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Contaflex

Hi Michael,

I'm very sorry to hear that your Contaflex doesn't work. Needless to say, I completely agree with Lynn. ask them for a refund. A good working Contaflex is a dream to use and enjoy. A broken one is a real nightmare!

>>> but to thank you for your photos I posted some of mine in the gallery. All taken with a Contax II and 35mm Opton Biogon. >>>

Great!. What's the address for viewing them?

Cheers, Luis
 
Nice gallery shots, Michael. I particularly liked the image you call "very interesting" This was shot with a Contax II and Biogon 35, right? The system is certainly serving you well
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Out of curiosity, since I'm also looking at trying out some of the old rangefinders, what do you use for a meter? I'm a spoiled user of through the lens spot meters just giving over to the notion of carrying a handheld reflected around. Since this room was so very white, did you open up a stop and half over the standard reading? If my question is too boring of a topic for the group, please feel free to email me at Lynn@turnkeydesign.net

Oh, one note...I made a mistake in saying the Super B had the battery ... it does NOT. The Super BC (Contaflex) is the one that started using a battery and has the difficult to access front battery door. Sorry to confuse anyone with mis-information.

-Lynn L.
 
Negative film has wide exposure latitude. Moreover, chromogenic B&W films have a wide range of exposure indices, so between ASA 50 and say 1200 all you get is an increase or decrease in grain (and maybe contrast changes). In other words exposure isn't critical.

In this shoot last weekend I carried a Weston V and an invercone (which I didn't use) because it is very compact (I have a number of different meters - I'm a meter junkie). One basic reading in average light and I just depended on the exposure latitude to carry the day. It isn't a big deal to eyeball it and open and close by a stop as the lighting varied from room to room but I was too lazy. The same for focus - some were focused but many just relied on hyperfocal distance. When working in a museum the less fuss the better.

The great justification for rangefinders is that they are silent, light and compact - one small lens, one small camera and a small light meter and you can concentrate on taking pictures. I like the old ones with film advance knobs instead of levers because they slow me down. The worst is a motor driven film advance - I become Machinegun Kelly with a camera.
 
People, stay away from chromogenic B&W films. Seriously, just stay away.
 
Thanks for the info Michael. Your approach makes sense to me and sounds far more relalxing. The results you're getting are obviously good. Admittedly, I obsess with checking my meter readings the compensation dial, maybe it started when I began shooting mostly E6, combined with the fact that I hate to bracket anything. It's been probably 10 years since I've shot b&w, but maybe it's time to give it a try again.

I had to laugh when you said this: "> The worst is a motor driven film advance - I become Machinegun Kelly with a camera." I can identify! With the advanced cameras, it becomes very easy to bracket all the shots, shoot multiples just because the drive can manage it, let the matrix metering system handle the readings, and just have the camera fire through the film without much input from the warm body behind the lens. However, I'm finding that now that I'm playing with my manual gear again, I'm thinking faster, making sounder decisions, and ending up with only one shot of each scene that's almost always properly exposed with a better composition. Funny how that works!

Thanks again, -Lynn
 
>>> People, stay away from chromogenic B&W films. Seriously, just stay away. >>>

Uhmm, I'm a fan of Tri-X, but Ilford XP2 Super is a wonderful film. Please, visit the following folder where about 90% of the pictures have been taken with this chromogenic film:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=275117

The following one has been enterely taken with XP2 Super (Rolleiflex T medium format camera):

http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=293193

I find that XP2 Super scans really well (using a Minolta scan dual II, Tri-X is not easy to scan) and both print just great with my Durst enlarger, although XP2 negatives are a bit denser and require more exposure time (about twice, when exposed at 400 ASA).

On the other hand, I don't like chromogenic B&W films from Kodak. I've used CN-400 some times and in my opinion it doesn't reach the high quality level of XP2.

Cheers, Luis Argüelles
 
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