Recesky Plastic TLR and 1989-expired Ektachrome 64

[David]

Spoilter alert, this combination was bound for success.

I picked up two Recesky built-at-holme TLRs for a series of videos I did on how to assemble them. Here's the playlist URL, if you're so inclined: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6MrZtHJOVgGicMdD4M2z5Fs30QkuKpt9

I left my black one as designed but modified my yellow one. It never fit together quite right anyway, so why not. On the yellow one I took out the aperture disk. This took it from an f11 or 13 down to an f8 or so. This had no effect on vignetting but it did increase the size and magnitude of the periphery gooey areas. It also made it a fast enough camera to shoot some VERY expired Ektachrome 64. I actually forget if the stuff was dated 1989 or 1985. At any rate, it was old.

In addition to removing the aperture torroid, I also added a piece of plastic (an Impossible Project film cover) to the film pressure plate. The Receskys have issues keeping the film flat on plane, so this plastic concoction is pretty helpful. Also, this Recesky's back bows out a bit and without this the film doesn't turn the sprocket that indicates when it's advancing. That modification meant that in order to use the camera without light leaks, I also have to squeeze it really hard and put on electrician's tape to keep the back from bowing outward and letting light in. All that work, though, delivered fairly decent results.

1

Some of the images were a bit muddy,

2

Double exposures are pretty simple when all you have is a simple leaf shutter to deal with.

3

Considering that it has a simple plastic meniscus lens, the images are surprisingly sharp.

4

Close-up it vignettes because the lens housing blocks the image circle. At infinity focus, it does not vignette.

5

Here you can see that at close focus the blur is pretty smooth with a bit of rotational coma, but not much. It's pretty pleasing as a close-up camera.

6

At infinity focus, however, the effect is similar to flipping a Brownie Hawkeye's lens around.

7

It does pretty well for portraits as the color trueness is surprisingly good.

8

Not everyone is a fan of having their photo taken.

9

The lack of pincushion or barrel distortion indicates that this is an exceptionally well engineered lens!

10

Honestly, though, what this camera is best at is creating interesting, moody portraits.

So, for $12, yeah, this was a pretty good buy. Putting it together at home was a fun time, too. The first one took about 90 minutes. The second one about 40. The directions aren't great, but it's not super hard to get it assembled. And I'm always surprised by the image quality.

For comparison only, here are a couple photos I took with my black Recesky, the one I did not modify. This has the aperture torroid in place and the lens performs a bit more clinically. (Color print and black and white film for these shots, respectively.)

[visualopsins]

How well 25 years old technology still functions?

Looks like fun medium for artist; nice results here.