Some more from the Ansco Memar

The camera can take some good pictures

Some more photos from the Ansco Memar

Travelcam, a cheap failure

I was given this simple plastic camera. It is a very simple plastic cheap camera, probably a giveaway with a magazine.
There is only a shutter speed and aperture and no focusing is necessary. It had film in it and I decided to finish it. It was a total failure.

The film turned out all uniform dark, as if it was exposed in the light.
I will have to test it again...

Zenit S, some more

The Zenit S is a manual camera and is very difficult to repair it as there is no access behind the lens and in the shutter curtains. Shutter speeds slower than 1/50 seem unreliable, so I mostly used the dial set on the 1/100s speed.

Here are some more pictures from the first film I used in the Zenit S

 

Ansco Memar (Agfa Silette) an average family camera of the fifties

The Ansco Memar is a German Agfa Silette made in the U.S.A. The design is an average camera design of the fifties marketed for the average family takers.
It has a 45mm / f3.5 lens, the f3.5 aperture is not very fast but not very slow, the focal length of 45mm is neither wide nor tele, it is the average standard.
It has a B setting and 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200 shutter speeds. There are not many speeds, but they are adequate.
I had the camera sitting for a long time. I have cleaned the shutter and the focussing helicoid, I also calibrated the infinity setting of the lens. 

I have put a colour Fuji film in the camera. It behaved good but not something to be excited about.
Here are the results

 The camera is very quiet and fast, nice for candids

 I converted these pictures to B/W, I liked them better

 A night exposure with the B setting

 

Zenit S, first Soviet SLR

The Zenit S is the first Zenit SLR camera. It uses the body of the Zorki and the M39 lens thread, but the lens is mounted further in front of the film, so the M39 Fed/Zorki lenses cannot fit. These lenses are only suitable for Macro work

Mine had the common Industar 50mm/f3.5 lens, in M39 mount, which is small and sharp.
The camera has no metering aid, an external lightmeter is needed to select the aperture/shutter speed settings.
The camera has a very difficult way to load the film throufh a slit in the bottom, needs care or else the film will be munced up and there is no way to get into the camera's inside.

After I made it with the film I took some samples using the standard 50mm lens but also some Fed/Zorki lenses for macro.

Here are the results
with the standard Industar 50mm/f3.5

Shop display

Barking dog

 Chicken for sale

Roadworks

With the Jupiter-8 50mm/f2 for Fed and Zorki
Only macro is available

With the Industar - 22 5cm/f3.5 retractable lens there is a small flexibility to focus a little further

Fujica MA-1, red point and shoot camera

The Fujica MA-1 is a very simple plastic camera. Mine is red. It does not need focussing. It only has three settings on the lens, Bright and Hazy sun and a setting for flash, focuses closer to 1-3 meters.

There was film left in it which I processed and scanned at the lab.
The film was old, damaged and fogged. I used a lot of post processing to make the photos a bit more appealing.
It seems that the camera can take some good pictures in sunny conditions. I will try it later...

Exa, some more

The Exa is a difficult to use manual camera

Some more samples with the Exa camera