Category Archives: Others

Carl Zeiss Ikoflex Ic Review

By TLRgraphy on August 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Posted in: Others, TLRgraphy | Tagged: camera, carl zeiss, ikoflex, instruction, manual, review, TLR, tutorial, Twin Lens Reflex, youtube

Gowlandflex, Mother Of All TLRs

By TLRgraphy on August 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

History of Gowland Cameras. Periodic updates about the camera making creations of Peter Gowland.

The famous 8×10 Gowlandflex, shown above and affectionately known as “The Beast”. At nearly three feet tall, it was not very practical for most kinds of shooting. Seven were made and sold. The last one sold in 2005. On the right is a Rollei copy to show scale.

Owning a Gowlandflex puts you in an exclusive club whose members include the most famous portrait and glamour photographers of both this century and the 20th century. Annie Liebovitz, Josef Karsh,Dennis Manarchy, John Huet, Arthur Grace, David Raccuglia, Arthur Elgort, and Mark Laita all use or used Gowlandflexes. Any Gowlandflex TLR camera found is likely to be a rare collector’s item in the near future.

There are hundreds of Gowland camerasworking today, and hundreds more hiding somewhere, perhaps in an attic or the back room of a camera store. Peter sold at least 600 Gowlandflex twin lens 4×5 cameras alone.

Many large organizations have used or continue to use Gowland cameras. The FBI, Army, Navy, Polaroid, Eastman Kodak, and Playboy all owned and may still own Gowland cameras today.

Because Peter keeps everything in his life as simple as possible, he made and continues to make all of his cameras with simplicity in mind. No gadgets to break, no frills to fumble with, and no reading required to use them.

“I can’t help it. I like to work in the shop. I don’t think many people are interested in film cameras anymore. I do notice that people who do contact printing purchase my 5×7 cameras more lately.

I need to sell all of the cameras so that I can relax more with my wife”

In this world of computers, waiting hours on hold and searching endlessly for someone who knows about their own product, you’ll find that Peter still answers the phone himself quite often. Peter’s cameras are still made the old fashioned way – with care, passion and a personal enjoyment for making things.

You can see a lot of history related to Peter on this site, but please remember that Peter is not history. In a couple more years, the cameras will be all sold out here. If you get one, you’ll have many years to make history yourself and explore the rich creative art of photography.

Peter’s Notes about the Gowland SLR

I have designed around 30 cameras, but never one with a reflex shutter. My 4×5 Graflex had a large mirror, that had to move up, before the large focal shutter could expose the film. Even at fast shutter speeds, there was time delay, that made it impossible to record action, like a horse jumping over a fence. By the time the the shutter worked, the horse was on the ground.

If one wanted to use strobe or flash, one had to use a 5th sec. to give the mirror time to “move out of the way” allowing the shutter to drop down. The large mirror had to move up, and the large rear shutter had to move down. Slow and heavy parts. I asked myself, why not use a thin 2″ mirror, set at 45 degrees next to the lens, and move from left to right, with a faster shutter speed, around 1/50 second?

In using the Gowland SLR, the image passes through the lens to a small mirror shutter, is reflected up to larger mirror and back to ground glass, when the shutter is released, the small mirror moves right, allowing image to pass through the three shutter parts back to film. During this 1/50th part of a second, flash contact is made, center shutter part moves to the right, closing the opening. When both top shutter parts are moved to left for re-cocking, light cannot pass through lower opening.

With this unique design, it is necessary to keep the lens and small mirror close together. Rather than moving the lens for focusing, the ground glass and film are moved as one.

The camera is built around a 240-250mm lens. Film movement of 4 inches permits close focus of three feet to infinity. For special close work a shorter lens might be used. For example, 210mm can be used from two feet to eight-and-a-half feet. Longer lenses, providing they are telephoto, can also be used. 360mm Tele-Xenar gives large head portraits with focus range of five and-a-half feet to twenty-four feet. When top shutter parts are moved back, with knob on left side, shutter is ready for the next shot.

