The Franka Solida III Medium Format Camera

A folding camera build in West Germany in the American Sector.

The Franka Solida III advertisement is a nice Medium Format Folding Camera.
Its design is the standard bellows design of its time.

The Camera is lightweight and fits into a pocket when folded.

Before I tell you more here are the (what I think) most important specs of the Franka Solida III:

Wight: 559g (without Film inserted).
Shutter: Prontor-S
Lens: Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 1:2,9 / 75
Film type: 120 film
Image Format: 6×6 (square)
viewfinder: Look through only, no range finder. (can be bought separately)
1/4 inch screw mount.
Light meter: none (you need an external one)

Additional Equipment: Leather grip,

A Quick Guide on how to use The Franka Solida III

After inserting a film into the Camera you obviously need to unfold it, therefore you push the little button on the bottom left of the camera next to the screw mount (Image below). Attention, the camera will unfold automatically.

Now that the camera is Open, you can watch through the viewfinder and compose your image. You will see that by watching of through the viewfinder of the Franka Solida III, a part of the image is covered by the lens and also you will not be able to determine the depth of field since it is a very rudimentary viewfinder. Also, there is no built-in light meter, so you will have to use an external one as well.

So how to focus?

Focusing on the Franka Solida IIIadvertisement

To correctly focus the image of the Franka Solida III there are two options:

1. You can estimate the distance between you and the subject and choose the corresponding settings at the front of the lens.
2. You can buy an external Range finder such as the Watameter advertisement or a BLIK from the Russian company LOMO advertisement . You use these range finders to determine the correct distance and set the corresponding settings on the lens. (image below)

All you have to do now is to take your light meter readings, focus the picture crock the shutter and take a shot.

The Small red Window on the back

on the back of the camera, you will find a small red window (image below). This window is covered on the inside by a piece of metal, showing the film and image format. If you remove the cover you can see the number of the picture on the film. It also helps you to correctly forward the film to the next frame. Don´t forget to close the red window again (with the lever under it) so no light will accidentally enter the camera. Do not trust the red window to much!

You forward the film by using the turning wheel on the top left of the camera. An arrow shows you the right direction.

The scale at the Top

The scale at the top of the camera (image below and above) shows you the depth of field to be expected at the different lens settings and distances.

The Schneider Kreuznach Radionar 1:2,9 / 75

The Radionar is a great lens, with great overall sharpness when stopped down to about F 4.5, at F 2,9 slight unsharp areas at fringes of the image could occur but they give a nice artistic look to the image.
The shutter of the Franka Solida III is a German Prontor-S shutter with the following shutter speeds:
1s 1/2s, 1/5s, 1/10s, 1/25s, 1/50s, 1/100s, 1/250s and a bulb mode B.

To use the Bulb mode set the lens to “B” now you either have to use a cable release or you use the small lever at the front of the camera next to the “T” (See the first picture under the header image). Push it towards the “T” (as the arrow suggests), when you now release the shutter it will stay open until you move the lever back to the right (its initial position).

Some things to keep in mind

The Franka Solida III was build around the year 1951, so it is just normal that when you buy such an old camera off of eBay, that it could have some minor or even major issues. Mine, for example, had: a hole in the bellows, mould in the viewfinder, fungus and haze in the lens, tow shutter blades that came loose and the shutter speeds were off by 3 seconds.

That all is no reason not to keep the camera and with some use of your favourite search engine, you will be able to repair all these things by yourself most of the time.
If you are lucky, the fungus has not damaged the coating of the lens yet (if there is any) so you can completely remove it without any fungus skeletons remaining (use alcohol and or hydrogen peroxide 3%). To get the shutter speeds back under control most of the time you just need to clean the lens, with either lighter fluid, alcohol or both. Just make sure to remove the lens elements first and fire the shutter sometimes during the flushing and drying process.

Below you will find some pictures made with the Franka Solida III advertisement after maintaining it. Note I do not own an external range finder. so i estimated the distances.

BUY A FRANKA SOLIDA III HERE advertisement

GET FILM HERE advertisement

The Wista 45D field large format camera

Designed to be a point and Shoot Camera.

