America Made TLR's Too!

Since we've had something like 130 days of no rain here in the Valley of the Sun Stroke, I recently had some time to drive over to Superior, Arizona. Superior is a sleepy town east of Mesa, with a long history in Mining. I took this opportunity to use my Ciroflex, an American Classic twin lens reflex. The Ciroflex is one of the few higher-end TLRs produced in the U.S.A., and had only a short production life from 1948 to 1951 before Graflex purchased the Ciro Camera Company and re-branded the Ciroflex (Model F) as the ‘Graflex 22’. The Model F, last in the line of Ciroflexes, is the one to own as it was the only model featuring a coated, four-element lens produced by Wollensak.

I slapped some Fuji Superia 120 roll film (ISO 100) into this little beauty and started shooting when I came across a small park that was home to a grand old, red caboose and other railroad related items. Notice there are no clouds in that beautiful blue Arizona Sky! This Ciroflex model has a nice range of shutter speeds from 1 second to 1/400 with both ‘B’ and ‘T’ settings for long exposures from its Rapax leaf shutter. As with most lenses of this era f8 and f11 provide the best results, in my opinon. F3.2 – f22 is the full range of the 83mm Raptar lens. I highly recommend this camera if you’re looking to get into a medium format TLR for less than forty bucks on EBay. The Ciroflex (Model F) is an underrated post-war classic that's perfect for those sunny Saturday afternoons.

Is that a lawsuit in the frame?

Even though it seems movies and television shows these days have product placement in every scene, photographers may now have to take greater care with what is within the frame when shooting. Interesting observation.

Pleased to meet the 45mm MD Rokkor-X

I'm impressed with the Minolta 45mm Rokkor-X f2 lens that came with a recently acquired XD-11. My previous post covered the external face lift I gave the camera, and I have finally got around to developing the test roll I initially ran through it. Fuji Superia XTRA has become my standard color 35mm film for tests and general use. It's inexpensive, yields wonderful results and the ISO 400 speed gives me the ability to utilize it in my small home studio as well as outdoors. These samples were taken inside using Manual Mode on the camera. Lighting was provided by a B800 Alien Bee strobe with a 48in white umbrella. Exposure determined using a Sekonic L-358. I don't remember what the reading was, although it's written down somewhere, probably f5.6 or f8 @1/60. The XD-11 has a flash sync peak of 1/100, but I generally use 1/60. The second shot was probably taken at f4. Again, these are quick test shots so I didn' t bother to use a second light source or reflector for these indoor images.

When using the metered Aperture and Shutter Priority modes it seems the camera is around one to two stops under exposed. This is fairly typical of cameras of this vintage. The 45mm MD lens itself, commonly referred to as a 'pancake' lens, provides a nice perspective, and I've read many Minolta users prefer the 45mm to the 50mm focal length. Not much is lost going from f1.7 on the standard 50mm Minolta lens to f2 on this 45mm. I don't do a lot of low light shooting and rarely use my lenses wide open, so I'm more concerned with the smaller apertures. This lens stops down to f22. It features the common 49mm filter size for this era of lens. Since it can be picked up at very affordable prices (less than fifty bucks) on EBay I highly suggest getting one if you don't already have it, and want to play with an additional 'normal' focal length.

Out with the old, In with the new!

Minolta teamed up with Leica and released the XD-11 in 1977, which would also become the Leica R4. Even though the camera itself was a technical marvel, featuring metered Manual, Aperture and Shutter-Priority modes, the beautiful soft leather covering chosen for the first few production runs would eventually prove to be a problem. Apparently it didn’t take long for shrinkage of the leather to occur and it would peel back from the edges exposing the metal camera body underneath. The camera I received from the ‘Bay’ this Christmas was no exception. Although mechanically sound, the leatherette reminded my of shrinky-dinks, a popular children’s item from the same era, as every edge had pulled back away from the camera as though it had been baked in an oven.

