metal sticker on then inside of the ever-ready case to remind the user.

Around the speed selector is a large ring used to set the type of flash synchronisation - either M or X. Next to this is the accessory shoe - this has no contacts so is a 'cold' shoe in flash terms.  On the far left, at the same lower level as the film advance, is the rewind knob. This is telescopic to make rewinding the film easier. A very nice touch not often found on cameras is a lever below the rewind knob which allows the user to focus the viewfinder - this means I can use the camera without my glasses on and still have a clear view.

Zorki 4 showing top plate.

The back of the camera is rather plain. On the left of the top plate is the viewfinder eye-piece. This doubles as the rangefinder eyepiece. On the right of the top plate is the KMZ logo of a prism with a ray of light passing through it and the legend 'MADE IN USSR' (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, for our younger readers). Below this is the body serial number  - with Soviet cameras the first two digits of the serial number give the year of manufacture, in this case 1973.

Zorki 4, rear view

The base plate of the camera has a tripod boss below the lens which is a standard 1/4 inch Whitworth thread. On either end of the base plate are the catches for the base/back which are removed as one to load the film.

Zorki 4, base of camera

The front of the top plate has the viewfinder which is quite large (18 by 12 mm), a centrally placed rangefinder window which is rather small and the PC socket for the flash. Above these is the stencilled legend - Zorki-4. The camera body has the lens (where else?) and the self-timer.

The lens is a Jupiter-8 lens. This is a copy of a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar lens. Early production was cased is plain aluminium but by this date the aluminium was paint matt black. the use of aluminium gives a very light lens but at the expense of toughness. This specimen has been bashed at some point and the filter thread has a flattened part meaning I will not be able to use filters on this camera - no great loss as I rarely use filters.

The lens serial number has the same format as the body number and shows that the lens was also made in 1973.

The specification of the lens is quite impressive. It has six elements in three groups, for the optical aficionados, and has a maximum aperture of f2. This is quite a wide aperture for any lens and as wide as you will find on a camera of this age. As a landscape photographer I will rarely use any lens this wide open. The iris diaphragm has nine blades giving a close to circular aperture which should produce nice bokeh.

Using the Zorki-4

This is a rangefinder camera so the first thing to note is using the rangefinder. This is not too easy. For those who have never used a rangefinder - the technique involves turning the focus ring on the lens until two images in the viewfinder are on top of each other. To work well, the two images must be easy to see and that is where this rangefinder falls down. The rangefinder window on the front of the camera is small - 5 by 3 mm - which gives a very dim second image. It does work and I have been using it successfully but it is not easy.  One thing that is common with rangefinders is to 'silver' the internal mirror with gold rather than silver or mercury as this gives an orange image which is easier to see. Alas, Zorki have not done this and you end up peering into the viewfinder looking for the secondary image. I shall probably use this camera as a scale focus camera and rely on the hyperfocal distance as I do with most of my non-reflex cameras.

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blog copyright 2014, John Margetts

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Apart from the rangefinder aspect, the viewfinder is bright and clear. As I mentioned above, it is possible to focus the viewfinder to allow for personal defects in vision and I find this to be very useful. The viewfinder is both above and to one side of the lens. This will introduce parallax errors for anything other than landscapes. Parallax is where the lens and viewfinder are both looking at the same object but from different places. For a head-and-shoulders portrait, it will be necessary to keep the person towards both the right and bottom of the viewfinder - experience will tell the photographer exactly haw far to the right or bottom to go. With many camera there are secondary bright lines in the viewfinder to frame close up shots. With up-market cameras the viewfinder adjusts its view as you focus, but this is not an up-market camera.

Focussing the lens is smooth and easy as is setting the aperture. The aperture ring has two scales - the front of the lens turns as you focus and if there was just the one scale you would not be able to read it at both near focus and infinity. The aperture ring has no click stops. This means that you can set intermediate apertures if you want to but also means that you can inadvertently alter the aperture so checking is a good idea before firing the shutter.

Setting the shutter speed is not as clear as it could be. The dot on the scale does not line up exactly with the numbers. The height of the selector knob changes with speed - 1/60 and slower raise up the selector knob - 1/125 is the slowest sped with the selector knob in the lower position - you can then count positions to accurately set 1/250, 1/500 and 1/1000.

Having framed your picture and focussed the lens, pressing the shutter release needs a firm but not excessive pressure to fire the shutter. I do not like too easy shutters as I am liable to fire accidentally as I am still composing - not a problem I shall have with this camera. When the shutter is fired, the camera makes a definite squeak. Exakta cameras are notorious for this and then it indicates that the shutter needs lubrication. I suspect that it is the same with this Zorki but the cost of paying someone to lubricate it will be much more than the camera is worth.

