Laura Gilpin, Arthur Elgort, Kodak Medalist

[Nesster]

Laura Gilpin by Arthur Elgort, Santa Fe 1976 by Nesster, on Flickr

From Arthur Elgort's wonderful book "Camera Crazy" -
"The famous photographer Laura Gilpin in Santa Fe. Her friends and contemporaries were Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. She's holding a Kodak Medalist 2 1/4 - her favorite camera. 1976"

On Gilpin:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Gilpin
www.cla.purdue.edu/waaw/sandweiss/
www.andrewsmithgallery.com/exhibitions/lauragilpin/index.htm

On Elgort:
www.arthurelgort.com/

Camera Crazy is a book about people with cameras.


But the real "Art" here has to do with the Kodak Medalist. Yes, seems I ended up buying one yesterday off eebay. The Medalist I not II, where only the internal surfaces are coated on the lens, instead of the whole thing being Lumenized...

www.bnphoto.org/bnphoto/KodakMedalist.htm

List & info on the Kodak Ektars:
http://www.bnphoto.org/bnphoto/KodakEktarsDB2.htm

[ludoo]

The Medalists are beautiful cameras!

[Nesster]

Click here to see on Ebay

[ludoo]

35mm Medalist?

[Nesster]

Yes, and a Supermatic II as well

The lens serial is ER*** so this camera was made in 1945.

I'm moving this to range finders... as really it's about the camera, though both photogs can photograph for sure.

[fish4570]

Coupled rangefinder or zone focus with whopping big viewfinder?

[Nesster]

Coupled rangefinder, Paul, plus a whopping big vf. Auto frame stop, and the I has a fine focus wheel + self timer, these two being replaced by flash sync in the II.

The seller did put up a set of excellent photos, even if he called it a "35mm" camera


Oh, and it takes Series VI straight. Cool as I have a ton of series VI

[Katastrofo]

Congrats, Jussi! There's a flickr group devoted this camera, some great
images.

To convert to 120:

http://www.baldmtn.com/

[Nesster]

Yeah, if I end up using it all the time, or if it needs repair, I might do that. He does 1/2 conversions too - just the take up is 120 so one can send the film out for development without worrying about getting the spool back.

I plan to respool in a dark bag, I think I have something like 3 620 spools so I can have at least 2 rolls set up. That's a whopping 18 frames!

[Nesster]

http://www.flickriver.com/groups/55012328@N00/pool/interesting/

[Minolfan]

Congrats, I think it is a great camera for that amount of money! They are rare in Europe.

[Nesster]

prior to this one, I seem to have won a prewar Ikoflex I as well. And I was going to take a break from camera buying for the rest of the year

[Katastrofo]

That flickriver is the images that wowed me some while ago. It's all about
that Ektar lens, undeniable magic there. Very curious to how you get on
with it...

[Nesster]

can you tell I'm excited? LOL - the Ektar is a Heliar and the whole thing's sure cheaper than finding a German Heliar...

[Katastrofo]

Indeed, I have a friend that was a devout Koni Omega user that went over
to this and didn't look back.

[Nesster]

Yeah, and I've been angry at Kodak for 620 for years... and now I'm going over to the dark side.

And a certain member hereabouts has me seriously thinking about going over to the dark side with my anger at Canon's mount switching

[Katastrofo]

I have a roll of Arista Premium 400 I'm dev-ing tonight from the Canon A-1
and Series I zoom (yes, I can't seem to take that wonderful lens off and
try something else lol). Will see what shakes...