From Russia with Love! NO, from Wetzlar with Love!!!

I was infected with the rangefinder virus in 2006 as I bought a wonderful Zorki 4 from 1957 and a FED 4 type b on a flea market in Hannover, Germany. I'm enjoying very much to shoot with this type of camera and in 2008 a friend of mine wanted to sell some cameras, among others this Zorki 1d:

picture by R. Tyss

Of course I wanted it, because the Zorki 1 is more a Leica II / III clone than the Zorki 4 and I wanted to discover how and what the great photographers like Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gerda Taro and Henri Cartier-Bresson felt and saw when they shot their famous pictures.
But my friend is a honest seller and said to me that this Zorki 1d isn't in perfect condition and he doesn't want to sell it in this condition to me.
As compensation he suggested me another Zorki 1. But due to certain problems, I got the Zorki just right now....Zorki? I said Zorki??? NooooooooNoooooNooo...When I opened the packet today, another camera was inside. A LEICA!!!!!! A beautiful Schraubleica!!!

According to the serial number it is a Leica II from 1936, but with the slow speeds on a frontal dial, which only the Leica III has got and not the Leica II. Well, my friend said, that it is a Leica III. Certainly, there is an error in the old Leica files. The best thing is, that the camera didn't just arrive with the Summar 2/50mm (from 1934), but also with a Jupiter 12 2.8/35mm, a Jupiter 11 4/135mm, a Leitz SBOOI Bright Line Viewfinder 50mm, a KMZ Turret Finder and black&white films from Orwo and Fomapan and color films from Agfa Germany and DM.

I want to use it now with the color films and AgfaPhoto APX 100 and APX 400 black&white films.I'm happy to be able to finally use this beautiful rangefinder!!! :)

Digital EOS meets old manual lenses.

I don't like new lenses, either they're plastic crap or they're superb, but expensive. The decision to use old manual lenses wasn't difficult for me. I have a lot of M42 screw mount lenses, but as I moved back to Germany I left them in Brazil, because many of them have fungus,because of the high humidity there, inside.
But okay, in Germany you can buy old lenses for some bucks, therefore I took only my Leitz Elmarit-R 2.8/35mm, the Helios 44M-4 2/58mm and my Revuenon Special 2.8/135mm with me to Germany.
Of course I bought the M42-EOS and LeicaR-EOS adapters, both from quenoX, in Germany and not in Brazil, because photo equipment is and alway was very very expensive there.
Back in Germany it wasn't difficult to find old lenses and cameras for little money.

And here come some portraits of my beautiful girlfriend, which I shot with some of my manual lenses:

shot with Chinon 2.8/28mm

shot with Leitz Elmarit-R 2.8/35mm

shot with Revuenon MC 1.8/50mm (a labeled Pentacon/Meyer Optik Görlitz)

shot with Revuenon 1.7/55mm (a labeled Chinon)

shot with A.Schacht Ulm Edixa-Travenar-R 2.8/85mm

Light up your film...

One of the things which I love at analog photography is the first picture of a film, which sometimes is already exposed a little bit or more, because as you put the film in the camera the light already exposed this part of the film, like here:

But there are more cool effects with light on film like light leaks, sidelight, backlight or when you open the camera with the film allready into it. At the next pictures I've used lens hoods, because the sun was very strong and the reflections of the water of the lake. But I didn't used them correctly, therefore the sidelight created a cool effect.

Here the pictures:

the pocket style is going on...

...now with pictures which I shot with the luxurious Voigtländer Vitoret 110 EL, which I bought at the Mimapi Altertümchen in Cologne for 3 Euro. As film I've used an, since August 2006, expired Fuji Superia 200 film.
The pictures became very surreal!

Colorize your flash...

Some years ago I used Ilford Multigrade Filter Kits in combination with a flash.The results were really cool, therefore when I saw the Metz flash filter set I bought it to create once more cool effects with flashin' colors.

First I've used the red filter in combination with the Bauer E528ABS flash at my Porst CX 4 with the Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens (the setup like on the photo above) on ISO 200 colorfilm. I flashed indirectly upwards.

Then I've used the green filter in combination with the Bauer E528ABS flash at my Porst CX 4 with the Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens on ISO 400 colorfilm. Once more I flashed indirectly upwards.