This is only the second roll of film I’ve put through this camera since I got it last month. It’s one of only three 120 film cameras I own. It’s a folder, super compact for a 120 camera and I really like it.

This camera was manufactured in Germany from 1952 to 1958. I bought mine last month on eBay for $215 ($253.48 after taxes and shipping). It’s more than what I normally pay for an old camera, but it was advertised as being in mint condition and having been fully cleaned and serviced. The eBay seller was Optikka.Werke, a camera store in Slovenia. Yes, the Central European country. I’d bought from them before with great results, so I trusted them. It was shipped through Posta Slovenije and arrived just ten days after I purchased it.

Cock the shutter. Heh.

Taking photos with this camera is a mult-step process. And I have to admit that it’s one of the things I enjoy about it. It’s a thinking man’s camera.

• Establish your exposure. There is no light meter on this camera, so use Sunny 16, an app on your phone or an independent light meter. I suppose you could also just guess. I’ve done that with mixed results.
• Push the button on the upper left of the body to unfold the lens from the camera body.
• Turn the f-stop dial to the f-stop your choosing based upon the correct exposure from step one.
• Turn the shutter speed dial to line up your chosen shutter speed, again established in step one.
• Look through the viewfinder and turn the rangefinder knob/wheel to line up the overlayed image on top of the viewfinder image. Once they’re line up, look at the value on the rangefinder knob.
• Since the rangefinder is not coupled to the lens, setting focus in the previous step doesn’t actually set the focus on the lens. To set focus, transfer the rangefinder value from the previous step to the lens by turning the focus dial to the correct value.
• Cock the shutter. Heh.
• Look through the viewfinder to compose your shot.
• Press the shutter button. You’ve just taken a picture!
• Open the door on the red-filtered opening on the back of the camera to display the film’s current frame number from the film backing paper.
• Manually turn the film advance knob multiple times until you see the frame change from its current position to the next frame number.
• Close the door to the red-filtered opening to avoid any extra light getting to the film.
• Don’t forget to collapse the lens back into the body if you’re finished shooting.

And that’s all there is to it! If you’d like more details, the user manual for this camera is available here.

I recently loaded this camera up with a roll of Kentmere Pan 100 and I rated it at box speed for this shoot. I decided to try a roll of this film mostly because it’s cheap, less than $6 a roll for medium format. At 12 shots per roll, it breaks down to about 45 to 50 cents per frame. Kentmere is reportedly an Ilford product. It’s described as a medium speed, black & white film with fine grain and good sharpness.

I considered developing it in Kodak D-76 but then changed my mind and souped it in Rodinal 1+50 for 15 minutes at 68°. I’m very pleased with this film/developer combo and look forward to shooting it again.

Below are a few shots from that roll.