Vintage camera reviews, repairs and photography blog
This post describes an odd looking camera of fairly unique design, the Agfa Flexilette 35mm twin lens reflex. My Flexilette camera As with so many of my vintage camera collection this Flexilette was an eBay sale which I found whilst browsing around looking to see if there were any bargains. I came upon this unit, priced at only £9.95 in a ‘buy it now’ sale, and thought it was worth a gambol. It was described as faulty with a locked […]
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I recently bought a Kodak Retina III S rangefinder camera in a faulty condition, and this post shows the actions I took to repair it. The camera was advertised on eBay as non-working, with the fault conditions being that the rangefinder didn’t move when the focus was adjusted, the meter was unresponsive to light, and the shutter was loose on the camera. The seller also pointed out the the camera had a rattle. Because I don’t have the Retina III […]
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The Voigtlander Bessamatic belongs to that family of 35mm SLR cameras which have a leaf shutter fitted between the lens and the mirror rather than a focal plane shutter fitted between the mirror and the film. This puts it in the same class as the Topcon Unirex, Kodak Retina Reflex and Kowa SE to name just three I’ve reviewed on this blog. Voigtlander Bessamatic Images My Bessamatic Camera I picked up this camera along with a Topcon RE Auto in […]
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Occasionally when I purchase a vintage camera for my collection there are other bits-n-pieces which accompany it and this post features one of those accessories – the Kalimar Exposure meter. In the age of early film photography, when cameras weren’t equipped with built in means of measuring the amount of light available to take a picture, most serious photographers would have carried a small exposure meter with them. In fact it was probably the most important part of their kit […]
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This post describes a medium format, folding camera made by Ihagee (later Exakta) in the mid 1930s. The Ihagee Ultrix takes 8 pictures of 6cm x 9cm on 120 format film, has adjustable focus and is fitted with an 8 speed Compur shutter. Ihagee Ultrix Images My Ultrix Camera My camera, along with so many in my vintage camera collection, was an ebay purchase. In this case I paid £15 and bought it because it is a camera which produces […]
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This is a bit of a departure for me in that although this post is about a vintage item it’s not a vintage camera but instead a vintage single valve radio. This post features a radio receiver or wireless which was made in about 1922 by a manufacturer in the town where I grew up (although that was a long way past 1922 I hasten to add). Single Valve Radio images The Joseph Baker Single valve radio This is not […]
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On this page I’m going to include scans of some of the vintage camera manuals which I have acquired over the years which I hope may be useful to other vintage camera enthusiasts. I’m not intending to make this a comprehensive library of manuals because there are other sites which offer that service and have a much better selection of manuals – this is simply a collection of manuals which either I haven’t seen on other sites or which may […]
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This post features probably the most classically vintage looking 8mm projector in my collection, the Bell & Howell model 606 H. It is a simple machine with manual threading, a 500W mains voltage lamp and a 15 – 20mm zoom lens, which was made in the early 1950s. Bell & Howell 606 H Pictures My Bell & Howell 606 H Projector I paid £19.99 to buy this projector in an auction on eBay. It was sold as working, although when […]
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This post looks at the Kiev 4 35mm rangefinder camera, which was a soviet made copy of a contax II rangefinder. The model shown here is fitted with a Jupiter 8 lens and the serial number of 7506090 suggests it was probably made between about 1975 and 1980. Kiev 4 Rangefinder Pictures My Kiev 4 Rangefinder camera I obtained my copy of the Kiev 4 from a local charity shop where a friend of my wife works. She knows I’m […]
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This post describes a new addition to my worryingly growing 8mm projector collection – the Bolex 18-5 Super 8 movie projector. My Bolex 18-5 Super Projector As with most of my vintage photo gear collection I bought this projector from eBay. It was advertised as being in good condition, but untested because it didn’t have a power lead and since the photos which accompanied the sale seemed to confirm that the unit looked in good condition, I bought it with […]
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This is the index to my vintage camera collection.
Read more This article looks at the Eumig P8 automatic 8mm cine projector, which was one of the later models in the P8 range that Eumig produced in great quantities in the 1950s and 60s. My Eumig P8 automatic Projector I bought this projector for a few pounds from eBay primarily because it came with a collection of 8mm films rather than for the actual projector itself. When when I received the package however, I found the unit is actually both a […]
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The Chinon Universal 8 cine projector was introduced in 1967 as a machine capable of showing both the standard 8mm home movie films which had been around for for many years, and the new Super 8 format film which was introduced a few years earlier in 1965. My Chinon Universal 8 projector I found this Chinon Universal 8 projector on eBay with a starting price of £1.99 and no bids against it. Because of the weight of projectors, the price […]
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This is a look at a novel little device I bought a few days ago – a USB microscope made by pluggable. I bought this device for about £35 from amazon, and the main driver for purchasing it was to see if it would provide a good image to use in my continuing 8mm telecine project. That is something I will investigate in the next few days and weeks, but in the mean time I’ve been trying out the device […]
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A couple of times over the last few days the weather has been misty when I’ve been out to take Freddy for his morning walk. As I’ve progressed on the walk, the Sun has broken through and created some wonderful misty views across the field. Both times, I’ve regretted that I didn’t have a proper camera with me, but I managed to take the misty photos below using my smart phone. Although I’m glad I was able to capture the […]
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