cameraclasic: 2013

Sunday 5 May 2013

Super Dollina II

Serial No.: 51385
Manufacturer: Certo, Dresden, Germany
Shipping date: 19.6.1957.
Shutter: Synchro Compur
Shutter speeds: 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 and B
Lens: Carl Zeiss Jena - Tessar 2.8/50
Apertures: 2.8 to 22 in half stops
Lens No.: 5026 936
Lens mount: fixed
Last CLA: 06/2010

Super Dollina II

"Dear CERTO-friend

Hearty welcome to the occasion of choosing the Super Dollina II, after thorough consideration, therefore becoming a part of the large group of photographers who like the Certo cameras for half a century – and have always been satisfied with them." starts the manual (in my humble translation) and continues "We would like you to enjoy your new camera so we kindly ask your attention for a few minutes before you go and take photographs with your Super Dollina II. This few minutes will contribute to the formulation of a long lasting friendship between you and your camera. With right handling, the Super Dollina II will always be your faithful friend."

This small piece of beauty was manufactured in Dresden, DDR, after the WWII until the early 1970's. It has a Synchro-Compur shutter with speeds from 1 to 1/500 and B. The lens is a Zeiss Tessar 2.8/50mm rendering crystal clear pictures. It has all the technology built in to be a great camera. The main design aspect, however, had to be the look and not the ease of use; the handling needs strong dedication.

The film winding knob, for example, doesn't cock the shutter: it has to be done separately. You have to set the aperture with that ugly peg in the bottom of the lens front which is not only difficult to handle but the scale is almost impossible to read. Focusing is a heroic fight with the coupled rangefinder which is a little dark hole as close to be unusable as possible. Finally, you have to use the viewfinder which is separate from the rangefinder and can be best described as a really bad joke. I haven't mentioned the speed setting which is simply not convenient and has to be re-checked after setting the aperture because aperture setting can easily modify it. All in all, the whole procedure of preparation takes a lot of time, concentration and patience before each shot.

Which has its undeniable charm. Look at it this way: you have to slow down and think your shot over with an impressive old camera in your hand.

Some notes on the positive side before you think I'm against the Super Dollina II. No, I'm not, in fact I love it. This is an eye catching machinery with a very unique, characteristic feeling. Unfolding and folding the lens, for example, is a piece of true joy, it moves so precisely. The folder design makes it compact and easy to carry. It can produce really sharp pictures - thanks to the Zeiss Tessar lens.

Super Dollina II

The Super Dollina II was an obsolete design in its age, using new technology. Therefore it can give you the feeling of an archaic camera without the rust, stuck parts, low quality and restrictions in aperture sizes and shutter speeds typical of the cameras of the 30's and the 40's. It's a true classic beauty which fits into your pocket and won't let you down even in darker light conditions. A must have for today's individual and ascetic vintage camera user.

Super Dollina II

Here are some test pictures taken with it just to prove that I'm ascetic enough. No, I'm joking, it was a real pleasure to take these photos.

Super Dollina II

Trpanj port

Traces of the war

This Tessar lens is sharp like hell as you see. And the colors are living.

All in all, it's a lovely little camera.

Dollina on Camerapedia
Certo Super Dollina II Manual translation (PDF)

Zenit 3m

The Good:

Type: Zenit 3m
Serial No: 66115890
Manufactured: 1966
Manufacturer: KMZ Krasnogorsk
Shutter: Focal pane curtain (rubberized silk)
Shutter speeds: B, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500
Lens: Helios-44 2/58 alu
Aperture: 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16
Lens Serial No: 6059879
Lens mount: M39
Last CLA: 02/2012
Condition: like a new, shiny, every function working perfectly

The Bad and the Ugly:

Type: Zenit 3m
Serial No: 66028191
Manufactured: 1966
Manufacturer: KMZ Krasnogorsk
Shutter: Focal pane curtain (rubberized silk)
Shutter speeds: B, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500
Lens: Helios-44 2/58 black
Aperture: 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16
Lens Serial No: 6013114
Lens mount: M39
Last CLA: 01/2012
Condition: worn-out, shabby, self timer not working, shutter hectic

An SLR from the Soviet Union with M39 thread mount and rubberized silk courtain shutter. Grandchild of the legendary Leica II. Sounds interesting, eh? It is, indeed.

Small, heavy, charming, Spartan and indestructible. This is how I can describe it the best. But first of all, let's see its origin.

In 1932, the Soviet Union buys the license of the Leica II(D), the famous 35mm Leitz rangefinder camera. Based on the license, they start the production of the FED rangefinder soon enough, in 1934. Then comes the Second Word War. The Felix Edmundovich Dzerzinshky Labour Commune (the FED factory) has to be evacuated during the advancement of the German troops. The Soviet Union decides to restart the mass-production of the Leica copies in the KMZ factory under the brand FED-Zorki in 1948. Later, the FED factory restarts its operation but the KMZ continues to produce the Leica copies under the Zorki name. From that point, the development of the FEDs and Zorkis go on their own separate ways.

