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35mm - Miniature Format
This is a late model MX and so probably made between 1980 and 1985. It's a fully manual camera, only needing a battery for the meter. It is in excellent condition, following some essential servicing done by Mike Elek and the new prism that I put in.
Made by Cosina under the Voigtlander label, the Bessaflex is an unusual hybrid for the 21st century. The camera takes M42 screwmount lenses that were first developed in the 1950s and the shutter is fully mechanical at all speeds, but it has an ultra-modern exposure meter with LEDs.
Fitted with a Meyer Orestor 100mm lens from around 1970, it's a killer setup for portraits.
The Pentax MZ-5 came out in 1996 and was the first of the retro-design MZ (ZX) series. Autofocus with TTL flash, it can also be used fully manually.
The Asahi Pentax SP1000 was made from 1973 to 1976. Solid and reliable.
The Olympus 35RC was one of the smallest and most effective pocket compact rangefinder cameras of the early 1970s.
The Praktica FX-2 was made between 1955 and 1959. It's a solid, weighty clunker, but it's the only 35mm camera I have with a waist-level finder - and that's sometimes useful.
The 35mm Weltini II was made sometime between 1937 and 1941 - a short production run for a camera company that was around for a long time, but it is a jewel of mechanical craftsmanship. It has a 2.8 Xenar lens in a Compur Rapid shutter that runs up to /500, a coupled rangefinder, and an interlock to prevent double exposures.
The rangefinder and the lenses were dusty, but it didn't need any servicing ... the shutter purrs like it was straight out of the factory.
The Kodak Retina II is a 35mm rangefinder, made in Germany from 1937 to 1939. This one still carries the nameplate of the shop where it was originally sold - Photo Kino Stitz, Berlin, Charl-2.
The rangefinder was dirty and the shutter mechanism was stuck, but with a few hours' work I got it running again. The Xenon lens produces very nice results, especially with colour negative film.
All the shots above were taken with a Pentax K10D and 43mm Limited lens. Two AF360FGZ flashguns were used off-camera through a light-tent.
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