Exa IIA however

Exa IIA front view

lens: Meyer Domiplan
focal length:  50mm
apertures: 2.8 to 22 in 1/2 stops
focus range: 0.75m to infinity
lens fitting: Exakta bayonet
shutter: vertical cloth focal plane
speeds: 2, 4, 8, 30, 60, 125, 250
flash: bulb or electronic
film size: 35 mm

Externally, this is very like the Exa Ia; it has the usual Exakta trapezoidal shape.  The layout on the front fascia is the same - shutter release on the left at the top, PC connector on the right at the top.  The lens fitting is the standard Exakta double bayonet (an internal bayonet for short focal length lenses and a larger external bayonet for longer focal length lenses).

There are differences, however.  The IIa has a fixed pentaprism and eye-level viewfinder with a Fresnal focussing screen with a split-image centre.  The shutter is now a vertically running cloth focal plane shutter rather than the strange mirror shutter of the Ia.  Along with the more standard shutter comes a larger range of shutter speeds  - eight speeds with the fastest  now being 1/250 seconds.

The removable back/base is exactly the same as is the shutter lock on the left of the viewfinder.   Another change is that the rewind knob is now a fold-out crank.

Exa IIa, rear view

With a vertical focal plane shutter, it should have been possible to increase the flash synchronisation  speeds but they are rather slow - 1/15 for bulbs or 1/30 for electronic flash.  The fact that bulb flash needs a slowest synch speed suggests that the only synch available is as the first shutter curtain starts to move, bulb synch relying on the shutter being still fully open when the flash bulb reaches full intensity.

The Exa IIa came with a Meyer Domiplan lens rather than the Carl Zeiss Tessar that was standard with the Exa Ia.  I have yet to see the results from this lens but it has the reputation of delivering good results when stopped down.

This lens, like the Tessar, automatically stops down the aperture when the shutter release is pressed.  Exa lenses manage this by means of a lug on the lens barrel that covers the shutter release on the camera body.  The shutter is activated by pressing this lug which in turn presses the shutter release.

On the Domiplan lens, this lug is hinged and so presses the shutter release through an arc.  Because the release is not pressed straight in it can cause internal damage to the release mechanism.  This is made worse if the lug does not exactly line up with the shutter release so that it presses on one side of the release button.

shutter release lugs - Domiplan on left, Tessar on right

There is a further fault with the Domiplan.  As mentioned above, the release lug is hinged and this hinge dries out with time.  When the lubricant has dried out, the lug will not always return to its rest position after a photograph is taken.  This means that the aperture does not re-open to f2.8, leaving the viewfinder dark.  In use, this is easily remedied by flicking the lug with the shooting finger but it is annoying, nonetheless.  I have applied clock oil to this hinge and it is showing signs of freeing itself up.

4 February 2013:  Having run a test film through this camera, it is difficult to assess the camera's performance.  All the pictures ended up bright green.  This could not have  been down to the camera - it is an SLR and I would have seen the green through the viewfinder.

There are three possible causes for this green - defective development, defective film or defective scanning.  The staff in the lab assure me that mine is the only film to have come out green and so they do not think it was their development.

Defective scanning is a possibility but I would think it to be an automated process and if they have not changed any settings then the scanning process should not produce any colour cast.

The third possibility is a defective film.  The film I used was Agfaphoto Vista plus 200 ISO, made under contract in Japan by, I think, Fuji-film.  Reputable makes of film should be reliable but in any factory process it is possible for the occasional item to escape the quality assurance system.

I am thinking that the reason for the green cast in my test film is the middle one - a defective scan - looking at the negatives, there is evidence of all three colours on the perforated rebate of the film (these are the frame numbers in magenta (the negative of green) and test lines in red and green (the negatives of cyan and yellow)) so it looks like at least part of the film has the requisite colour layers in the emulsion and the development has developed these correctly.  When I have time, I will scan the film myself to check the scan quality.

In addition to the green colour there are other problems which are definitely down to the camera.  At the bottom of each picture is a very over-exposed strip - this equates to the top of the film in the camera.  As the shutter travels vertically from bottom to top, this is most likely caused by the second shutter curtain hesitating slightly at the end of its travel.  This might cure itself with use which is quite common with 'stiff' mechanisms in old cameras.  I also need to be aware that I used this camera in sub-zero temperatures.  The lubricant in the shutter will be thicker at these temperatures and the shutter might well work better in warmer weather.

CMF Comet S italian camera

CMF Comet S

This is a cheap Italian camera which uses 127 film.  The makers is Bencini which is an Italian firm.  At the time this particular camera was made, the firm was called CMF Bencini.  They were made in Milan.

lens: apertures:

focus range: 3 feet - infinity

lens fitting: fixed

shutter: simple

speeds: 1/50

flash: PC connector, M synch

film size: 127

The camera is small and light.  it is made from an aluminium alloy which is nicely polished.  It is small, measuring 10.5 x 7 x  6.5 cm.  It is a very simple camera with only two controls.  You can focus the camera - the range is from 3 feet (circa one metre) to infinity - and you can set the shutter to 1/50 seconds or B.

It is a half frame camera using 127 film.  The negative size is 3 x 4 cm which is approximately twice the size of 35mm.  You get 16 negatives on a roll of 127 film.

Lens barrel detail

The speed selector is unusual in that it is a tab that is pulled out from the lens barrel; see photograph.  The speed selector is on the right of the picture - also visible is the PC connector for flash.  This is synchronised for bulbs only so not too much now.

The viewfinder is very small - the eye piece only measures three millimetres across.  It is the smallest viewfinder I have ever seen.  However, it is still usable once I take my spectacles off.

As a roll film camera, it is necessary to look at the red window on the back when winding on to set the next number in the red window.  As this is a half-frame camera, each number is used twice - there are two red windows - first in the left hand window and then in the right hand one.  the picture shows the two red windows, one either side of the maker's name.

Again as is always the case with roll film  (120 and 127 size) you do not need to rewind the film.  At the end of the roll, you wind the film on until all the backing paper is on the take-up spool and remove the film and spool together and stick the end of the film down with the sticky tab provided.  The spool the film came on is then used as the new take-up spool.

Halina 35X review

This is a small but heavy Japanese camera made by Haking.  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.

Halina 35X - top view

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.

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 (1959ish) 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.

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.