The Wista 45D advertisement is a great 4×5 large format camera, created by wista co., LTD.
It is a field camera designed in a way, to give the photographer the ability to use it as a point and shoot camera.

Since the camera is a bit heavy I never used it that way. I usually use it for portrait or nude art, since the movements enable me to play with the field of focus.

Before I tell you more here are the (what I think) most important specs of the Wista 45D:

Wight: 2.85kg (without lens).
Lensboard: Shenn Hao / Linhof Technica / Horseman. advertisement
Film holder: Standard 4×5 Filmholder eg. Fidelity. advertisement
Ballows extension: 300mm.
Front movements: Rise, Shift, Tilt.
Back movements: Tilt, Swing (only micro-adjustments).
Rotating Back: Landscape to Portrait and vice versa.
Frame / Focusing-Hood.
1/4 inch screw mount.
Bubble level at the top.
Additional equipment: Leather grip, pistol grip, point and shoot viewfinder.

A Quick Guide on how to use The Wista 45D

First, of course, you have to mount the camera to a tripod, therefore you screw your tripod mount into the 1/4 inch screw mount at the back of the 4×5 Camera. (Image below)

Now it is time to open the camera, therefore you first slightly unscrew the big lower knob on each side of the camera, then gently press the black button in the middle of the lower part of the camera. In the above image, you find this button to the right-hand side of the accessorize mount.

When the Wista 45D is opened up, the next step is to place the lens mount or front standard.

To place the front standard, let´s squeeze the two black levers at the bottom of the standard together and pull it into its rails. (image below).
The rails have handles and little wheels on each side. These wheels are made for focussing, the levers are made to lock or unlock the position of the focusing or the rails. Now just mount your lens onto a Shen Hao or Linhof Technica Lens board and place it into the lens holder of the front standard.

I assume, you know how to operate your lens, that´s why I do not go deeper into that here.

Front standard can do the following movements: rise, shift, tilt.

Using the 4×5 Cam is super simple.

Operating the Wista 45D advertisement is easy from now on. Turn it around to and open the focusing-hood, by pushing the little silver button upwards. (image below).
In the event you can not see anything on the ground glass, make sure you opened up your lens.

In case you want to change from landscape to portrait orientation, simply turn the back by pushing the little black lever at the top side of the back. (it is on the right-hand side on the image below).

The image below shows the Wista 45D with open focusing-hood.

All you have to do now, is totake your meter readings, focus the picture turning the wheels at the lower part of the opened front and to take a shot.

However, should you need some back movements the Wista 45D is also capable of doing that. Simply open the knobs (the ones you had to turn to open the camera) and tilt the back part downwards. If you need a backswing, you can use the micro-adjustment knobs on the side of the camera. These are the smaller ones above the big ones. use one at a time and you have a slight swing. (See image below)

The vertical wheels at the front standard are to tilt and raise the lens.

Since you managed to prepare your camera, metered and focused your image it is time to insert the film holder and to take the shot.
Inserting the film holder is super easy, slightly pull the black metal part on the right-hand side (in portrait mode it is at the top) and slide in the film holder into the Wista 45D.  (Image below).

Before you pull out the dark slide from the film holder make sure you closed your lens again, otherwise you would expose your film to light immediately and uncontrolled.

Take your shot, move the dark slide back in, remove the film holder and you are done.  congrats, you just took your first image with a Wista 45D field camera.

Some more information before my final conclusion.

If you do not like to work with the focusing-hood you can remove it temporarily simply by opening it up to the side. Note, that you will now need a dark cloth since otherwise, you will not see a lot.

There are two black, horizontal levers above and below the ground glass, these can be used to completely remove the ground glass and focusing hood of the Wista 45D. For example to renew the light seals or to completely clean the ground glass.

You could also remove the focusing hood completely, by bussing in the downside of its holder. But I recommend to keep it on since it also saves the ground glass from braking.

My last little tip is to paint lines onto your ground glass, yes you could buy some ground glass with premade lines but that would cause you to spend some unnecessary money. Just make sure to paint them onto the glass not on to the plastic screen.

