# fng question from old man



## mysteryscribe (Dec 9, 2006)

What to buy... I'm looking for a reasonable quality tlr but I want an off brand.  I have been looking at the argoflex but frankly it doesn't have x sync or much of anything.

I don't want a yashica or a rollie not even a ricoh.  I certainly dont want a leubtel.  I have been thinking graflex 22 or the frenchie version of it.

Anybody got any suggestions on an oddball one I can keep an eye out for.  I dont want to pay a thousand dollars for it but I don't mind paying a rasonable amount.  I just want one to display and pick up and shoot now and then.


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## newrmdmike (Dec 9, 2006)

i'd get the graflex . . . apparently there are places in just about every state where people can go trade these for reasonable prices.  i'd look for one of these places where you could maybe get one for a decent price.


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## Torus34 (Dec 9, 2006)

Based on personal experience, the Minolta Autocord is a decent choice.


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## Don Simon (Dec 11, 2006)

The Autocord is great. Wouldn't fit the requirement of  being off-brand or oddball though. Is that a cost issue or just a preference for the more unusual makes?

I have a Ricoh with sticky shutter speeds and missing the glass of the pop-up magnifier if you'd like it - not sure whether it would be worth the cost of postage and getting it fixed up though. If you're interested it's the Ricohmatic 225.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 11, 2006)

No thanks i'm looking at a voitlander at the moment. Might go for a dejur or maybe even one of the american 620s. Just have to wait and see what strikes my fancy.

I had a ricoh back when i was in the studio thing. I used it as a backup. I liked it a lot.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 15, 2006)

Well i was winning bidder on a 120 tlr... those things are hard to buy.  The more I read about the ciro the less I wanted one.  They said that graflex improved them but I don't know.

What I got was an off brand that didn't check out to be too bad.  I haven't got the camera yet so I don't know what it will be like.  It will be more a paper weight that anything else, but I wanted one more 6x6 tlr I gave away and sold all mine from the studio days.

So I got a photina whatever the hell that is. It is a 3.5  f75 with a walta or some such lens.  I'll have to see what kind of shape its in when I get it in two weeks or longer.  The seller is no hurry to close the deal and I'm not in any hurry to get it.  Sometime around the first of the year will be fine.


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## Mitica100 (Dec 16, 2006)

Could _that_ be the *Photina* made by Photavit-Werk around 1953? Cute little TLR, usually with the 75/3.5 Cassar lens but variations are known to exist.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 17, 2006)

I haven't got it yet but that's the one. I decided on it because it is pretty simple looking so I should be able to bring it back. I also gave my own tlrs away. 

Do you happen to know anything about that wart lens lol  er is that werk


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## Mitica100 (Dec 17, 2006)

Yeah, it's a triplet lens and it will perform fairly well, especially if you use a lens shade. The Cassar was actually made by Steinheil (in Munich, Germany) and it used to be called Actinar, sometime in the 1920s. Name changed to Cassar sometime in the 1940s. Steinheil went belly up in the 1960s due to the Japanese lenses invading the market.

Chances are your lens will be coated, since it was made after 1940 but still use a lens shade when shooting with it. If you can't find a lens shade, find a plastic jug (milk?) which can fit over the lens, cut it in the form of a shade and paint it matte black.

Good luck.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 17, 2006)

Thanks for the lens shade idea.  

I'm actually planning to shoot it with a strobe indoors.  A kind of family party camera.  I have soooo many cut film and field cameras that I couldn't shoot them enough in a lifetime.  Most however will not fire a strobe and a steady supply of flash bulbs is expensive and hard to maintain.

I have been giving thought to a anastar 105 f4.5 from an tourister set up for flash bulbs on a polaroid 80b frame with a roll film graflex back to go out now and then and make a wedding picture.  Might make a good show for my son in laws digital business.


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## MTMTexas (Dec 21, 2006)

I have a Graflex 22, grey leather case & that funky flash unit in my collection.

I also have a Yashica 124g, an A and Autocord I love to use. Old TLR's are great!

I don't print & process my own any more, and can't find a reasonable processor..

ciao,

Tom


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 21, 2006)

the photina came today. the shutter got locked up somehow. Most likely it was when it came. I worked with it, poured some naptha in it and now it works. Just have to let it dry to see how the lens is but the shutter looks just peachy Keen. Best of all it xsyncs.

Now Im waiting for the yashika if my wife doesn't find out I bought so many cameras I'm gonna have a merry christmas.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 21, 2006)

Tom I have found the best way for me to work with film is to process the negs about fifteen minutes in the kitchen sink, then just scan them into the computer. I have a little canon lide25 that i paid about fifty bucks for new and it does 1200 dpi more than enough for med format. I made a backlight for another scanner but this one hardly needs one at all for some reason just leave the lid open and it works fine most of the time. I have one of those crank led flashlight I use now if i need a little more light on it. Otherwise I dont even use the backlight i build now.

That is all for black and white.  I also just bought a color scanner protec or somesuch thing.  I paid 100 for it but it does up to 5x7 cut film and seems to do a decent job.  I haven't had any prints made yet but they look pretty sharp.

If you want to get back in that is the easiest way.


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## Mitica100 (Dec 21, 2006)

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> Now Im waiting for the yashika if my wife doesn't find out I bought so many cameras I'm gonna have a merry christmas.


 
   

There's always the 'trift store' excuse...  _"Honey, I bought this at a thrift store, imagine someone is going to be helped with the money they're making from this sale"_


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 21, 2006)

got to love a man with wide experience.


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## Mitica100 (Dec 21, 2006)

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> got to love a man with wide experience.


 
ROFLMAO!

Well, been lucky so far with collecting. The missus never objected to that weakness of mine but I gotta say that I'm thinking of various excuses, just in case...


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 22, 2006)

Plan ahead is a good motto. Wait that's be prepared. I'm thinking self defense plea personally.

by the way I wonder If I would have bought the 6x6 had I known it didn't have a split image viewfinder. Just plain old ground glass. That might be a problem. Of course all my views have ground glass so maybe not.


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## ksmattfish (Dec 22, 2006)

Well, if money were no object, I'd say go for a Gowlandflex TLR.  They come in 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10 models.  You could shoot your paper negs in one. 

http://www.petergowland.com/camera/


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 22, 2006)

Well here is something that has never come up for me in the ten years more or less I have been butchering cameras.  

the photina came in with a stuck lens so I put my time on it.  Then it had dirty elements so I took the lens apart and cleaned the glass.  then of course I put it back together four times till I got it right.


No that isnt the first this is the first.  I went to shoot the film and it wouldnt advance.  The wind knob just kept turning. I guess someone turned it with a wrench or someothng and stipped it.

Well I had never replaced one and of course I have junked all my junk cameras in a massivie "I'm never going to build another camera" fit.  I did find an old camera with a more simple wind mechanizm.  I have it stuck on with fb weld waiting for it to cure.  I had to put it on three times to get it so that it might work.  No guarentee of course.

If it doesn't and I have to strip the lens from the twin lens any idea what I can do with it.  Im thinking slap it on a 127 kodak brownie type twinlens or a duoflex just to be a donkey about it.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 23, 2006)

first test shot from the photina after I wound up completely rebuilding the take up mechanizm.  Unlocking the shutter.. taking the lens apart and cleaning it..  otherwise it was perfect...


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