“I’m gonna shoot you now, but that’s okay because I’m a photographer!”
Miranda Sensorex C with Auto Miranda 135mm f/2.8 lens, equipped with Miranda Pistol Grip + shutter release remote control cable, a heavy and awe-inspiring combination.
Kiev 4A – An Ukrainan pre-war Zeiss Contax II copy
At the top of the list of the cameras I most admire are the pre- and postwar Zeiss Ikon Contax rangefinder models II, III, IIa and IIIa. I respect them, if possible, even more than the contemporary Leica’s. Unfortunately, lots of other people share my opinion about them, causing the price of good quality examples to soar sky-high, far beyond my modest budget. So, I ended up buying the next best thing, a Kiev 4A (КИЕВ 4A), which is a Russian-made copy of the pre-war Zeiss Ikon Contax II, and quite cheap…
To be precise, it is wrong to call them copies. After the WWII ended, the Russians occupying the East Germany moved the whole Contax assembly line from Dresden to Kiev (actually a part of the modern day Ukraina), with all of the machinery, designers and employees. The production lasted from 1947 to 1987, a strong proof of the quality of the original 30’s German design.
This example (serial number 8003364), with a 53mm f/2.0 Jupiter 8M lens, was made in the year 1980. Unfortunately after mid-70’s the quality of the Kiev factory products dropped considerably; let’s hope this one was made on a day the factory workers imbibed a bit less Vodka than usual… At least, it seems to work properly for now.
I bought it via eBay from Ukraina just a few days before the current unrest there started. I was somewhat concerned about whether it would arrive intact, or arrive at all… However, my fears were unfounded; here it is now!
Posted in Other Cameras
Tagged 80's, Kiev, Russian
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Black and white paper prints
Here are some of the prints I’ve already made from the films taken with Miranda (both Sensorex and Fv). The paper used is Rollei Vintage 311 variable contrast RC paper, 18×24 cm. I’m still very much in the learning stage, so these prints are far from perfect…
Customizing Olympus PEN (part 2): CS-31B leather body jacket
The other not-so-well-thought-out feature of the Olympus PEN E-PL3 is the grip, or originally, the lack of grip.
For some – possibly aesthetical – reason the Olympus engineers decided to leave out the grip, present in earlier models, from the E-PL3. I admit that the smooth, gripless body looks very sleek, but in practice it is actually quite cold and slippery to hold. There are quite a lot of third-party aftermarket grips for the E-PL3 available, but there exists also Olympus’s own solution to the problem: the CS-31B leather body jacket, available in black, brown, white and beige. It looks really good, and makes the camera a delight to handle. However, it has one severe problem: it fits to the tripod screw mount, forcing you to remove it if you want to use a tripod or the USB connector, or if you want to change the battery or memory card. And worse still, it needs a tool (i.e. a coin) to fit and remove. This design oversight makes the practical usage of CS-31B ‘leather jacket’ a nightmare.
I had one already-ripped-beyond-reasonable-repair 70’s Miranda case lying around, and on it a suitable oversized mounting screw with an extra tripod mount on the underside. I decided to remove the screw with its fitting plate and use it to customize the Olympus jacket. (Do I hear the cries of disgust from the Miranda enthusiasts…?)
The CS-31B was reasonably easy to take apart without causing irrepairable damage, the parts were just glued together. I enlarged the mounting hole to accept the Miranda screw, and after fitting the screw glued the jacket back together.
Now the E-PL3 has a perfect leather body jacket with tool-less fitting, and it can also be mounted on a tripod without the need to remove the jacket. That’s how it should have been designed from the start!!!
As a side note, I have really learned to hate various tripod screw mount equipment which needs a tool (usually a coin) to fit securely. I use a Slik Sprint Pro II tripod with both the PEN and the Mirandas, which tripod originally had Slik SBH-100DQ ball head with a quick release plate. As you probably already quessed, the QR plate bolt needed the use of a coin to screw it into the camera… While the tripod itself is excellent for its size, the design of the QR plate leaved a lot to be desired. In addition to the tool-needing problem, the joint between the plate and the camera flexed annoyingly. So, in the end I swapped the ball head to the SBH-100 model – the same ball head, but without the quick release plate. It is much better that way!
Posted in Micro Four Thirds
Tagged E-PL3, Olympus, Repair
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Vivo tripods
I published a new article / page concerning the japanese-made Vivo tripods, which I am very fond of. Please have a look here.