Below you see some more images of the camera. After my final conclusion about the Wista 45D advertisement you will see some example images, taken with this large-format camera.

My conclusion about the Wista 45D

I love it, really! Even thou it is kind of heavy I would buy it again at any time. It is relatively small, easy to set up and use. And it for sure makes you the point of interest for people that are maybe around you (yeah I know, most of us don´t like that :-P ). The prices on eBay are also absolutely ok right at the moment. Most eBay sellers allow returning if something is wrong so I am absolutely not concerned about buying a bad camera.

For what I do (mainly portraits and nude art) the Movements are absolutely enough and I am sure they are enough for 85% of the users of 4×5 large format cameras. The only thing you have to make sure after buying one is that the bellows are light tight and that the light seals are ok.
But besides that, you can´t do anything wrong with buying one of these things.

I especially like the possibility to use Shen Hao or Linhof Technica lens boards.

Below you find some images taken with the Wista field 45D. (click to enlarge)

BUY A WISTA FIELD 45D HERE advertisement

GET LENS BOARDS HERE advertisement

GRAB FILM HOLDERS HERE advertisement

FIND LENSES HERE advertisement

The Zenit-E

Is a 35mm film camera from the USSR.

The Zenit-E (advertisement) is an analogue mirror reflex camera which was manufactured from 1965-1981 in the Soviet Union. To be pricise it was manufactured by KMZ in the town of Krasnogorsk near Moscow since 1952 and also by BelOMO in Belarus since the 1970s. Unfortunately technical it could not keep up with the then produced German and Japanese cameras.
The camera was made almost entirely of metal and offers the following features.

Film format: 35mm
Shutter speeds: B, 1/30 (X), 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500
Self-timer: Yes
Light meter: Yes
Bayonet: M42
Prissmensucher: Yes
Shutter priority: no
Picture counter: Yes (on the winding lever, must be reset manually)
Flash: PC connection
The indication of the film sensitivity: in GOST and DIN (conversion table at the end of the page)
curtain: Horizontal, fabric

The Zenit-E advertisement was delivered with a leather case adapted to the shape of the camera.
To avoid fungus in the lenses, I recommend that you do not store the camera with the lens attached to the camera.
Since leather cases support the emergence of fungus.

Known problems of Zenit-E

Some known problems, besides problems with the fabric curtain, are especially problems in mechanics.
First and foremost possible damage to the shutter speed adjuster. Adjusting the shutter speed only takes effect after loading the shutter! Furthermore, the camera is known for splashing oil around in the housing sometimes. In the worst case, that can contaminate your film.

The Lens

Helios -44-2; 2/58

Thanks to the M42 mount advertisement a variety of lenses are available For the Zenit-E.
Probably the best known is the Helios 58mm f 1: 2.
Exact designation on the frame of the front lens “Helios -44-2; 2/58“ advertisement

This lens is best known for its popular “Swirly Bokeh” at open aperture.
The sharpness of the lens is quite good, but it decreases towards the edges.
With the help of an adapter, it can be used without problems at digital SLRs, of course, here is to be expected some losses in quality.

GET A ZENIT-E HERE <-
(advertisement)

GET A HELIOS 44-2 HERE <-

(advertisement)

GOST-ASA-DIN

A small conversion table

With help of the table below, you can easily convert your GOST values into ASA (ISO) or DIN.

The Minox 35 /GL

A great 35mm film camera in pocket format.

The Minox 35 series was a 35mm film camera produced by the company MINOX, from the year 1974 to the year 1995.

During this Period, the Minox 35 was the smallest 35mm film camera that could load 35mm standard film (24frames or 36 frames).
Depending on the Model, the Minox 35 comes with different options and Model types.
here we will have a deeper look at the Minox 35GL which was produced in 1979.

Let´s go right in and have a look at this awesome camera.

Get the Minox 35 here! (Advertising)

Tech. specs

• 35mm film camera
• ISO/ASA range 25-800
• Internal light meter
• 35mm f2.8 lens
• Exposure time doubler
• Battery tester
• Hot shoe flash mount
• Cable release connector
• A tripod mount

The Lens.

