#crappycommiecameraparty — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #crappycommiecameraparty, aggregated by home.social.
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@mtk_ I see that #CrappyCommieCameraParty will live forever. 🙂
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Around Ruweished, Jordan, Summer 2025 Fed 5b, Industar 61, Motipix 50d Missed the #CrappyCommieCameraParty #shittyCameraChallenge by dragging my feet processing this roll! This is a fun camera. #BelieveInFilm
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Have I mentioned how much I love the dreamlike juxtapositions the half-frame camera creates? Diptychs forever! This one gives such a string sense of place - 2 images to say, this is what it's like here. There's no way to know which two images are going to end up on one frame (if there is don't tell me) and i love that uncertainty and bit of random chance. Several more from this roll on my Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/DPp3Z9GDolI/?igsh=aXFod2k5ejdhNXNq#chaika #crappycommiecameraparty #believeinfilm #filmphotography #halfframe #oregoncoast #photography
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Things I learned from this year's #CrappyCommieCameraParty installment of the #ShittyCameraChallenge:
- How a camera can be full-featured and capable (for its day) and shitty at the same time.
- How a shutter speed dial can be as quirky and temperamental as a manual transmission.
- How to make a cold shoe incompatible with shoe-mounted light meters.
- How to design a film take-up spool with a "claw of death".
- The difference between 39 mm x 26 tpi and 39 mm x 1 mm lens mount threads. -
A tree in the desert, eastern Jordan 2025 Fed 5b, Industar 61, lomo turquoise This tree is visible for several km on a clear day, and I often use it as a navigation aid. #ShittyCameraChallenge #BelieveInFilm #CrappyCommieCameraParty
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Less popular or known than CZJ by the #CrappyCommieCameraParty (and the #shittylenschallenge) this Rathenower Cinerectim 100 is a wonderful projection lens very suitable for #portraitphotography.
Lisa-Marie, #Kiel 2024
More about projection lenses on the #Fujifilm GFX (Google translated blog): https://www-schlicksbier-com.translate.goog/projektionslinsen-an-der-fujifilm-gfx/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp
#photography #portrait #vintagelens #fotografie #portraitfotografie #altglas #onemonochromeaday #blackandwhite
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When you're a member of the #CrappyCommieCameraParty and the #shittylenschallenge and love the swirl it doesn't have to be a Helios. Just have a look at projection lenses like this #CZJ #Kipronar 140/1.9 ...
Lina, #Kiel 2024
#photography #portrait #vintagelens #portraitphotography #fotografie #portraitfotografie #projektionsobjektiv #projectionlens #swirl #swirlybokeh #femaleportrait #onemonochromeaday #blackandwhite
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The Crappy Commie Camera Party: In Costa Nova With Expired Film And The Chaika II Half-frame Camera
A couple of months ago I picked up a dinky little camera, the Soviet era Chaika II (‘Seagull’). It was made in the Soviet Union, which is ideal for the ongoing Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP), and it’s a half-frame camera. I’m really getting into half-frame at the moment, with the Welta Penti II (which itself is fully CCCP compliant), and my favourite half-frame medium format camera, the Bencini Koroll 2.
Of course, my Seagull was in the ‘Not Passed’ category on the Kamerastore website, with ‘flaws that will affect typical use’ (in this case, ‘fungus on the inner lens elements’), but my test images with Harman Phoenix film came out great — well, as well as might be expected with a 60-odd years old camera — so I thought it might be a good time to try it out with an entry to the Crappy Commie Camera Party.
We were planning a trip out to Costa Nova, and I already had the Chaika II loaded with some expired (c.2004) Konica VX-100 colour film which I had taken to Barra but not used. Since film, especially colour film, loses light sensitivity over time, expired film, that is well past its sell-by date, needs to be exposed differently to normal film. The ‘rule of thumb’ for shooting expired film is to give it one extra stop of exposure for each decade after the expiry date, so I exposed this ISO 100 film at ISO 25. I used the Camera Meter app to measure the exposure, and left the shutter speed at 1/125s as it was a nice sunny day.
