Canon 7 (again)

Canon 7 with f/0.95 lens is a great camera. For the next four months after I have bought it it was the only camera I used.

I thought for a while to sell all my 35 mm gear and keep only these two cameras.

I liked it for night shots but as you can see on the photos bellow, at 0.95 the lens is quite soft (photos bellow: two friends also using film cameras on a night photo tour).

It is also too expensive to be used at night on a dangerous city like Sao Paulo. So after these four months I returned to use my Yashica.

The Planar lens 50 mm f/1.4 is a bit more than one f-stop slower then Canon´s f/0.95, but it compensates with a good metering system. And I don´t have to handle with such a care as when I shoot with Canon 7.

The next two pictures were taken with Yashica + Planar. This guy is a newsstand owner and he uses a Yashica point-and-shoot film camera. As you can see the bokeh of the Planar lens is beautiful.

But I still have to learn how to take low-light pictures.

More at Optimar

Everytime I go to Optimar I spend at leat two hours talking to Ms. Yeda. She has always something interesting to show: old or new pictures (mostly from her family), old magazines, photobooks, etc.

Last time she showed me some of their cameras like these two Rolleiflexes, both with Planar Lenses: at left is a 2.8F with prismatic viewfinder and at right is a 3.5F with Tele Mutar 1.5x.

Exacta Varex IIA with three lenses: Zeiss 50 mm f/2.8.

Zeiss Flektogon 25 mm f/4.

And Meyer Goerlitz 400 mm f/5.6 with shoulder strap.

A Bolex 16 mm movie camera with Kern Switar 17-85 lens in perfect condition.

Bolex 8 mm movie camera (working).

Cosina Super-8 boxed.

Kodak 16 mm movie camera working smothly.

Keystone 16mm projector (not working – so far).

More Books and Cameras

Speaking about books, a few time ago I decided to develope my films (B&W and chrome only; no color negative). So I bought the book “Formulario Fotografico” by Reinhard Viebig that brings most known formulas for film development. I got it used and cost me 5 US dollars (shipping included). Back cover is all white.

“Cameras Classicas” by Mario Bock gives technical and historical details of some classic cameras. As far as I know it is the only book in portuguese language about this subject.

My friend Andrade Mendes (the “dream fridge” guy) sent me this picture of photo books and his lovely Leica M3 and Hasselblad 500.

But I think he wouldn´t mind if I post a few more pictures I downloaded from his flickr.

Leica M4-P, M3, III and M8 along with more photo books.

I love this picture: The Three Amigos (Rolleiflex 2.8F with Planar 80 mm f/2.8; Wide Rolleiflex with Distagon 55 mm f/4; Tele Rollei with Sonnar 135 mm f/4). Not to mention some Rollei photos behind the cameras.

More info regarding Tele and Wide Rolleiflex here.

And below, more of his Rolleiflex colection. Top shelf: Rolleicord, Rolleiflex 2.8E, 2.8C, 2.8D and another 2.8C. Bottom shelf: Rolleiflex 3.5F with Tele Mutar 1.5x, 3.5E, 3.5D and 3.5A with a very strange focus knob.

More info about all Rollei models here.

Rolleiflex 2.8F Planar

Rolleiflex 2.8F with Planar taking lens (and a nice Zeiss T-Shirt). This guy is a large format photographer and can be seen here and here with a 8×10 Kodak Master View camera. He is friend of this guy that is the owner of the dream fridge shown at tokyocamerastyle (see Nov 17 2011).

Rollei Twins

I recently purchased this two pristine Rolleiflex 2.8E with Planar and Xenotar taking lenses. Curiously serial numbers are very similar: 1644402 (Planar) and 1635402 (Xenotar).