After the War, the Soviet Union begins to produce an other German rangefinder camera, the Zeiss Contax, under the Kiev name. No license buying this time; they take the design, the machinery, the parts, materials and even the engineers as war indemnity. But there is still no Soviet reflex camera; the SLR camera production remains in East Germany.

The large internal market of the Soviet Union needs a cheap and simple SLR camera in mass production. The KMZ factory finds the simplest possible solution: they take a Zorki rangefinder, remove the RF housing and replace it by a plain ground-glass and a prism. They put a mirror below and push forward the M39 Leica thread mount to make room for the mirror housing. This is how the most successful SLR of the Soviet Union is born in 1952.

The early Zorki and Zenit cameras were developed together: the first Zenit model was based on the Zorki 1, Zenit S was based on the Zorki S (with flash sync).

The Zenit 3 was a separate development from the Zorki line. It had a wind lever and a self timer but the film load mechanism was still the good-old Leica way: you had to remove the bottom of the camera. It had quite high build quality but the production cost was too high so the production was stopped shortly after the introduction of the Zenit 3. The solution for the cost problem was the Zenit 3m. This was the first model with removable back. The letter 'm' meant modern, however the design was outdated from its birth. Just compare it to the German SLR-s of the same age: a Contaflex, a Retina Reflex, an Exakta or a Bessamatic is a high-tech spaceship command center compared to the Zenits.

Zenit 3m / Helios 44, Jupiter-11, Mir-1 (M39)

The Zen art of SLR: the Zenit 3m is small, beautiful and extremely minimalist in functionality. No tricks like instant mirror return, you have to cock the shutter to see trough the lens. No focusing aid of any kind, just the good-old ground glass screen. You have a minimal set of shutter times at your disposal: 500, 250, 125, 60 30 and B. No slow times of course. There is no automated aperture control, just an additional ring on the lens to manually open and close the aperture from wide open to the preset value. Light metering? Come on, you can't be serious.

The camera is robust and it has an indestructible air and it's so imprecise, so rough, so Russian that it can't be compared to anything, maybe only to a tank. A small, pretty tank.

After this description one can imagine that using a Zenit 3m must be a pain but nothing is more far from the truth. Using a Zenit 3m is a pure joy. You hold a small gem in your hand. You don't have to worry if you accidentally knock it to the wall; this would be the problem of the building's owner. There is no technical wizardry to keep your attention away from composing the image. Interestingly, this minimal SLR turns out to be just the right tool in most of the cases. And it's cheap, damn cheap. So cheap that you can easily buy three to have spare in case. 781.678 pieces were made of it so you can't run out of supply.

And the lenses...

Helios-44, Jupiter-11 and Mir-1 for Zenit 3m

You can have an Industar 3.5/50 but don't go for it: it's just a low quality Tessar clone. Buy a camera with the legendary 58mm Helios-44. This lens is a Zeiss Biotar copy, a true pleasure to use. The later type the lens is the better the resolution is.

And there is the legendary Zeiss Flektogon clone, the award-winning 37mm MIR-1 which won the Grand Prix in Brussels in 1958. Sharp like hell. It renders crisp pictures, no matter what.

Last but not least you can have a 135mm Jupiter-11, which was based on the reputable Zeiss Sonnar. Unfortunately, my example has quite bad optical quality but other resources praise it so it's possibly my bad luck.

Don't let the M39 thread mount fool you. The rangefinder lenses from the FEDs and Zorkis (or even Leica's) can be mounted on the Zenit 3m but they will not be fully functional. The base distance of the Zenit is much larger because of the mirror housing so the RF lenses can be used solely for close shots; you cannot focus them to greater distances.

The Zenit 3m is even able to take quite stunning macro shots. We did a thorough investigation in this matter. You can find the results and the lessons learned at the KIWI project webpage: kiwiproject.tumblr.com

And now let's see those test shots.

The Helios-44 is a good lens. No surprise because it's a Zeiss Biotar copy.

Reverse macro with exposure compensation

The MIR-1 is basically a Flektogon. And it performs accordingly.

The Jupiter 11 gets unsharp at the edges at maximum aperture:

Nowadays, you have to buy a Lensbaby lens for similar effect. Having a Zenit 3m with the Jupiter 11, you just have to set the aperture to f/4.

But it is sharp at the center when stopped down:

Tip: never ever set shutter speed before cocking the shutter! It can permanently damage the shutter. Remember: it's an old Zorki inside.

Macro photography with Zenit 3m - is it possible?
The Zenit story on Wikipedia
Zenit 3m on Sovietcams.com
The Zenit story in Hungarian - from György Török
Zenit 3m review by Stephen Dowling

Exa Ia

Type: Ia
Serial No: 379142
Manufactured: 1965-1977
Manufacturer: Ihagee, Dresden, Germany
Shutter: “guillotine-type” focal plane
Speeds: 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/175 and B
Lens: Meyer-Optik Görlitz Domiplan 2.8/50
Apertures: 2.8 - 22 in half stops
Lens No:5116628
Lens mount: Ihagee/Exakta/Exa bayonet
Last CLA: unknown

The Exa Ia is a cheap and simple SLR camera system from Ihagee with interchangeable lens, interchangeable finder and lots of accessories (like a 3 parts macro tube for as close focusing as 2 cm). It was designed to be an affordable alternative of the more sophisticated and higher quality Exakta series.