On our arrival at Costa Nova, we parked the car and took a coffee on the beach. Here I was able to take a few minimalist images of the beach featuring a little bit of sand and a lot of sky. After our coffee, we walked slowly (ambled?) towards the restaurant along the river front. Here I was able to take photographs of the typical striped houses of Costa Nova, and after lunch we stopped at the wonderful ‘deckchair’ sculpture, where I think I took my favourite images of the whole roll. There were still some frames left, so a few days later, on a trip to the lab to get some films developed, I took the Chaika II and used the last of the roll in Carris and Aveiro.
For a camera that was supposed to be filled with fungus the images with the expired film came out great! Unusually for me, this time there were hardly any light leaks, and the images were clear and quite detailed. Some of the other Chaika II entries for the CCCP that have been posted on BlueSky seemed rather ‘soft’, but there was little sign of that with these images, and I could not have been happier. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
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.
#Belomo #CCCP #Chaika #Chaika2 #CrappyCommieCameraParty #Expired #ExpiredFilm #HalfFrame #M39 #MadeInUSSR #Seagull #SovietCamera
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“I’m the 1”, former Royal Scientific Society research station, eastern Jordan 2025 Fed 5b, Industar 61, Fomapan 400, trichrome. Jet lagged (thus I played a round of “is it pictures?”), but glad to be home. #CrappyCommieCameraParty #TrichromeParty #BelieveInFilm
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If you love swirl, then (most) projection lenses are right up your alley. And of course the #CrappyCommieCameraParty and the #shittylenschallenge can deliver here as well since there are more than Helios comrades to the party.
Johanna, #Kiel 2023
#Fujifilm GFX100S, 35KP 120/2.8
#photography #portrait #portraitfotografie #portraitphotography #fotografie #adaptedlens #vintagelens #altglas #onemonochromeaday #blackandwhite #swirl #swirlybokeh #monochrome
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First roll back from the Chaika II and I am in LOVE. So happy with this camera, so happy with the downtown Portland Shutterbug and just, extremely happy. YAY FILM! #crappycommiecameraparty #believeinfilm #staybrokeshootfilm #vintagecamera #35mmfilm #half-frame #chaika #photography
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@FotoVorschlag
'Kugelrund' / 'spherical' #FotoVorschlag
crossover with #ShittyCameraChallenge / #CrappyCommieCameraParty📷 Samsung NX500 + Industar 61L/Z-MS :darktable:
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So here a proper #ShittyCameraChallenge / #CrappyCommieCameraParty contribution... to get me deported.
📷 Samsung NX500 + Industar 61L/Z-MS :darktable:
Guess why it's called indu-STAR!
#SamsungNX #Industar #photography #Fotografie #ThisIsfine #darktable
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So the #ShittyCameraChallenge was reborn as #CrappyCommieCameraParty from June 1st to August 31st.
Seems like @ShittyCameraChallenge lost his credentials and is only active on bsky, but we can party like it's 1991 on masto as well! (Anyway, every party member knows that Mastodon is communism and bsky is capitalism!)
Even if my only lens is the Industar / Индустар 61L/Z-MS produced in 1986, and shooting digital will get me sent to Siberia.
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Working On The Skyline, Zaandam
#BelieveInFilm #KMZFT2 #TeamHorizon #Fomapan400 #CrappyCommieCameraParty
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Double Trouble / Stereo panoramas? Sold the one on the right I've had for a while that happened to be 33 serial number steps older than the one on the left. Sold to another pano enthusiast who was is trying to fix his, needed a working one for a guide. Like me he also had a eclectic collection of 35/120 pano cameras in use. 😂 #KMZFT2 #TeamHorizon #CrappyCommieCameraParty #BelieveInFilm
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Another Contender for The Crappy Commie Camera Challenge: The Chaika II Half-frame Camera
I came across this one by accident (if ever anything is ‘accidental’ when I’m browsing the Kamerastore website), and as it’s a half-frame camera there was instant appeal. It also has a lovely little 28mm pancake lens and I was immediately wanting to try this M39-mount lens on my micro four-thirds cameras, but more on that later.
