For someone like me, who is a fan of Olympus *and* a fan of old cameras, to find a Twin Lens Reflex (that’s a really old camera that has twin lens, hence “Two-eyes” for you young digital shooters) that bears the name “Zuiko” on its lenses, is akin to finding a free ice-cream stand on a hot summer day, at least if you ask my daughter who would eat ice-cream for breakfast.
This camera is indeed old, its production years goes back to 1949, and why I mention that? because it has mechanical features that was quite modern, such as… no red window on the back. And probably the coolest cable release thread design I’ve ever seen on a camera.
It came with a leather case, which is pristine in condition:
Needless to say, I am eager to give it a whirl, so despite the muggy Sunday morning, I took the tripod, light meter, and two filters, and head out to the nearby nature preserve area.
Now, y’all probably know by now that I take contemplative photographs, nothing fancy, just basic black and white that hopefully is nice when printed big in the darkroom. Here are a few from the test roll (as usual, you can click on the photos to see a bigger version):
“Stretched”
“The Floats”
“Flair”
And my favorite:
“Alone”
Let me just get my geeky fascination out of my system: I like this camera from the moment I saw it. I think for a Japanese camera whose design was copied from German, it was built very robustly with a lot of well-though-out additions. As for the lens, well, for me, there is no such thing as a bad Zuiko lens.
As I walked through the park, contemplatively took my time and fell into the rhythm of setting up the tripod, looking through the viewfinder, checking the light meter, I was reminded again at how simple photography can be… when you choose to do it simply.
All it takes is the willingness to go back in time and relive those days when photography is more “human” :)
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June 30th, 2010 at 1:10 am
Very cool. I’ve seen photos of these old TLRs with Olympus lenses, and there are even Olympus TLRs as well. Never actually seen one in real life though, and never seen a photo taken with the medium format Zuiko lenses till now. I want one now :D
June 30th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Exactly, Chris. I’d love to have one of those Olympusflex, especially one with F.Zuiko 1:2.8 lenses. But those cost pretty pennies.
July 4th, 2010 at 6:20 am
Hi Will. I always found uncoated or little -coated lenses to be difficult to tame. Sometimes, the result is interesting and aesthetic with a dreamy atmosphere, sometimes it is really annoying as it destroys the picture’s mood. In your pictures, it is OK as it fits the subject but I would not consider such camera as universal (I have the same dilemma with a pre-war Rolleiflex. Nice camera but…). Do you agree?
July 4th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Hi Gelios, I didn’t want that to be true because I’d like to use this camera without worrying too much :) But what you said make sense.
I have one photo out of this roll in which the flare causes light-blooming everywhere, it is as you said, very annoying.
Do you think a properly-sized hood would help? or is this camera condemned to be an overcast weather shooter only? which is not that bad actually.
July 4th, 2010 at 9:27 am
A hood might help but it won’t replace coating. It would be useless against the white halo surrounding very bright areas.
The Zone System tells to expose for shadow and to develop for bright areas. I wonder if it should not be the exact opposite with uncoated lenses…