This made the XD-11 a perfect candidate for new leatherette from cameraleather.com. I picked out their seal grain red, however if you’re a traditionalist, they do offer a close replica of the original soft, black leather covering. It is a damn shame that the original covering shrinks so bad with age, as it is a welcome change from the standard thin leatherette on most classic SLR cameras.

Removing the old covering was surprisingly simple. On many other cameras including the Autocord, I usually have to scrape off the old stuff, which can be quite messy. But on the XD-11 the old covering just peeled right off with very little adhesive residue, which resembled rubber cement, to remove with nail polish remover. The leatherette kit for the XD-11 from cameraleather.com is a simple three piece set, but fits perfectly and looks fantastic. I love how easy the pieces are applied. It only takes a few minutes to complete. One day when I feel like spending a little more I may try one of their snake skin or lizard skin options. I’ve got some classic Russian rangefinders that would look bad-ass with scales! Images from both of these cameras, the XD-11 and Autocord will be posted as soon as I have them developed. Additional information regarding both of these cameras will also be available from my website in the near future.

Autocord Face Lift

I’ve read many good things about cameraleather.com on several photography forums, but never bothered to try them…until now. Over the Christmas holiday I acquired two wonderful pieces of Minolta history; the XD-11 and Autocord. The Autocord is a high quality, and often overlooked, Twin Lens Reflex produced between 1955 and 1966. Apparently twenty-four different models were available. This particular model is simply referenced as the Autocord ‘Export.’ Introduced in 1958 it features a Seikosha MX shutter, 1-1/500 sec., and the standard 75mm Chiyoko Rokkor lens. Although it arrived in mechanically sound order, the exterior had seen better days. Of course as long as the lens is clean, and the shutter fires correctly, the exterior of a camera has no affect on picture quality. But a wonderful classic shooter like the Autocord deserves better than peeling and faded leatherette. This is a beautifully styled camera and I wanted it to look as good as the pictures it takes. So a few clicks on www.cameraleather.com provided a solution at a very affordable price. I chose the seal grain blue leatherette for the Autocord and couldn’t be happier with the results.

Cameraleather.com makes ordering and payment easy using Paypal. They have a few different options for the Autocord, depending on the model you have. The Autocord Export doesn’t have the built-in meter, so additional holes were not needed. I included the necessary camera information with the order and in less than two weeks received the leatherette kits for both the Autocord and XD-11. The XD-11 is profiled in another post. The pre-cut, self-adhesive leatherette comes on a kind of wax paper and is very easy to work with.

Most of the old leatherette came off fairly easily as it was already decaying. However the back and bottom of the camera required some scraping, and nail polish remover is perfect for removing the original adhesive residue. Once the body was stripped, applying the cameraleather.com kit pieces was a snap. Simply pull the desired piece off the backing paper, line it up on the camera and apply it. Press down firmly once in place and you’re done. All of the pieces fit precisely and within fifteen to twenty minutes the Autocord looked brand new. I couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

The seal grain blue is a great choice for any camera, as is the seal grain red which I chose for the XD-11. I’m now hooked and will be ordering more kits from cameraleather.com. For me, it increases the pride I already experience when out and about shooting with these classic cameras. Like a new paint job on a classic muscle car, it may not improve the ride but you look damn good behind the wheel. I highly recommend cameraleather.com if you want to breath new life into that old shooter.

From Russia to Phoenix: Brief history of Kardon

Ritz Collectibles is a great local camera shop here in Phoenix, Arizona, where I’ve spent many hours and dollars. The owner Sandy Ritz provides a wide selection of classic cameras, lenses, accessories and repair services. In a recent posting on Shutterbug.com Mr. Ritz provides a wonderful, albeit capsulated look back at a mostly unknown historical camera and its creator Peter Kardon. It is also a cautionary tale of what to expect when partnering with the U.S. military. I doubt much has changed over the last sixty years in that regard. There is information at the end of the article referencing a book that expands on the Kardon history, and contact information for Ritz Collectibles.