The Chaika II is a heavy beast, weighing over 300g and made of metal with plastic innards. It features shutter speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s, 1/250s and B, and the interchangeable 28mm lens has apertures from f2.8 to f16. The Chaika II was made by Belomo in Minsk, then in the Soviet Union, between 1967 and 1972. It was called Chaika, meaning ‘seagull’ after the call-sign of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.
My model was in the ‘Not Passed’ category on the Kamerastore website and has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’. In this case, there ‘is fungus on the inner lens elements’, though the camera body itself is fully functional. I was interested in this model for two reasons: It was made in the Soviet Union, which is ideal for the upcoming Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP), and it’s a half-frame camera, and I’m really getting into half-frame at the moment with the Welta Penti II (which itself is fully CCCP compliant).
The camera body is fully functional, and is in nice condition. Like any Soviet era camera that I’ve ever had it has some unique features that make it an interesting user experience. For a start, the shutter button is on the front of the camera, just above the lens assembly. This is actually quite good, as when you are holding the camera your fingers are automatically directed away from the lens. The shutter speed is set from a little dial on the back of the camera, near the viewfinder, and the speed is visible through a little window on the top plate.
Like other Soviet cameras I have, like the Smena 8M, and the KMZ Horizont, the rewind knob is tucked away. In this case on the bottom of the camera combined with the film speed dial. If you pull on the knob and turn it clockwise it locks open. Then you can twist the knob to rewind the film.
Because it’s a half-frame camera, and I don’t really have the patience to use 72 frames on a 36 exposure roll, I used an ‘off-cut’ of Harman Phoenix film after respooling some film into Rapid canisters. This gave me a length of film equivalent to about 15 frames, which for me was ideal to test the camera, and a technique that I might use in the future.
For a camera that was supposed to be filled with fungus the images came out great! I will certainly have to get out the lens spanner and see if I can clean the elements, and the Harman Phoenix gave some strange colour shifts, but I really liked the results.
Oh, and about that business of wanting to use the M39 lens from the Chaika II with my micro four-thirds mirrorless cameras. That looks like it’s a non-starter, unfortunately. Apparently, the camera/lens combination was designed to be used with an Belomo enlarger that never actually materialised. So it’s not really an interchangeable lens camera but a dedicated half-frame lens that was could be removed and mounted in an enlarger. From what I gather, you can hack the lens so that it will focus to infinity on micro four-thirds cameras, but that means that the lens won’t then function properly on the Chaika II. So that’s not really something I want to do.
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.
#Belomo #CCCP #Chaika #Chaika2 #CrappyCommieCameraParty #HalfFrame #M39 #MadeInUSSR #Seagull #SovietCamera
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Gearing up for the Crappy Commie Camera Party, Part 1: The Zenit 11
Starting in June 2025 is the next iteration of the Shitty Camera Challenge, the Crappy Commie Camera Party (or CCCP for short). It’s intended to be a celebration of all things Soviet made, so Soviet-era cameras up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, about 1989.
Now I have plenty of Soviet era cameras, more in fact than I had thought. There’s the stereo Lomo Sputnik with its single working shutter speed, the wonderful Smena 8M, the (still untried) Cosmic Symbol, the panoramic Horizont, and a couple of Lomo LC-As. Oh, and not forgetting the Rapid format Lomo Smena SL. So I have plenty of options to choose from. But then, as always happens, chance intervened.
Just recently, Harman Technology released a new emulsion, Harman Red. This is a redscaled version of Harman Phoenix, and I was lucky enough to get my hands on a few rolls of pre-production Harman Red thanks to their Marketing department, who had seen and liked some of my own attempts at redscaling Phoenix. After its release, a user on Bluesky posted some wonderful macro images with Harman Red, and I was really taken with these as I had previously thought about trying to do something similar. The snag is, I don’t have any analogue cameras that can make decent macro images.
Coincidentally, one of my mutuals on BlueSky posted about her experiments with freelensing using redscale film, and of course that I really wanted to try. I’ve attempted freelensing before, where you disengage the camera lens from the body and hold it a couple of cm, or less, away from the camera. I’d even tried reversing the lens, which can result in some lovely dreamy looking macro images. The snag is that these have always been digital, and I’m really scared of getting dust on my digital sensors.