As Mentioned, the Lens of the MINOX 35GL is a 35mm f2.8 Minotar lens.
It has a leaf shutter which is battery triggered. Even that the camera and the lens have really small form factors,
a lot of light is going through the lens. Means you can shoot an 400 ISO film until the early evening hours without any problems.

The lens has no Auto focus at all. You have to guess the distance and then dial it in at the front of the lens.
At the rear part of the lens, you can dial in your Aperture. The Camera will then decide for the correct exposure time.

The lens may look cheap and crappy but it creates images with stunning sharpness.
See for your self down in the gallery.

The 2X button

The “2X button” at the top of the Minox 35 is made to double your exposure time in complicated light situations.
Eg. You want to take a picture in a church, due to the fact that you shoot against the light, coming through the big church windows, the
camera will most likely set the exposure for the lights, so they will not be blown out.
The Problem with that is, that now the rest of the church would be to dark due to the short exposure time.
The Solution: Turning the small button at the top upwards, so it shows 2x.  The camera will now double the measured exposure time ( eg. from 1/250 to 1/125 s) and you will have more details in darker areas.

Setting the right ISO

Setting the Right ISO is key, to gain correct exposures. Since the camera decides most things for itself.
At the bottom of the camera you can find a dial, that let´s you choose the right ISO settings.
I don’t think i need to further explain how that works. :-)

The Battery tester

The battery tester is right above the “2X button”.

To use it makes the camera ready for shoot. Now push the battery test button. The Needle of the light meter should stay between 1/30s and 1/125s.
If it goes below that values, you should replace the battery of the Minox 35GL.

The battery

Originally the Minox 35 is powered by a PX27 battery.

Due to the fact that these contained Mercury, the production of these batteries was stopped.
But the solution is very simple. Minox brought out an adapter in which u can load four button cells and create your own
PX27 replacement. So no need to avoid the camera just because of the battery thing.

Get the adapter here! Advertisement

Instruction manuals

Here you find the original instruction manuals for the Minox 35 series to download for free!

Download manuals!

Sample images

And here we go with some sample images taken with the Minox 35GL.

The used film was a Ilford HP5+ (Advertising) at box speed.

Converting color negatives to positives. Without Plugins.

Two simple ways to convert your negatives without waisting time and money.

Most people convert their negatives during the scan process using programms like Silverfast or Vue scan.

But what if you don´t have a film scanner? or what if you are simply not satisfied with the
Results of the premade film Profiles?
This article will answer all your questions.

Does this work with DSLR scans.

Yes!

The methods i am going to show you will work absolutely well with your DSLR scans.
I would say even better then expensive Plugins.

Please note! Method number two is shown in the Video only!

Do i have to remember all the steps?

No and yes!

No because i provide you with a free action for download, which will take a way a big part of the work of converting your negatives to
positives.

Yes, because I think it is alway better to really understand what you do, so you can manipulate and alter the methods to your needs.

Method one

Let´s start right in with method one.

Methode one is a method that takes a little bit longer for converting your negatives into positives. But at the same time, often gives you
a better starting point for complicated images. For example: If you have an image without clear white point or without a neutral gray subject in it, this method gives you the better results, from where on you can work on your images.

Removing the orange mask from the negative.

• Duplicate your Background layer (just for the case).
• Take your eyedropper tool and sample the color of the orange mask. Make sure it´s sample average is between 5×5 and 11×11.
• Create a new empty layer.
• Fill the empty layer with the just sampled foreground color (color of the orange mask)
• Set the blend mode of the layer to “divide”

You just perfectly removed the orange mask from your negative.

• now hit cmd (ctrl) + alt (option) + shift + E to create a new merged layer.

Original

selecting the orange mask

creating an empty layer

filling layer with foreground color

changing blendmode to “divide”

create new merged layer

Making it positive and set the black point.

Now that we removed the orange mask of the color negative and created a merged layer, it is time to invert the just created image to a positive.

• select your merged layer and hit cmd(ctrl) + i, to invert the image.

the next thing we are going to do is setting the black point.

• create a new levels adjustment layer
• choose the black eyedropper tool and sample the dark boarder of the image as your black point.

invert merged layer

create a new curves layer and sample the black boarder of the image as black point.

