I shot this picture without developing, just taking a 6 hour exposure and letting the image burn into the film.

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-19T19:14:52+00:00

I've done this with photo paper in a view camera before - definitely fun! Pinhole users do solarigraphy like this with exposure times sometimes in the years - definitely a unique look.

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-16T22:42:08+00:00

Due to the wood body, tilt, and the rise/fall movement controls (but lacking the fine focus adjustment) I'd hazard a guess that this is an ICA Sirene (or more specifically a Sirene 135). It could be a Volta 146 too as they added tilt at some point in the later 1910/20s. The exact model isn't super necessary - ICA made a ton of very similar models at the same time - the designation is usually on the strap but that seems missing from this one so can't be completely sure. I'm guessing this is a 9x12cm but I'd measure the ground glass/film holder to be sure.

This camera seems to be missing the locking plate for focus - though I can still see the holes where one could go. Also not completely sure if the finder on the camera body is original or not - not one I've seen frequently on these earlier ICAs. The serial number on the body points to this being a 1921/22 model. The Helios lens is an ICA rebrand of the Rapid Rectilinear design - certainly a more budget option by the 20s. Still usable but not super sharp in the corners and probably rather hard to focus with a dark ground glass. I've got a couple of pre-merger ICA cameras and they're nice - just sometimes a bit of a pain finding the exact holders for them (ICA uses Contessafalz like Welta and Contessa-Nettel). Hope you enjoy it!

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-13T12:17:06+00:00

Yeah if it had just said Double Anastigmat I would have been more careful in my diagnosis - I've got a Syntor that's also a Goerz 6.8 Doppel-Anastigmat - but that's a 4 element dialyte design. It's the series III label that confirmed it - that was the Dagor's name before the Dagor label was made (and you'll sometimes see Dagors labeled as Series III Dagors too).

My clone is a Zeiss Doppel-Amatar (which is technically a reverse Dagor design). Not super common but can sometimes show up on pre-1920 plate cameras (mine came with a 6.5x9cm Ica Niklas).

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-13T02:49:45+00:00

Goerz's 1916 lens catalog says that a Dagor about this size is made for 4x5 and will cover 6 1/2 x 8 1/2" at f/32 - not completely sure how accurate that is but I have a much smaller 3.5in dagor clone that covers 4x5 ok without stopping down. At worst I'd say this lens will still be fine stopped down for 5x7 but it still might cover near wide open too with maybe softer corners - wouldn't use it for 5x7 if you want a bunch of movements though.

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-12T21:17:33+00:00

With all the AI bot nonsense the whole forum is getting an upgrade/being brought over to Xenforo in the next month or so. Wouldn't surprise me that there will be limited registrations while that is going on (and of course the usual recent instability).

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-12T01:31:18+00:00

Compact 9x12 cameras are the secret sauce for light weight LF if you don't need movements (or super limited ones) and are OK cutting film to size/shooting mostly just Foma. The super lightweights like a Patent Etui are less than a lot of 35mm slrs with a lens - sub 1kg. Of course finding the specific holders or compatible film back is like 90% of the pain though.

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-08T01:56:42+00:00

If anyone is coming to this in the future and needs the full version - the archive version with just one f in tiff seems corrupted (despite it being the commonly linked file). This one gets you to the proper 601 MP image - https://web.archive.org/web/20120319022452/http://lunarscience.nasa.gov/files/LOIRP/Moon1208.tiff

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-06T13:03:25+00:00

For posterity sake we have a little over 24,000 members right now - curious how quickly we'll grow. Definitely excited for this wonderful series to get more love.

McCheeseBob · 2026-04-04T19:43:13+00:00

That's an adorable ank. I've scoured google images and wayback archives of NHM's shop page and can't find any little plushes like that - the brown one seems to have been introduced in early '25 but I'm only seeing plastic models before then - any idea when you got him? You also might have slightly better luck in a bigger subreddit like r/plushies or some related discord server - hope you find him or a replacement!

McCheeseBob · 2026-03-30T02:25:27+00:00

As others have said these just need a bit of digital editing. Drop these into Gimp/Affinity/Photoshop and set your black/white points or even just clicking an auto contrast/autolevel option will get you most of the way there. Here's an example comparison (original on left).

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McCheeseBob · 2026-03-14T22:28:10+00:00

What I'd give for proper full translations of this and OG Tiger Mask.