Winding the film on is easy even though the film advance is a knob and not a lever. The one bit I do find slightly awkward is the fact that the knob turns clockwise - the film is wound onto the take-up spool emulsion outwards. Neither really matters but I find moving the advance clockwise to be non-intuitive.

Test pictures

I am quite pleased with these pictures overall. The lab that developed the film for me (Snappy Snaps, Lincoln) told me that some frames were overexposed but mostly they are within the latitude of the film (but see the yellow flowers below). Over-exposure suggests a slow shutter ( or me moving the aperture setting inadvertently). This is a 1973 camera that has most probably never been serviced and not used in some time - there was a film in the camera that had been there long enough to be forgotten about when I bought the camera. 

I took a variety of fairly close-up shots to test the calibration of the rangefinder - all seems to be well. I also used the lens wide open and at f4 for the flower shots to see how well the lens performs.

Russian lenses are generally very good, particularly when stopped down. Where Russian lenses do not perform well it is usually down to careless assembly in the factory or an owner messing about with the lens, rather than the glass itself.

In summary, this lens gives good colour rendition and good contrast. The lens is plenty sharp enough. The camera is slightly over-exposing but not to an extent I cannot compensate for. In fact, with use, the shutter might start running correctly.

I am giving individual comments on each photo below.

This is the only photograph to show the white band on the left. It was also the last frame on the roll of film. I am assuming that its position on the film is the cause of the white band. The picture has good focus and good contrast.

Here, I focussed on one of the pink petunias. This shows that the rangefinder is pretty well calibrated as it should be. The result of some over-exposure is visible in the pink.

These buskers are a fairly regular sight in Lincoln city centre. I focussed on the accordion as being the only part of them with the strong lines that the dim rangefinder needed.

This shot did not use the rangefinder but rather my usual habit of using the hyperfocal distance. I am quite pleased with the sharpness of this.

Lincoln Market Hall. Again, using the hyperfocal distance rather than the rangefinder.

For this flower shot, I focussed on one of the yellow flowers (a potentilla). The detail in the flowers is almost completely blown - a result of over-exposure. The leaves, being that bit darker, have retained their detail.

 These lavender flowers did better. Again, I am happy with the focus that the rangefinder gave me. This shot was with the lens wide open (f2).

The Siemens' factory on the banks of the Witham in Lincoln. Another hyperfocal picture. I like both the colour rendition and the contrast.

 The same factory complete with reflection. No flare which I had thought might be a problem with this lens.

 A close-up of a disused part of the Siemens' factory and a part of the Witham sluice. A hint of flare in the upper left of the brick-work.

 Factory and sluice from further back.

 For this close-up of the steel rail, I focussed on the top of the first upright. The lens was wide open (f2) and the metal-work is in good focus. The rangefinder is as well calibrated as it could be.

The Witham in the city centre where it flows under the medieval bridge. It is now usual to have a number of barges moored along here although a few years ago it would have been unusual.

A trio of Rockabilly buskers who play in the city centre on a regular basis. I focussed on the double bass with the lens stopped down. Again, good colours and good contrast.

Halina 35X

Halina 35X

This is a small but heavy Chinese camera made by Haking in Hong Kong.  It looks a little like a Leica which I am sure is not a complete coincidence.  It is entirely made from metal - which metal I am not sure but I would presume an aluminium alloy of some sort.  The top plate is pressed brass which shows the manufacturing standards - none of it is quite flat or quite straight but fits well none-the-less.  This camera is small (115 x 70 x 70 mm), frankly a bit small for my hands but not too small to be used.

lens: Halina Anastigmat
focal length: 45mm
apertures: 3.5 - 16 no click stops
focus range: 3 feet to infinity
lens fitting: fixed
shutter: simple
speeds: 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200
flash: PC socket, M synch
film size:  35mm

The lens is an Halina Anastigmat, f3.5 45mm.  When I received this camera, both the focussing helical and the aperture control were so stiff it was nearly impossible to turn them.  Research on the Interweb suggests that this was usual from new.  I have applied naptha (lighter fuel) in an attempt to remove any sticky gunk from both of these and after the naptha had dried off, I applied a small amount of clock oil which seems to have freed them both nicely.  The test will be if the controls are still free in a few days time.  The lens is a triplet with the outer two elements being coated but not the middle element.