Let the magic happen.

At this point we are using a tool hidden in the curves adjustment layer, that will help us to further enhance our image.
This is the same tool, that most of the plugins you buy will use for their work.
The so called “Auto Color Options”.

• Crop away the black borders of the image
• create a new curves layer
• hit the alt (option) key on your keyboard and press “Auto” on the curves adjustment panel.
  Now the Auto Options will appear.
• choose “enhance per chanel contrast” or “find dark and light colors”. If image has a storng color cast also choose “snap neutral midtones”

crop the black borders of the image away.

create levels and use “auto color corection options”.

hit “alt” on your keyboard and press “Auto” on the levels layer.

choose “enhance per chanel contrast” or “find dark and light colors”. If image has a storng color cast also choose “snap neutral midtones”

Final enhancements

After applaying the Auto color correction options, you can apply further enhancements to your image.
in our case we will use some Color Balance layers and alter the Midtones and shadows.

Result of auto color cast options

Further enhance your image by altering color balance to your taste.

Further enhance your image by altering color balance to your taste.

Final result

Download your free negative to positve photoshop action.

Get the action here :-)

Kodak Gold 200 Test & Reviw

A cheap 35mm film, with nice characteristics.

The Kodak Gold 200 is a 200 ASA/ISO film, manufactured by Kodak.

The film was originally introduced in 1997 and was reintroduced or renewed in 2007.
Kodak Gold 200 was designed to be used in Daylight or with electronic flash.
It is available with 24 or 36 exposures, in single, double and triple packs.

Get some Kodak Gold here! Advertising

Tech. specs

• 35mm film
• ISO/ASA 200
• 24 or 36 exposures
• c-41 process film
• warm colors
• daylight balanced

Daylight balanced, what does it mean?

Kodak Gold 200 shot in a mix of tungsten and flourescent light.

As already mentioned, the Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight balanced film.
That means it has to be used in Natural light during day time or with a daylight balanced flash (around 5500 Kelvin). Using the film indoors with tungsten lights (around 3200 Kelvin) will cause some heavy yellow tones in the image. which most of the time does not look nice.

You could shoot the film in tungsten light but you would have to use a blue filter (No. 80A) to counterbalance the yellow light.

What is daytime?

According to Kodaks data sheet, daytime is two hours after sunrise until two hours before sunset.

Colors & dynamic range.

The colours of the Kodak Gold 200 have a very nice and warm touch. It represents yellow, orange and blue colours very well. In my opinion, the film has nice colours in general.
The dynamic range is absolutely ok for a consumer grade film. In some very contrasty scenes, it tends to lose shadow details very quickly.

Scanning

The film has (if handled the right way) great scanning capabilities.
It does show soft to medium strong grain.

One of the biggest problems during scanning is colour casts. In my case and also in case of other users, the film showed a really strong magenta colour cast.
Using the Auto Color Cast Correction (CCR in silver fast), corrected the film tho death. Means it took out all characteristics of the film and really neutralized everything. That’s why I decided to correct the colours by hand.
I used the Film profile for Kodak gold, kept all the magenta colour casts in the image, opened it up in PS and used a colour balance layer to correct the colours.
My goal was to correct them to a point where the film has as less magenta as possible, but without destroying the feeling of the film. In some images, I kind of liked the colour cast cause it added to the look. but for consistency, i edited them all.
In the next pictures, you find some before and after images. On the left is always the original and on the right there is the correction.

My Photoshop Settings

Typical mistakes, made when using Kodak Gold.

Typical mistakes made with Kodak Gold 200 are:

• Shooting in Tungsten Light: The film will look by far to warm an not really pleasing anymore
• Using it in fluorescent light: Kodak Gold 200 will get heavy green casts.
• Shooting in too dark situations: the film will lose shadow details quickly and introduce more grain.

Some usefull links

Here i have some links for you:

Get Kodak Gold 200 advertisement

Kodak Gold 200 datasheet

Sample images

Here you find some example images, taken with Kodak Gold 200.
Scanned with SilverFast 8, colourcast corrected by hand.