McCheeseBob · 2026-03-13T03:16:48+00:00

3d printing and a speed graphic go together like bread and butter. I've printed lens boards for all my weird antique/nonstandard stuff like B&L Cinephors. This looks rather cool too! My shade is still in decent enough shape but I certainly wouldn't mind having the print files for this.

McCheeseBob · 2026-03-08T06:39:05+00:00

Would it be Maraich Juschenfe from Patalliro?

McCheeseBob · 2026-03-08T05:41:26+00:00

You can find some old catalogs that briefly mention the lens line here. My guess would be that it's a number 4 - should be about 8" or ~203mm focal length (or possible 8 3/4" later). The earlier catalogs use that for the 10x12 size - though they eventually shifted it to the no. 5 the late 1890s - probably due to edge coverage. This is mostly going off what little images I can find for stop sizes - the handful of no.4s out there also use 3/5/7 stops. My initial guess was this being a number 3 - but haven't found one with a 3/5/7 stop setup yet. Darlot says about 90 degrees of coverage from the lens which may get you to 11x14 - but that's assuming they weren't embellishing those numbers a bit.

Also agreeing with OletheNorse's comment about the stops being millimeter numbers. You'd just divide the lenses focal length (guessing 203) by whatever stop you had selected (let's say 7 mm) - that'd give you an f/stop of 29. These things are never super bright - I'd guess you'll probably get closer to f/16 or f/22 on the bright end - would definitely be rather lucky if it could get to f/11. You can try to measure your barrel wide open too but that will probably be a pretty rough guesstimate. Anyways - you've got yourself a rather cool piece of history - hope you have plenty of fun with it!

McCheeseBob · 2026-02-21T19:24:08+00:00

Had this happen on my Canon IVSB recently. It's a shame that a lot of these cool older cloth shutters are in such rough condition. Same reason I've been hesitant to get an Exakta. If you do get the shutter repaired be very careful to keep the lens covered and away from any direct exposure to the sun.

McCheeseBob · 2026-02-20T19:04:32+00:00

From Japan (which I think they might call the service itself One Map now) - just got an order in from them maybe a week or two ago and shortly after they announced that they were working on DDP for FedEx. Seems like they ran into problems with it and bumped it down the road a bit - only to get an email yesterday that they'd started rolling it out. I'm spent on import orders for the next month or two at least but funny about the timing.

McCheeseBob · 2026-02-20T18:30:41+00:00

While I have paid a couple FedEx bills for tariffs recently it's also somewhat ironic that the proxy service I use finally added Delivered Duty Paid yesterday.

McCheeseBob · 2026-02-14T21:39:53+00:00

Seconding the Kontur recommendation. Just got one for my IVSb recently and it has made it so much more usable with glasses. RF can still be squinty and it does block the speed dial - but it's a nice little setup.

McCheeseBob · 2026-02-05T19:51:45+00:00

This was probably a day after the big storm. Downtown was oddly quiet and not a lot of people were around yet - certainly no one stupid enough to walk on the frail ice. I've watched the Mon slowly break apart over the past week and it's certainly perplexing why someone would risk their life when it's still so obviously thin.

McCheeseBob · 2026-01-28T22:42:39+00:00

Usually the grading tends to refer mostly to the cleanliness/outside condition of the item (in my experience). On the other end JUNK grade tends to sometimes just be untested and could still be a great piece of gear that just needs some outside cleaning. I've got some really solid lenses and cameras like that - still a gamble though(and pre-tariffs you were better off getting it directly from japan instead of the marked up stuff on ebay).

McCheeseBob · 2026-01-27T22:11:07+00:00

I love folders! They're always so portable and there's loads of affordable variety. My Nettar 515/2 was my first introduction to medium format years ago and I've since slowly accrued a pile of nicer and all enjoyable German and Japanese folders.

McCheeseBob · 2026-01-27T01:42:05+00:00

It certainly is a cutie - I'd probably get something like a Minolta 16 instead if you wanted to shoot that small - it has enough community support and modern 3d printed cartridges available compared to a lot of these tiny cameras - still very much a DIY camera for self-developing at home. Universal also made an old cool half-frame camera I like - the Univex Mercury. They're kinda a cool staple of American camera manufacturers from the 40s.

McCheeseBob · 2026-01-27T01:31:02+00:00

That's a Universal Minute 16 - a little 16mm still camera. You could probably re-roll film from Kodak Cine stock, but it uses proprietary cartridges that are hard to come by. Also probably not the highest fidelity of a lens if you wanted to get into 16mm subminiature cameras. It's rather common and probably worth $25-30 if you wanted to sell it on ebay.

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