Week 256 - Yashica Microtec Zoom 90

There are many variations on this category of fully automatic zoom lens cameras. I find that longer focal lengths, with their small apertures are very difficult to get sharp results with, and the 90mm maximum on this one is fairly manageable. It also has a switchable "panoramic" mask.

photo from week 255 - Mamiya 135 EE

Different coloured buoys, rendered in shades of grey.

photo from week 255 - Mamiya 135 EE

Although the camera doesn't have any slow speeds, it was able to cope with the relatively poor light in this indoor setting, and at least I didn't have to get the tripod out.

photo from week 255 - Mamiya 135 EE

This photo shows the reflections of an old church in the glass facade of a new public building. The film is Rollei Retro 400S.

Week 255 - Mamiya 135 EE

This was another charity shop find, I think it was £5. It's a solidaly built fully automatic rangefinder camera from the 1970s. As far as I can tell it's working, the automated programmed exposure has no manual settings, but the aperture and shutter speed combination the camera has chosen is displayed in the viewfinder.

photo from week 254 - Corfield Periflex

Another recurring subject matter, an angel in the local cemetery. This was shot at f11, so any focusing error may have been compensated for by the small aperture.

photo from week 254 - Corfield Periflex

The background is in focus here, but obviously I had attempted to focus on myself, not sure what went wrong!

photo from week 254 - Corfield Periflex

This isn't a very interesting picture, but I've uploaded it to show the effect of the ailing focal plane shutter, one edge of the frame is unexposed, then the image fades in from black as the shutter curtains pick up speed. It only seems to happen on the two fasted speeds, though nothing below 1/30th works anyway.

Week 254 - Corfield Periflex

Corfield made a number of variations of the Periflex camera, this is one of the later ones. Their unique feature is a periscope, which is lowered down in front of the focal plane shutter, and reflects a small portion of the view into an eyepiece, where it can be focused, before using the other eyepiece as a viewfinder.
The slower speeds no longer work on this onse, and I suspect the shutter curtains may not run at a steady rate, we shall see.

photo from week 253 - Vesna

The Vesna was made in the Soviet Union, and it was sheer coincidence that I found this hat in a charity shop for 50p in the week I was using it. In Cyrillic characters, the hat bears the name "Sevastopol", a port on the Black Sea.

photo from week 253 - Vesna

There was not much light, even next to the window, on this November afternoon. I used 1/30th second at f4.5 and guesstimated the focus, it could have been worse!

photo from week 253 - Vesna

Soviet era cameras never had much of a reputation for build quality or reliability, whether these overlapping frames and shredded sprocket holes are due to the design or simply lack of maintenance, I don't know. It was certainly quite difficult to wind the film on, I suspect it could do with some lubrication.

Week 253 - Vesna

This unusual Soviet era camera uses 35mm film, but takes 32mm x 24mm frames rather than the standard 36mm x 24mm. This example is in poor cosmetic condition, but appears to be working.
In keeping with its era, I've loaded it with some Rollei Retro 100 black and white film.

photo from week 252 - Eastar S2

Technically this was one of the better photos on the roll, the focusing ring problem did mean quite a lot of the mid-distance shots were out of focus. I was lucky with this one, using the closes focus distance and an aperture of f4, the lens seems pretty sharp.

photo from week 252 - Eastar S2

This was taken at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield, I placed the camera on the floor, set the focus to the closest setting, and used a one second exposure, though I can't remember what aperture I used, it was probably around f5.6

photo from week 252 - Eastar S2

It was apparent that the rangefinder is significantly "off" when compared with the focus scale on the lens, there appears to be some slippage of the focussing ring, so I only really felt confident at infinity and the closest setting, though using a small aperture where possible should help compensate for any focussing errors.
This horse chestnut tree is one of my regular local subjects.