It comes with a waist-level finder which can be replaced with a normal eye-level finder but why anybody would do that? A waist-level finder is a great fun. Firstly because you have to compose in a mirror (and it’s not as easy as you think). Secondly you will get a completely different perspective. Composing while the camera is on the ground is not a problem anymore. Same applies when you hold it up above your head. Finally, the waist-level finder is the less obtrusive solution possible. Most people will not even notice that you take photo.

Then comes that ugly clash. The Exas have a very simple shutter which is basically the mirror itself making a noise of an empty can. It’s really ugly. Simplicity means a limited choice of speeds from 1/30 to 1/175 which is surprisingly enough in most of the cases. Simplicity also means reliability: it’s free from the slowdown in cold - a typical problem of other mechanical shutters having higher speeds.

The camera itself is somehow wobbly. However, it’s wobbly in a German way. For example the cover of the waist-level finder is beveled because of an imprecise fastening. But not only on mine - it’s beveled on all Exa Ia-s exactly the same way. Engineered discrepancy.

The manufacturer was IHAGEE, a strangely named camera company founded by a Dutchman in Dresden, Germany (the name is the German pronunciation of the acronym IHG standing for Industrie- und Handelsgesellschaft).

You can find several lenses for the EXA Ia since it has a standard IHAGEE Exakta/Exa bayonet mount. Mine came with a Domiplan lens which is not a sharp one but reliable and without noticeable distortion. Here is a sample photo taken with it:

All in all, the EXA Ia is a unique camera with a really special look. It’s simple, medium quality but reliable and fun to use. You will like to play with it.

Raoul Pop, an American photographer made a short video to introduce the EXA Ia in details. A must see.

Exakta EXA Ia SLR from Raoul Pop on Vimeo.

Hapo 66-E

Type:
Serial No:
Manufactured: 1955-1961(?)
Manufacturer: Balda Kamera-Werk - Max Baldeweg Bünde
Format: 120 6x6
Shutter: Pronto metal leaf shutter
Shutter speeds: B, 25, 50, 100, 200
Lens: Enna Haponar 1:4.5/7.5 C
Aperture: 4.5, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22
Lens Serial No: 239251
Lens mount: -
Last CLA: 01/2012

I bought this neat 6x6 folder at the Mostra Scambio Imola in 2011. A German camera from an Italian oldtimer fair. It looks serious: rangefinder integrated into the viewfinder, auto-erect mechanism, self timer, shutter lock, frame counter, flash synch, what else do you need from a 6x6 folder?

The Hapo 66-E is a rebranded Mess Baldix. It was manufactured by the West German Balda Kamera-Werk and sold by Photo-Porst.

The coated lens seems to be rebranded as well: it's most probably an Ennagon from Enna Werk München (size, construction and comparative shots make it obvious but no written proof found so far).

The shutter is an inexpensive pronto with very limited speed range from 1/25 to 1/200 and B. Film sensitivity has to be carefully matched to the light conditions. But you have a self timer lever marked with a red dot. Looks really cool.

The rangefinder is uncoupled: you have to read the measured distance from the scale of the RF knob on the top of the camera and set the same distance on the focus ring of the lens. It seems to be a complicated and unreliable process but in fact the focus is dead on even in close distances. It just needs some time to be set.

An interesting feature of the Hapo 66-E is the most complicated double exposure prevention mechanism of the known Universe. To be able to understand how it works, we have to know the film winding mechanism first.

After loading the 120 film you have to go to frame 1. To do this you have to turn the film wind knob counterclockwise until it stops then turn it clockwise until it stops and repeat it until you see the number 1 in the red window on the back of the camera. Be careful, this ratcheting wind is not aligned with the frame width so you have to stop somewhere in the middle of the turn, most probably.

Now we have to set the frame counter to 1.

There is a little switch on the camera back between the viewfinder and the film wind knob. Push and hold it to the right. At the same time turn the film wind knob counterclockwise until it sets the frame counter back to 1.

And now let's see the double exposure lock. There is a little dot behind the shutter release button. It's white when the camera is ready to take a shot. It turns to red if the double exposure lock is activated by firing the shutter. The lock is deactivated by the racheting film wind mechanism when you turn the wind knob counterclockwise until it stops and turn it clockwise. It makes the little dot to be white again. Forget this and your shutter won't fire.

My overall impression of the camera is that it is solid and reliable, something that I could take with me for a motorcycle ride or for hiking without being afraid of breaking it and knowing that it worked for sure. The only real drawback of the Hapo 66E is the medium image quality it offers.

There are at least two versions of this camera: one with 3.5/75 Haponar lens and one with 4.5/75. The latter have inferior image quality: sharp at the center but blurry and distorted towards the edges. Vignetting is also noticeable. Even the better 3.5/75 shows signs of distortion and blurriness on the corners. Not a high quality Zeiss glass but the performance is acceptable at its price level.