Halina 35X - top view

The aperture is adjustable from f3.5 to f16 according to the scale, but the control ring moves well beyond f16 so i suspect the smallest aperture is at least f22.  The markings on the aperture control ring are very irregular.  This is for two reasons.  Firstly, the scale is logarithmic - most of my cameras have a linear aperture scale but a few have a logarithmic one - the difference depends on how the control ring is linked to the diaphragm blades.  Secondly, the aperture range starts at f3.5 and then goes to f4 - the change from f3.5 to f4 is only half a stop; a full stop to f4 would be from f2.8.

Focussing is from three feet to infinity.  I have yet to use this camera so I have no idea how well it will perform, but my Interweb research suggests not too well.  I will make up my own mind when I have run a test film through the camera.  There is a depth of field scale next to the focussing scale which is something I wish modern lenses had.  I find it very useful.

This camera has both double exposure control and missed frame control.  Winding on the film releases the shutter release but does not cock the shutter.  This is done by a lever on the left side of the shutter housing.  So, to take a picture, you need to wind on and manually cock the shutter.  Already by the time this camera was made (1959-ish) this was a very old fashioned way of doing things.  however, this method does allow for multiple exposures if you want them - hold down the shutter release and cock and release the cocking lever for each exposure you want.

Both film advance and film rewind are managed by knobs rather than levers - again, rather old fashioned for the time.  I am quite happy with knobs rather than levers.

The viewfinder is a reverse Galilean finder - 'reverse' means that it produces a smaller than life image which in this case is only just smaller.  The viewfinder is small - much the same size as an early Voigtlander Vito B - and smaller than was usual for the time.  This makes it hard to use for spectacle wearers like myself.

There is an accessory shoe - a cold shoe in flash terms - and a PC flash connector.  There is a 'M' embossed in the metal beside the PC connector so this is synchronised for ordinary flash bulbs rather than fast bulbs or electronic flash. The frame counter is beneath the film advance and it counts down to zero so when loading a new film the counter needs to be set to the length of the film and the figure showing is how many frames are left.  For a thirty six exposure film, you initially set the frame counter to zero, there being thirty six divisions around the counter.

Halina 35X - base plate

To load a film you need to remove the back and base of the camera in one piece.  There is a central knob in the base plate which needs to be turned a quarter of a turn to open the camera.  The end of the film slides beneath a spring on the take-up spool and there is no tooth to engage in a sprocket hole, the film being held in place entirely by the pressure of the spring.  I have just loaded my first film and this is  very easy to do.  With cameras where the back and base come away together, I generally find loading new film quite difficult - certainly with both Zeiss Ikon Contaflex and Voigtlander Bessamatic cameras - supporting the weight of the camera while manipulating both the film and take-up spool can be quite difficult.  Not so with this camera partly, I suspect, because the camera is not so large or heavy as those cameras.

19-1-2013:  

So how does this camera work in practise?  I have a couple of issues with it.  One is the size of the viewfinder - rather small for its day and very small by modern standards.  I have to take my spectacles off to use it which is awkward to say the least.

I found myself forgetting to cock the shutter before pressing the shutter release.  This is not a problem with older cameras as one you have noticed your mistake you can cock the shutter and try again.  Alas, not here.  Once you press the shutter release, you action the double exposure device and have to wind on the film before you can operate the shutter again.  With my test film, this cost me fifteen frames out of the thirty six available on the roll of film.  OK, this is not really the cameras fault - I should be able to remember the basics and would learn to in time if I used this camera continually, but it is still annoying.

Another problem is that I have freed up the aperture control ring too much.  When I got this camera, I could barely move this control ring at all.  Now it moves itself between shots.  Knowing this, it is not too hard to reset the aperture between shots but that is not how I like to work.  I usually set the shutter speed, aperture and focus at the hyperfocal point and then use cameras as point-and-shoot cameras.

My last problem was rewinding the film into the cassette.  The rewind knob is also stiff (stiff is the one resounding quality of this camera) and I could not tell when the film was rewound.  I rewound for what seemed like a long time and opened the back - a significant amount of film was still on the take-up spool.  this did less damage than I thought it would - I lost seven frames for white-out but the last twelve frames were OK - unexposed film was clearly good enough to protect the tail end of the film from fogging.

 Here are a few of the shots from my test film - a fair amount of flare and severe vignetting which is very apparent in the last picture:

Guildhall Street, Lincoln

Looking at the Witham from Mint Street

High Bridge, Lincoln

Saltergate, Lincoln

Lincoln Cathedral