Steve Maniscalco Photography

Iskra

I love the idea of folding cameras…big negative, compact camera.  The reality has not always lived up to the theory.  Mainly, the problem has been finding a good working copy of one of these old cameras.  I did well with my Balda Baldax and I also got a winner with my Iskra.

Like the Baldax, the Iskra sports a fine 4 element Tessar style lens.  It is quite capable of good, sharp images with the photographer being the main limitation to quality.

Pros and cons for the Iskra.

Pros:

Good quality lens

Auto frame counting with good spacing

Solid build

Decent viewfinder/rangefinder

Cons:

Difficult to use filters (I haven’t found a good solution yet).

Finding one in good shooting condition.

If you’re looking to buy an Iskra, be aware of the fact that you’re taking a chance on a camera built no later than 1963.  A whole lot can go wrong in 45+ years.  It’s common to find Iskras for sale with an added red window for frame counting because the film counter has failed.  Working with a red window isn’t the worst thing in the world, just so you know what you’re getting.

Head on over to the Rangefinder forum and ask/search for experiences using an Iskra.  Lots of folks over there will be willing to share some great information.

 

The slide show below is from the Iskra group on flickr:

 

 

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Flickr Slideshow

I'm adding a flicker slideshow page. It can be accessed at any time from the link on the left side of this home page.

The contents are not heavily edited...in other words, some stuff I think is good, some is very average.  It's just what's going in the general flickr bucket.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Getty

 

Not from my Balda Baldax, but a lower end version of the same camera, with a slow 3 element lens and without a coupled rangefinder.  I sold the Mess Baldix when I got the Baldax.

Balda Mess Baldix, film and exposure forgotten

More From Shreveport

35mm Ektar shots from the recent visit to my home town. 

Finally, I found the "Hope."

 

Building Detail

 

Train to Nowhere

These were all taken with a Bessa R3A and CV21mm lens with Ektar.  It's a handy and light combination that I should be satisfied with.  Functionally, I am satisfied.  I've got a few nits to pick with the R3A, mostly around the visibility of the LCD information in the viewfinder...even so, I should be satisfied.  Somehow though, I still long for a larger negative.  There may be a Mamiya 7 in my future, if I can figure out how to pay for it.  I am uncharacteristically unwilling to part with any of my current gear to finance anything new.  Ends up, I pretty much like everything I now have and even though I might not use it all frequently, it all has a place and I want to keep it.  We'll see.

R3A, CV21mm, Ektar

All Bikes of Rye

 

gran view hand held, 75mm super angulon, txp-320

Whistling Past the Graveyard

Ok, I was actually just walking around. 

By the way, I just wanted to mention that these were not taken with Ektar. :-)

 

 

 

Balda Baldax, PanF, Barry's 2-bath developer    

Christopher Creek

On a cub scout camping trip recently, I had a chance to spend some time standing in the cold waters of Christopher Creek near Payson Arizona.

The first shot, taken with the Gran View and 75mm Super Angulon, shows the problem I keep having of not selecting a fast enough shutter speed when shooting tall trees.  I never had this problem with medium format or smaller, since I was confident of my dof at larger apertures (thus higher shutter speeds), so I'm not giving shutter speed enough thought for these shots.

I wouldn't say the slight motion blur at the tops ruins the shot, but it does detract significantly.

  

(Gran View, 75mm Super Angulon, TXP in Barry's 2-bath developer.)

Next we have a pinhole image, where a bit of motion blur is more of a feature than  a bug.  This one was about a 20 second exposure through a red filter.  Not really anything stellar in the way of composition, just very strait forward and I think it worked out pretty well.

 

(Super Graphic, .25mm pinhole at about 80mm/f250.  FP4+ in Barry's 2-bath developer.)

Colorful Decreptitude

Every time I post on Ektar, my hits go up.  They go up so reliably that I'm thinking of including the word "Ektar" at least once in every paragraph I write.  It wouldn't exactly be cheating the search engines if I really found a way to work "Ektar" in to every conversation and it shouldn't be all that tough to do.  If I shoot Ektar, I mention Ektar.  If I shoot some other color film, I can compare it to Ektar. Heck, if I shoot black and white, I can always lament that I did not have any Ektar with me.

Part of me says that all of this fuss over a new color film (Ektar) is pretty silly.  On the other hand, it's encouraging to those of us who like to shoot film, to see Kodak do the money and work necessary to introduce a new product.  I'd like to think that I'll be able to keep shooting film for as long as I want, and I take Ektar as an indication that film will not be taken away from me any time soon.

More importantly to the actual photography end of things...I really like shooting Ektar.  On a walk around in my old home town, I found that having one of the cameras loaded with Ektar had me seeing differently.  I looked for ways putting its color rendition to good use and found myself seeing all sorts of color/texture possibilities that I might not have noticed without that "Ektar" word floating about in my head.  It was quite a pleasurable experience really.

Anyway, here are three from that opportunity.

 

 

 

R3A, Nokton 40mm, and of course...Ektar

Still Got the Blues

At least this time I've got the blues over the quantity of film I need to develop and scan...my usual beef being "no time to shoot." 

These were taken at a bar in my home town of Shreveport, Louisiana...on Blues Night.

 

 

 

R3A w/Nokton 40mm f1.4, Tri-X @ 1600 iso in Diafine

How Free?

"Programing" note.  I'll be away for a week starting tomorrow and way behind on life when I come back.  Now would be a good time for you to start tracking me in your bloglines or other blog tracker, that way you'll know when I post again.

 

Iskra 6x6 Folding Camera, FP4, Thornton's 2-bath developer

Sale

 

Iskra 6x6 Folding Camera, FP4, Thornton's 2-bath developer

Sunday Morning at the Bikini

 

Gran View w/75mm Super Angulon
TXP-320 in Thornton's 2-bath developer