I had already considered combining the CCCP with a bit of freelensing, but dismissed it as I already have enough old Soviet era cameras to play with. But then my mutual friend played her ‘ace’ card: ‘I think it would really suit your experimental approach’, she wrote, and of course after laying down that challenge I just had to reconsider. I turned to the Kamerastore website, the source of all my crappy cameras, and searched for Zenit. Several options popped up, but this jet black Zenit 11, with Cyrillic writing really caught my eye.
It was in the ‘Not Passed’ category, with ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, but in this case it was that the ‘light meter doesn’t work properly and the light seals should be changed. Otherwise it is in good working condition!’ Well, then, that was perfect. I should add that back in the day, when I was looking for my first ‘real’ film camera (an SLR in those days, without the ‘D’), I would scour the adverts in Amateur Photographer looking for the best deal. There were loads of options for Zenits and Prakticas, but I dismissed those out of hand, and went for a Canon instead. What would my 20-something-year-old me think of that today?
At nearly 700g, the Zenit 11 is a heavyweight. Indeed, it’s been likened to a Russian tank in many a YouTube review. It’s a manual focus 35mm SLR camera produced in the Soviet Union from 1981 to 1990. The Zenit features shutter speeds from 1/30s-1/500s (+ B, and 1/30s is also the flash sync speed) and the meter can be dialled in for film speeds from ISO 25-400. The actual production date of the camera can be determined from the first two numbers of the serial number, and mine was made in 1986.
Like most Soviet cameras it has its little foibles, in this case how the exposure is measured through the selenium cell window on the front of the pentagram, and the means of disengaging the wind-on to rewind the film once it’s fully exposed. Other than that it’s a fairly straightforward single lens reflex camera. It uses the common M42 screw thread, and at the time it came with a Helios-44M f/2 58mm lens. These are quite highly sought after nowadays, mainly because the front or rear lenses can be flipped for spectacular bokeh effects.
My Zenit 11 didn’t come with a lens, but I have a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 lens that since it was made in East Germany, is also ‘CCCP compliant’. This lens was also from the ‘Not Passed’ category on the Kamerastore website — the aperture is stuck at the widest aperture position — and though I thought this wasn’t an obstacle, it turned out that even at its fastest shutter speed the camera would be over exposing most films. I therefore needed a ‘Plan B’.
I turned back to the Kamerastore website and found two contenders: A Cosina 50mm f1.8 Cosinon Auto lens, and an Industar 50-2, a 50mm f3.5 lens. The Cosina lens was in the ‘Not Passed’ category, with ‘some scratches on the outer elements and may affect the image quality … [and the] focusing is a tad bit dry’. In contrast, the Industar-50-2 was in lovely condition.
The Cosina, of course, is Japanese made, so I won’t have a complete CCCP camera/lens combination for close-up work, but the Industar-50-2 was made in Soviet factories like KMZ, so it’s perfect. It’s also so tiny! It’s really similar looking to the Tessar-style lenses in the Smena range, and I reckon at some stage that I’ll try it out with the M42-mount adapter on the Olympus Pen mirrorless cameras.
Along with the Zenit 11, at the same time I bought an M42 lens reverse ring. One side is the M42 thread that screws into the camera. On the other side is a 49mm filter thread that fits most (that I’ve seen) 50mm M42 lenses, including my Pentacon and the Cosina. Reversing the lens is ideal for macro photography, and I’ve tested it out and the macro effect works nicely with both. A reversed 50mm lens should give a roughly life-size image on the film.
This post was supposed to be an introduction and a test of the Zenit 11, but the weather has decided not to cooperate … again. So, instead I hope this short post will serve as an indication of my direction and intentions for the CCCP. when the weather improves, I’ll be out with a roll of film, Practising with the Zenit 11 and accessories.
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..
#CrappyCommieCameraParty #Freelensing #M42MountVintageCamera #Macro #Pentacon #Retro #Shittycamerachallenge #SovietCamera #Zenit11
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@ShittyCameraChallenge I actually had trouble chosing a single favorite. Here's two from the #notsoshitty Pentacon six from #CrappyCommieCameraParty and one from the EOS300 from #1990scamerachallenge. Certainly a low point in the series was when my SX-70 died eating the film causing#InstantRegret.