Posted in: Others, TLRgraphy, Uncategorized | Tagged: Gowlandflex, large format, Medium Format, polaroid, TLR, Twin Lens Reflex

Contaflex TLR – A legendary

By TLRgraphy on August 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

In 1935, Zeiss Ikon brought forth the most advanced – and one of the heaviest cameras – of the day: the Contaflex (860/24) twin-lens reflex that used 35mm film. Camera has been produced only to 1943. The camera boasted the first built-in selenium light meter. The Contaflex featured interchangeable lenses, a focal plane shutter and a van Albada sports viewfinder. The lenses were the same as those offered for the Contax II but in a Contaflex mount. This heavy camera was considered to be one of the greatest German engineer’s cameras ever built. Contaflex had the first built-in selenium light meter, the first chrome finish and the first interchangeable lenses on a TLR. The viewing screen accommodates views for a range of lenses with concentric frames for them plus a very useful pop-up magnifier. The focusing screen is 2x the size of a 35mm neg and gives parallax correction for the 50mm standard lenses. The viewing lens is an 80mm or 8cm f2.8, which showed the same angle of view as the 50mm or 5cm f1.5 lens, but on a larger viewing screen and with shallower depth of field. The camera had interchangeable lenses with framelines in the finder for them all (except the wide angles) which required an auxiliary finder. The shutter is similar to the that used in the prewar Contax cameras, a vertically traveling focal plane shutter made of metal slats. It is heavy, 1.5kg, about twice as much as the Contax I. The lenses are also larger and heavier than their Contax counterparts, and are difficult to mount. The view through the finder isn’t bright by today’s standards, although it’s not too bad when compared to some of the tiny viewfinders of the day. The magnifier is a necessity if you plan on focusing. Between the waist level viewing, with it’s reversed image, and the need for a magnifier, the only way you can photograph anything moving is with the Albanda finder. But in doing that, you’ve just turned your overly expensive and heavy camera into a viewfinder camera. And if you think photographing action is bad, try taking a picture in portrait format (as opposed to landscape). You must hold the camera on it’s side at eyelevel, parallel to the subject. Now, instead of everything being backwards, it is upside down! And the controls are in the most inconvenient places. This is a camera that sold in 1939 for $250 with the 50/2.8 Tessar, and $372 with the 1.5 Sonnar. With the 50/1.5, it was the tied for being the most expensive still camera in their catalog with the Contax III with it’s 50/1.5. A range of accessories were offered for it, which are rarely seen today. They included a special lens shade which clips to the body, a cut film adapter back, a microscope adapter and an special arm for the copy stand.

A Review from pacific rim camera

Contaflex TLR, shown with 50/1.5 Sonnar This is one of the most impressive cameras ever built. Introduced in 1935, it was the first camera to have a built in exposure meter, and the first available in chrome finish. This was the flagship camera of the Zeiss line at one of their proudest moments. The viewing lens is an 80/2.8, which showed the same angle of view as the 50mm normal, but on a larger viewing screen, and with shallower depth of field. The camera had interchangeable lenses, with framelines in the finder for them all, except the wide angles, which required an auxiliary finder. The shutter is similar to the shutter used in the prewar Contax cameras, a vertically traveling focal plane shutter made of metal slats.

This is a perfect example of how the German photo industry was often driven by engineers. They conceived the camera as a feat of engineering. Many of the solutions are ingenious, and the camera is truly a marvel to behold. But as a instrument for making photographs, it is miserable. It is heavy, weighing 3-1/4 lbs (1.5kg), about twice as much as the Contax I. The lenses are also larger and heavier than their Contax counterparts, and are difficult to mount.

The view through the finder isn’t bright by today’s standards, although it’s not too bad when compared to some of the tiny viewfinders of the day. The magnifier is a necessity if you plan on focusing. Between the waist level viewing, with it’s reversed image, and the need for a magnifier, the only way you can photograph anything moving is with the Albanda finder. But in doing that, you’ve just turned your overly expensive and heavy camera into a viewfinder camera. And if you think photographing action is bad, try taking a picture in portrait format (as opposed to landscape). You must hold the camera on it’s side at eyelevel, parallel to the subject. Now, instead of everything being backwards, it is upside down! And the controls are in the most inconvenient places.

This is a camera that sold in 1939 for $250 with the 50/2.8 Tessar, and $372 with the 1.5 Sonnar. With the 50/1.5, it was the tied for being the most expensive still camera in their catalog with the Contax III with it’s 50/1.5. A range of accessories were offered for it, which are rarely seen today. They included a special lens shade which clips to the body, a cut film adapter back, a microscope adapter and an special arm for the copy stand.