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  #11  
Old 3rd February 2018, 12:51 AM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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I note that POTN seem to be a digital site. It may of course have people there who are knowledgeable about film but unless you already know what FIND lab can do, I'd check that it can process trad B&W film before buying any.

Frankly as you may have to scan film for a while and depending on whether you have a scanner and how good it is, I'd consider doing your own trad B&W processing. Not a lot of equipment is necessary but it is a topic for another day.

This is not really a Hybrid site but if I may, I'll just add a note of caution to my recommendation that you process and scan your own film which is that my understanding( I don't do scanning) is that C41 film such as Ilford XP2+ gives less scanning problems than trad processed B&W film.

Mike
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  #12  
Old 3rd February 2018, 09:41 AM
Lostlabours Lostlabours is online now
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A different option is use the CZJ Biotar lenses the Helios 44 & 40 are copied from



The Biotars were first made for pre-WWII 35mm Exatas, then also made in Praktina and M42 mount after WWII.

Only problem is the 75mm f1.5 Biotar's usually sell for over £1,000 ($1,400+)

Ian
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  #13  
Old 3rd February 2018, 02:32 PM
skier skier is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Lostlabours View Post
A different option is use the CZJ Biotar lenses the Helios 44 & 40 are copied from
Interesting idea. Maybe I should get a Leica to mount it on as well?
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  #14  
Old 3rd February 2018, 02:44 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Originally Posted by skier View Post
Interesting idea. Maybe I should get a Leica to mount it on as well?
Biotar's are available in M42 mount, the Praktina,AFIK is M42, Personally thes days I would get either a Praktica M42 mount camera body or a Pentax spotmatic M42 mount camera, ar possibly a Fujica with the same lens mount, they are more reliable, and you can find the Helios lens without the Zenith camera, they will work fine on any M42 body, and there are a lot around, and fairly cheap, that mount was as close to a unirversal mount in it's day, as the K mount cameras were later, incidently I think that the Bioter was not made with a Leica mount, so you won't need a leica to mount it on
Richard
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  #15  
Old 3rd February 2018, 05:04 PM
skier skier is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
I note that POTN seem to be a digital site. It may of course have people there who are knowledgeable about film but unless you already know what FIND lab can do, I'd check that it can process trad B&W film before buying any.

Frankly as you may have to scan film for a while and depending on whether you have a scanner and how good it is, I'd consider doing your own trad B&W processing. Not a lot of equipment is necessary but it is a topic for another day.

This is not really a Hybrid site but if I may, I'll just add a note of caution to my recommendation that you process and scan your own film which is that my understanding( I don't do scanning) is that C41 film such as Ilford XP2+ gives less scanning problems than trad processed B&W film.

Mike
Yes, POTN is predominantly digital.

Under their B&W section, the FIND Lab claims: "We use an array of developers including Xtol, DDX, HC110 and D76 depending on the film stock. The lab preferred developer is Xtol because it produces the best quality and consistency for your images. "

Being new to this, that means essentially nothing to me, but I'm guessing that it suggests using HP5+ (or other B&W films) should be ok?
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  #16  
Old 3rd February 2018, 07:10 PM
alexmuir alexmuir is offline
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Yes, the developers listed are for traditional B&W films like HP5+,etc.
The shutter in the Zenit camera is a cloth focal plane type. It consists of two blinds mounted on rollers either side of the film aperture. When the film is wound on, this puts the blinds under tension. They are physically pulled over to one side of the aperture. When the shutter release is pressed, they move across the film aperture to the resting position. This is operated by spring tension. At slow speeds (less than 1/30sec I think), the first blind reaches the far side before the second moves to close the film aperture. At higher speeds the second blind starts moving before the first reaches the end of its travel. You then have the effect of a slit moving across the film. I will be corrected if I’m wrong, but I think the slit becomes narrower as the speed increases. When I mention the ‘film aperture’ I mean the rectangular opening inside the camera where the film is exposed, rather than the aperture diaphragm in the lens. I hope this makes sense!
Alex


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  #17  
Old 3rd February 2018, 08:34 PM
John King John King is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Gould View Post
Biotar's are available in M42 mount, the Praktina,AFIK is M42, Personally thes days I would get either a Praktica M42 mount camera body or a Pentax spotmatic M42 mount camera, ar possibly a Fujica with the same lens mount, they are more reliable, and you can find the Helios lens without the Zenith camera, they will work fine on any M42 body, and there are a lot around, and fairly cheap, that mount was as close to a unirversal mount in it's day, as the K mount cameras were later, incidently I think that the Biotar was not made with a Leica mount, so you won't need a leica to mount it on
Richard
The Praktina is not a M42 camera, it has it's own bayonet which was not copied by any other system. The closest I can find is the bayonet mount on a Russian camera called 'Start' which came with the F2 58mm Biotar clone and as far as I can find out there were no other lenses made to fit either the Start or the Praktina. Although I may be wrong about the Prktina although they must be very rare, I have never seen or heard of one. The Start did have an M39 (Leica thread) adapter that enabled the camera lenses that were also designed for the early Zeniths to be used.

Just Google 'Start Russian Camera' and it is surprising there are quite a few about on E Bay.

Last edited by John King; 3rd February 2018 at 08:39 PM.
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  #18  
Old 3rd February 2018, 08:34 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Just to add to what Alex has said, I think that Xtol is a particularly fine developer for a whole range of films. It is what I use myself.

Mike
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  #19  
Old 4th February 2018, 12:07 AM
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CambsIan CambsIan is offline
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Hi Skier,

Can't help with the camera discussion, but welcome to FADU.

Ian
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  #20  
Old 4th February 2018, 09:07 AM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John King View Post
The Praktina is not a M42 camera, it has it's own bayonet which was not copied by any other system. The closest I can find is the bayonet mount on a Russian camera called 'Start' which came with the F2 58mm Biotar clone and as far as I can find out there were no other lenses made to fit either the Start or the Praktina. Although I may be wrong about the Prktina although they must be very rare, I have never seen or heard of one. The Start did have an M39 (Leica thread) adapter that enabled the camera lenses that were also designed for the early Zeniths to be used.

Just Google 'Start Russian Camera' and it is surprising there are quite a few about on E Bay.
I wasn't sure about the Praktina's mount, but Simon Chesterman has had 3 or 4 listed over the last year, they do come up quite often on various camera listing's, not a camera that appeals to me personally, it was late and I probably got praktina and praktica mixed.
Richard
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