Yesterday's Weapons Forums

From my sister.

Bit of a convoluted story here.
I had taken sis down to one of the camera shops to see a Graflex Crown Graphic, but it had already sold by the time I got her down there. This was sitting in the case, and I took a photo of it:



I liked the look of the glass on the lens.
Un-be-known to me, she went back afterwards, and bought it for my birthday.
(I hope she's a negotiator and talked them down a little in price.)

It's a Braun Norca Super 120 roll film camera.
Very basic non-range-finding design.
I am impressed with the German build quality.
There is a choice of 6 x 6 ( 2-1/4" x 2-1/4" ) or 6 x 9 ( 2-1/4" x 2-3/4" ) image sizes via folding plates inside the body.

Everything appears to work.
The main-spring on the Vario shutter is nice and snappy.
I am going to clean it a little and run a roll of Ilford HP-5 Plus through it just for chuckles.
I will have the F-3 along to range find for the distance settings on the Steiner lens...
I am more excited over this than I thought possible.
A folder sure makes for compact sized medium format.


Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

I like it! Post a side view when you have a chance. With interest in chemical photography waning, 25 or 30 might have gotten it out the door. SW

_________________
Slava Ukraini!!

Please excuse the automated flash photo's.
It's another day of dark over-cast.
All taken with the 55mm Micro Nikkor f3.5 at f8.



I hope these aren't too big.
Camera folded showing manufacturer's embossing on the rubber covers.
"Made In Germany" at left of lens cover.
"Braun-Nurenburg" on lens cover with "Norca" stamped on the lens board support plate.
"Norca Super" at right of lens cover.
Standard 1/4" X 20 TPI tripod socket at bottom left of the body.
Spool retainer/idler at right of body bottom.



Camera back showing seperate windows for the 2 film sizes.
6 x 9 at camera bottom, and 6 x 6 at center.
View-finder opening at left and extinction meter opening at right.
It uses a graduated gel filter to determine exposure, with simple guide numbers from 1-8, from what I'm able to see. May have more on this after I get it out in good daylight.


Internal baffle plates in the open 6 x 9 position.


Plates shown in the closed 6 x 6 position.



Aperture and shutter levers and scales with flash socket at image right, and cable release inlet at left.

Just have some minor clean up on the glass, and one of the reducer plates on the inside....

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

Couple side-views here:



I did a quick check for holes in the bellows and found nothing.
From Left to Right:

Film wind knob, lens/bellows release button, viewfinder size plate switch, cold shoe for M-type bulb gun or accessory range-finder, and body shutter release. There is a double-exposure inter-lock on the shutter release. Film must be advanced before the body shutter release will trip. Double exposures can be made with a cable release at the lens board.



Side view from the other side

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

I have a soft spot in my head for neat old cameras like that. SW

_________________
Slava Ukraini!!

First test roll went through it today.
I get the processing back on Sept 3...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

Been close to 45 years since I seen a pair of these in person.
And yes, I bought them.
Paid a little more than I would have liked, but they are a birthday gift from Mrs S.
At least these are still being made.
I think Lee Riders have gone the way of other things, and are no longer available.
Those would have been my first choice, if I had one.
They are a vey good fit, and should last a while.





From the 2nd hand shop. It appears to be all there.
Got a bit of looking up to do to see if the D-200's gonna handle it's voltage.
$5.99 and no tax OTD

I have to go back and examine a folder camera with what appears to be rollei markings. I am no where sure it's legit and will look around on-line first...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

I haven't seen a ring flash since Brophy had one mounted for taking pics of gun markings at the Marlin Collectors Ass'n meeting in Denver a long time ago.

He said it and a good macro lens was the real deal for photographing tiny markings. SW

_________________
Slava Ukraini!!

At the time the big Brophy book was published, there wasn't a lot of choice for ring flash.
The two ways I knew of back then were the 105mm Medical Nikkor with it built in, and the Olympus dedicated unit. Both were outrageously expensive propositions. Nikon would counter the Olympus offering a year or two later with their own model. I think both actually priced themselves out of the market. There may have been a slightly more affordable Bogen unit, but I'm not sure.

The instruction sheet for the unit I just bought is dated 2/89... it probably hit the dealer's shelves in early '90.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

The early Steinheil lens on the camera pictured above is an able performer for it's time period.
I just got the first print set back, and will try my 2nd hand shop reversing column tripod as a copy stand later on tonight.

I had trouble seeing the numbers on the film back through the little red window.
There were quite a few partial double exposures.
I need to track down some kodak b&w 120 film for it's white backing paper, and clear numerals.
The little asterisk things on the gray paper Ilford backing are totally unsuitable for the task.
I'll be using my lone flat-field lens for the copy work- the p.c. nikkor 55mm f 3.5 micro...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

Here we go:

Bear in mind that these are copy shots from square prints on rectangular digital APSC format,
so the whole entire image is not shown. Artful optical crops~ the lot of them....



70 year old German glass is a bit better than I was anticipating.
These were all ranged with a different camera and lens, and distances set on the old camera.
Note the circular holes in the grid next to the eagle statuette. That area is actual image center of the 6 X 6 negative.
I was not expecting that level of sharpness.
The self timer eye on the nikon made reddish splotches on some of these.
I had to switch to black and white.



Contrast is slightly low, but manageable.
Apart from re-sizing and optical cropping with the Nikon, these are all un-messed with.



Not a great landscape camera, but it still makes a viable record.
Slight tendency to pin-cushioning.
Edge fall-off is noticeable, which is to be expected from such primitively coated glass.



It will flare in some complicated cross-lighting situations.
I should be able to make a hood for it out of grey or black pvc tubing.



It handles high key lighting much better than I was expecting.



There's how I get black and white prints onto the inter-web-net...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

thats pretty cool , ive not seen one in decades

Here's a couple of the same from above tweaked in post on the computer.


VJC_0431.JPG [ 83.27 KiB | Viewed 3812 times ]



10841_big_11612_VJC_0430_1_1.jpg [ 59.35 KiB | Viewed 3812 times ]



Let's see if there's improvement here...

Hmph. That red from the self timer on the D-200 wants to stay on the first image.
Second image is much improved, if not a hair yellow

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon