#costanova — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #costanova, aggregated by home.social.
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Filling The Gaps With Another 35mm Folding Camera: The Zeiss Ikon Contessa (533/24)
I’ll come out and say it: I didn’t need this camera. It was just an impulse buy from the Kamerastore website. But I like Zeiss Ikon cameras, and this one was 35mm, and a folder (it doesn’t look like it, but it has little bellows inside), and I just had to have it. I HAD to. Of course, it was cheap, about 40€, which I understand is a great price for a Contessa. Naturally, it was in the ‘Not Passed’ category of the Kamerastore website, with ‘flaws that will affect typical use’. In this case, the ‘shutter overexposes and needs service. The rangefinder calibration is off. The light meter does not work, [and it] has a lot of dust, haze, and fungus inside the viewfinder’. The fungus had been killed by UV light, and I hoped (one day) I might get inside it to clean this out.
The Zeiss Ikon Contessa (533/24) is a manual 35mm rangefinder camera. Produced between 1950 and 1955, it was a quite high-end camera for the day, and it looks like it. Turning it over in your hands, the Contessa is a heavy beast (clocking in at around 600g), but has a minimalist appearance. All there is on the top plate of the camera is an indicator dial for the type of film, and the dial and window for the camera meter. On the bottom of the camera are two large wheels, one to advance the film and one to rewind, and a button in the centre of the advance wheel that disengages the wind-on mechanism to rewind the film. In the middle of the bottom of the camera is the frame counter. All of the other controls of the camera are hidden behind the lens flap.
Like many folding cameras from the Zeiss Ikon range, the Contessa has a flap on the front that pops out to reveal the lens. The shutter release button is also in this assembly, and this can be disconcerting when you’re turning the folded camera around in your hands as there’s no obvious shutter button on the top plate, where these things are normally found. It has a Compur-Rapid shutter, which makes it an early version of the Contessa, and from the serial number (O45505), I reckon it was made between 1956/57. The shutter has nominal speeds of 1s—1/500s (+ B), but according to the description the camera overexposes, so my first attempts at using this camera will probably be a bit of a guess. It comes with a Zeiss-Opton 45mm f2.8 Tessar lens, with apertures from f2.8 to f22.
It has an uncoupled light meter, which is behind a flap on the front right of the camera, but of course that doesn’t work in my Contessa. Outside in the daylight, the meter is used with the flap down. But indoors, and in low light situations, the flap can be raised to reveal the full selenium cell. I did come across a method of revitalising the selenium cell, and I may well give this a try later. Similarly, the rangefinder is out of alignment and at some stage I might try working on that. The most serious fault with this Contessa is that the shutter speeds overexpose, but I have a ‘plan’ for that.
The interesting thing about this camera is that it’ll only work with film loaded. There are two sprocket wheels below the film gate that lock on to the film sprockets and a hold the film firmly against the film plate. These turn for the required spacing between frames then lock the film in place. The wind on wheel only turns the sprocket wheels while the film is loaded, and the shutter cannot be cocked until the next frame is locked in place. It can actually be done with the back open and the wheels turned by hand, but it’s fiddly.
To load the camera, open the film back and load a 35mm cassette. Pull a length of film to the wind on spindle, making sure that the film sprockets feed through the sprocket wheels. When the film is secure on the spool, close the back. On the bottom of the camera, rotate the film counter dial until the arrow is pointing at the diamond. Then wind on the film. It will automatically stop when the counter reaches ‘1’ and the camera is ready to use. When the film is finished, and the wind on wheel can’t turn any more, press the button in the centre of the wind on wheel and using the rewind wheel wind the film back into the cassette. The button disengages the wind-on mechanism and allows the film to be rewound. Keep pressure on the button when rewinding.
I have a whole load of offcuts in the refrigerator, little rolls of film that were left over after respooling 35mm films into Rapid canisters. Each 12-exposure Rapid canister requires a length of about 60cm of film, and generally I can get two Rapid canisters worth out of a 36-exposure roll of film. However, I discovered that the offcut left over from each roll is about 8 exposures long, so I’ve started making one Rapid canister from each roll, and using the rest in a regular 35mm camera, which works out at about 20 exposures.
I took an offcut of Harman Phoenix I (expired 12/2025), and loaded it into the Contessa. I’m aware that the Contessa is over exposing, so I assumed that the 1/200s shutter speed setting was actually exposing at 1/100s. Using the Camera Meter app, I set the aperture accordingly for a 1/100s exposure. We took the Contessa to Vagueira, along with the Ilford Pixie with some really expired film, and used the camera around the town. It turned out that I must have tried to make two Rapid canisters worth out of this 35mm roll, since I only got 8 exposures out of the roll.
After respooling the film into the cassette, I took the exposed film to the Forever Blue in Aveiro for development. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get from this, if anything at all, so I went for the ‘develop only’ option. When I got the negatives back (forty-five minute turnaround from Forever Blue, thank you lads) they were absolutely amazing and it looks like I might have nailed the exposure. The negatives were scanned with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. If you’re interested, I’ve posted the whole series in an album on my Flickr.
There were only a few images on this offcut, but I absolutely loved them. The photographs shown are basically how they came out of the scanner. I didn’t have to (or want to) make any adjustments at all. The Contessa is definitely going to be one of my ‘day out’ cameras, even with its limitations.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#35mm #Belca #Beltica #Contessa #CostaNova #Folder #Harman #HarmanTechnology #Phoenix #Portugal #Rangefinder #Vagueira #ZeissIkon -
Filling The Gaps With Another 35mm Folding Camera: The Zeiss Ikon Contessa (533/24)
I’ll come out and say it: I didn’t need this camera. It was just an impulse buy from the Kamerastore website. But I like Zeiss Ikon cameras, and this one was 35mm, and a folder (it doesn’t look like it, but it has little bellows inside), and I just had to have it. I HAD to. Of course, it was cheap, about 40€, which I understand is a great price for a Contessa. Naturally, it was in the ‘Not Passed’ category of the Kamerastore website, with ‘flaws that will affect typical use’. In this case, the ‘shutter overexposes and needs service. The rangefinder calibration is off. The light meter does not work, [and it] has a lot of dust, haze, and fungus inside the viewfinder’. The fungus had been killed by UV light, and I hoped (one day) I might get inside it to clean this out.
The Zeiss Ikon Contessa (533/24) is a manual 35mm rangefinder camera. Produced between 1950 and 1955, it was a quite high-end camera for the day, and it looks like it. Turning it over in your hands, the Contessa is a heavy beast (clocking in at around 600g), but has a minimalist appearance. All there is on the top plate of the camera is an indicator dial for the type of film, and the dial and window for the camera meter. On the bottom of the camera are two large wheels, one to advance the film and one to rewind, and a button in the centre of the advance wheel that disengages the wind-on mechanism to rewind the film. In the middle of the bottom of the camera is the frame counter. All of the other controls of the camera are hidden behind the lens flap.
Like many folding cameras from the Zeiss Ikon range, the Contessa has a flap on the front that pops out to reveal the lens. The shutter release button is also in this assembly, and this can be disconcerting when you’re turning the folded camera around in your hands as there’s no obvious shutter button on the top plate, where these things are normally found. It has a Compur-Rapid shutter, which makes it an early version of the Contessa, and from the serial number (O45505), I reckon it was made between 1956/57. The shutter has nominal speeds of 1s—1/500s (+ B), but according to the description the camera overexposes, so my first attempts at using this camera will probably be a bit of a guess. It comes with a Zeiss-Opton 45mm f2.8 Tessar lens, with apertures from f2.8 to f22.
It has an uncoupled light meter, which is behind a flap on the front right of the camera, but of course that doesn’t work in my Contessa. Outside in the daylight, the meter is used with the flap down. But indoors, and in low light situations, the flap can be raised to reveal the full selenium cell. I did come across a method of revitalising the selenium cell, and I may well give this a try later. Similarly, the rangefinder is out of alignment and at some stage I might try working on that. The most serious fault with this Contessa is that the shutter speeds overexpose, but I have a ‘plan’ for that.
The interesting thing about this camera is that it’ll only work with film loaded. There are two sprocket wheels below the film gate that lock on to the film sprockets and a hold the film firmly against the film plate. These turn for the required spacing between frames then lock the film in place. The wind on wheel only turns the sprocket wheels while the film is loaded, and the shutter cannot be cocked until the next frame is locked in place. It can actually be done with the back open and the wheels turned by hand, but it’s fiddly.
To load the camera, open the film back and load a 35mm cassette. Pull a length of film to the wind on spindle, making sure that the film sprockets feed through the sprocket wheels. When the film is secure on the spool, close the back. On the bottom of the camera, rotate the film counter dial until the arrow is pointing at the diamond. Then wind on the film. It will automatically stop when the counter reaches ‘1’ and the camera is ready to use. When the film is finished, and the wind on wheel can’t turn any more, press the button in the centre of the wind on wheel and using the rewind wheel wind the film back into the cassette. The button disengages the wind-on mechanism and allows the film to be rewound. Keep pressure on the button when rewinding.
I have a whole load of offcuts in the refrigerator, little rolls of film that were left over after respooling 35mm films into Rapid canisters. Each 12-exposure Rapid canister requires a length of about 60cm of film, and generally I can get two Rapid canisters worth out of a 36-exposure roll of film. However, I discovered that the offcut left over from each roll is about 8 exposures long, so I’ve started making one Rapid canister from each roll, and using the rest in a regular 35mm camera, which works out at about 20 exposures.
I took an offcut of Harman Phoenix I (expired 12/2025), and loaded it into the Contessa. I’m aware that the Contessa is over exposing, so I assumed that the 1/200s shutter speed setting was actually exposing at 1/100s. Using the Camera Meter app, I set the aperture accordingly for a 1/100s exposure. We took the Contessa to Vagueira, along with the Ilford Pixie with some really expired film, and used the camera around the town. It turned out that I must have tried to make two Rapid canisters worth out of this 35mm roll, since I only got 8 exposures out of the roll.
After respooling the film into the cassette, I took the exposed film to the Forever Blue in Aveiro for development. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get from this, if anything at all, so I went for the ‘develop only’ option. When I got the negatives back (forty-five minute turnaround from Forever Blue, thank you lads) they were absolutely amazing and it looks like I might have nailed the exposure. The negatives were scanned with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. If you’re interested, I’ve posted the whole series in an album on my Flickr.
There were only a few images on this offcut, but I absolutely loved them. The photographs shown are basically how they came out of the scanner. I didn’t have to (or want to) make any adjustments at all. The Contessa is definitely going to be one of my ‘day out’ cameras, even with its limitations.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#35mm #Belca #Beltica #Contessa #CostaNova #Folder #Harman #HarmanTechnology #Phoenix #Portugal #Rangefinder #Vagueira #ZeissIkon -
A Day Out With The Sprocket Rocket And Expired Lomography Colour Film
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Sprocket Rocket. Whenever I can’t find anything to watch on YouTube, I always seem to gravitate to watching videos about peoples’ experiences with this panoramic toy camera from Lomography. Yet whenever I try to use mine, I’m filled with dread that I’ll break the film, like I did the first time. So it sits in its box, along with an Agfa Clack and a Reader’s Digest camera that I’ve always been promising myself that one day I’ll flip its lens. But whenever I’m going out, that ridiculous looking blue beastie always screams out to me, ‘take me! Take me!’ Normally I just ignore it, but last week I felt sorry for the Rocket, and out of its box it came.
The plan was actually to test a new (to me) camera, the Proud Chrome Six III, a heavily beat up medium format folding camera, and to try out an Industar 69M 28mm pancake lens that had fortuitously been recalibrated for micro four-thirds. Since the Sprocket Rocket was a bit of an afterthought, I didn’t want to use a ‘good’ film in it, so I rummaged around for something to use.
I have a small ‘collection’ of films that I keep in a box, just to see how they behave under ‘ambient’ conditions. They don’t go in the refrigerator, just sit on the side. Some of these are slightly expired now, including a few rolls of Lomography ISO 100 colour film (best before c.2023, I reckon). I had one of these rolls in the Zenit 11 for the Shitty Camera Challenge’s #CrappyCommieCameraParty, and it never got finished. So I rewound the film into it’s cassette in the Zenit and then reloaded it into the Rocket. I made a ‘best guess’ as to the number of exposures, then added the Rocket to my camera bag along with the Proud Chrome Six and an Olympus Pen E-PL3 and the Industar-69.
It was a bright but overcast day, and we headed off to Barra and Costa Nova for lunch at the Marisqueira, the most wonderful fish restaurant. I also had a chance for a post-lunch walk around Costa Nova — a ‘digestivo’, if you will — and at a derelict structure just outside of town. One of my favourite spots, but one that’s not too easy to photograph when the sun is in the wrong place, since the wall of the building can cast some strong shadows. The hazy day provided bright enough conditions for the Rocket without the inconvenience of harsh shadows. Not my favourite situation, but hey.
The Sprocket Rocket is a simple camera with just one shutter speed of about 1/100s (and ‘bulb’) and two apertures, one for sunny and one for cloudy weather (about f16 and f11, respectively). Normally, Lomography recommend using ISO 400 film with this camera, but I reckoned that all being well, if I left the camera on the ‘cloudy’ setting, it might work with the ISO 100 film, and fortunately it did. After completing the film, I had to wait a couple of weeks as the stormy weather started again. But a couple of days ago the weather cleared and I popped the film into Forever Blue in Aveiro.
After development, I scanned the film at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. I tried to use the Lomography 35mm scanning frame, so that I could include the sprockets in the final image, but for some reason it didn’t work. I need to look into the scanning process for this. If you’re interested, I’ve posted the whole series in an album on my Flickr if you want to see the rest of the images.
I was quite surprised that I got anything from this film, but in the end it worked quite nicely. As a panoramic camera, it doesn’t hold a candle to the Horizon (or the Widelux[x], or the X-pan), but it’s fun to use and I can always see the appeal. I’m also a bit agnostic over Lomography films. I absolutely adore Lomochrome Turquoise and the Red (though I’m leaning a bit more in favour of Harman Red), but this ISO 100 film actually produced some nice results.
The first image, of the driftwood on the beach at Barra, has two large white splotches that I thought was dust on the glass, but a closer look revealed that they were in fact images from the Zenit. Looks like I didn’t wind the reloaded film far enough after all. There’s still a couple of rolls sitting around, and now I’m wondering what camera I can put them in.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Architecture #Barra #Building #CostaNova #Lomography #Panorama #Portugal #SprocketRocket #Street #Townscape #Vagueira -
https://www.alojapan.com/1455726/february-stakes-preview-the-g1-racing-season-starts-in-tokyo/ February Stakes Preview: The G1 Racing Season Starts in Tokyo #CafePharoah #ChristopheLemaire #CopanoRickey #CostaNova #FebruaryStakes #HorseRacing #JapanRacingAssociation #news #RyujiOkubo #RyuseiSakai #sports #Tokyo #TokyoNews #WHeartBond #WilsonTesoro #東京 #東京都 Japan Racing Association Grade 1 action returns for the first time in 2026 on Sunday, February 22, when the February Stakes will be run at Tokyo Racecourse over the distance of 1,600
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Life is not too shabby from where I am sitting.
[Edit] ups, the photo was missing.
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Life is not too shabby from where I am sitting.
[Edit] ups, the photo was missing.
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Random street cat in Costa Nova do Prado, Portugal.
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Random street cat in Costa Nova do Prado, Portugal.
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Some of the colorful houses of Costa Nova do Prado in Portugal.
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Some of the colorful houses of Costa Nova do Prado in Portugal.