Smena -4 some more

Here are some more samples taken with the Smena - 4 and a 100 ASA Fuji film

 Photographing...

Waiting to cross...

 

I pressed 3 times the shutter here at 1/200 and f/16 and made the passengers ghosts

I advanced the film only once, not one and a half times, and got four pictures in two frames, then stiched the scanned photos

This is made of two consecutive frames joined automatically in the computer

Canon Ixus X-1, would go underwater...

This is an underwater camera made by Canon. The camera is sealed against water and has autofocus, a big viewfinder to assist in underwater taking, and a flash. The lens is fixed at 23mm (35mm equivalent) that becomes longer (around 55mm I quess) when into the water.

 
The only controls available are the shutter button and a self timer button on the top, and the selectors for aspect and program type on the back.

There are some controls in the buttom of the camera but wou must open the bottom cover which is waterproof too.
Mine had an APS film stucked in the camera. The rewind button works but I couldn't take the film out. When I loaded a new film into the camera refused to work....
Pity I'd love to take it in the sea with me...

Smena 4, soviet bakelite camera

The Smena 4 is a Soviet bakelite camera of the 50s. It is a simple point and shoot camera with manual controls.

The camera has an Industar-22 40mm lens that is sharp but with a slow maximum aperture of f/4.5 The shutter sppeds range from 1/250 to 1/10 plus B. Before exposure is made the shutter must be cocked by a lever then the taking button must be pressed and then advance the film. The camera allows for multiple exposures, if the film is not advanced.
BEWARE! to advance one frame you must wind the advance lever one and a half times until some resistance is felt!

 

The Smena - 4 needed 2 special 35mm canisters, the take up canister stores the film and there was not need to rewind the film back to the unexposed film canister. That means there is no rewind button, in its place there is a cold shoe to connect a flash via a cable to the shutter.

To use the camera we must take a spool from the interior of used film canister and place it in the take up position. You may need to trim the edges a little. The position fo the spool is shown in the following photo.

since there is no rewind button and the film is unprotected you must open the camera in the dark and put the exposed film back to its canister.

Here are some samples I took with the Smena 4

With the first film I only advanced the film with one stroke of the lever so I got double exposed pictures, mainly overexposed and washed out. These three are the only visible ones:

 

I then put another film in and advanced it properly

The manual settings allow for some fun
I took 3 exposures here without advancing the film, stopping down by 2 stops for each exposure. The result was a proper exposure with the moving objects underexposed and recorded as ghosts.

 For this pano I advanced only half frame, with only one stroke of the advanced lever. I got two frames with double exposures and then I stitched them manualy.

Overall the pictures came out sharp but a little overexposed, but that was my fault...

Kinax folder camera

This is a very nice looking folder camera, made in France in the 50s. The shutter did not work when I bought it, but unfortunately I was not able to repair it. I opened the front elements, cleaned the shutter assembly and managed to have the shutter moving, but it won't move freely.
So I lost my hope... Too bad, it looks like a capable camera.
the camera takes 620 film (you must respool some 120 film in a 620 spool) has some shutter speeds (1/10 to 1/150th) and a f4.5 maximum wide aperture. The viewfinder can be adjusted for the shooting distance to count for the parallax.