August 19, 2021
#434
Gentle reader,
My wife, Nancy, is awesome. Not that you needed to know that. But, I have been blissfully married to her for more than twenty-five years, without a single fight. She gets me. And I her.
When you get to a certain point in a marriage, or any long term relationship, it makes sense to let the other suggest or even pick out gifts they would like to have for upcoming events, birthdays, Christmas, you get it.
That way, everybody is happy. Each of our interests have changed a number of times over the years. And sometimes it's difficult to keep track of what people's interests are.
With that being said, we visited an antiques store in Manassas, VA prior to my birthday. She encouraged me to pick out things I liked.
Since I no longer collect many things, especially cameras, when I spied the only camera they had, below, I was surprised at my feelings when I opened the "ever-ready" leather case, saw what it was, removed the lens cap, held it to my eye and tried it out.
It STILL worked!
My eBay "name" is "rfcollectin". No secret there. I used to collect rangefinder-focused film cameras. I had HUNDREDS of them over many years of collecting.
Above are the four vintage "survivor" 35mm film cameras I will be covering in this series. One sixty-year-old Japanese, one eighty-two-year-old American, and two Germans, one from the 1950's and one from the early 1970's. Three were gifts from loved ones who upon finding out that I'd begun to collect cameras, went out of their way to give them to me.
ALL four are completely functional, every aspect and part which moves physically or with electrons, still works.
Above and below are the two cameras reviewed and compared in the first two articles.
A first-year (1939) produced, Argus C-3, the venerable "Brick" of which more than one million were made, on the left. It is the only vintage camera I own which I bought myself.
And a 1961 Kuribayashi Petri Seven 1.8, the newest camera (505th) to join my now tiny collection. It, being my newest is the focus of this first article.
Eye to eye. Quite a difference between 1939 and 1961 technology.
The front and rear of the leather "ever-ready" case which has protected it for sixty years.
The knurled screw that holds the case by screwing it into the 1/4" tripod socket hole. I use a loose screw to prop up lens-heavy cameras for photos.
Case open, often-lost, slip-on metal lens cap is still there.
Case fully removed as well as the cap. Aside from the lens, the BEST thing this cap (and closed case) did was keep light away from the selenium (solar powered) light meter surrounding the lens.
On my birthday, I was showing the camera to the youngest grandkids. We pretended to make "selfies" with it. Gianna asked if we were actually making pictures. "Well, honey, if it had film in it, yes." To my utter surprise it DID have film in it! How old it is and is it still viable? I'm not willing to spend twenty dollars to find out.
The flat piece of metal (atop vertical rectangular piece) on the left end of the camera is pushed upward to open the film compartment.
The right end of the camera.
I just found the manual online. So it will tell me what the < on the otherwise unadorned top is for.
I also don't recall what MVE stands for. Tripod socket has seen some action. Little button in shallow indentation is pressed to allow film to be rewound.
Really outstanding condition.
I, of course, opened the back before trying rewinding to see if it had film. Again, we don't know if it is or was viable after unknown years inside the camera.
Above the smaller rectangle in the viewfinder is the rangefinder "patch".
Below, you can see if from the front (small yellow rectangle) inside green filtered glass.
To focus a rangefinder camera, one looks (in the viewfinder) for a vertical line in the scene, rotating the lens (more on this below) one aligns the two disparate vertical lines (above and below central patch) in the center of the scene. When aligned, the subject is in focus.
Silver knurled knob, above, is what one moves to focus the lens.
A closer look at the many "bubbles" which diffuse the light onto the selenium light meter. It was called "Circle-Eye" by some cameras makers back in the day.
A closer look at the focus lever/knob and the PC socket for camera flash cord.
Little silver colored lever X----- -----M switches between electronic (X) flash or flash bulbs (M) camera settings.
The other lever, with a tiny knurled knob on it is the self-timer lever, which also STILL works.
Silver ring with numbers, 500, 250, etc. is the shutter speed ring. Small window (on the left edge) shows the film speed setting. Fastest then was ISO/ASA 200 speed.
Below that, is the Aperture Setting ring. F1.8 is wide open, each setting (higher number=smaller opening) lets in 50% less light.
Bottom ring of numbers are metric and western distance scales showing how far away your subject is.
These three shots are of a later, 7 S, model I had years ago. It has a dent above the viewfinder, the "Circle Eye" meter and self timer no longer worked. The rangefinder patch is a diamond instead of a rectangle.
There are other differences I can discern at a glance on the lens and the addition of an Under Over exposed meter on the top of the camera.
A larger shutter button as well as a different type of shot counter and the winding lever comes out of the back rather than on top of the camera. Later on there was a model 7 S II, which I did not have one of.
NEXT article will be on the 1949 Argus C-3 camera. My parents had one when we were growing up. Here is a photo of me likely shot with it.
Here are links to two articles which list in chronological order, EVERY article I have written on cameras, and those related to cameras and photography and collecting thereof.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my humble blog. Your kind words and comments are welcome and heart warming.
Scott
August 19, 2021
#434
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