but this old lady still takes very nice pictures. This means that, for example, if the horizon appears tilted in the frame, you need to tilt the camera in the opposite direction that you normally would. The image in the viewfinder is flipped horizontally. And the 'grip'? This isn't really the kind of camera you can shoot one-handed. You need to pull the film advance lever (on the left!) to arm the shutter and bring the mirror down. At this point, assuming you have already set the shutter speed and aperture, you can release the magnifying glass (a small button makes it pop back into its frame), frame, and finally press the shutter! After taking a picture, the mirror does not return to its normal position, therefore the viewfinder is blanked. First you roughly frame and focus using the ground glass, then you lower the magnifying glass, put your eye onto it and fine focus. It’s as slow as it gets when it comes to taking pictures, but pure pleasure. Putting it all back together, it goes click again! Adjusting the shutter speeds takes a bit of trial and error, but it can be done. A careful cleaning and lubrication is all that is needed to bring them back to life. The beauty of the cameras from that era is that there is almost never really anything broken (but the curtains). Maybe in 60 years someone will wonder who VP is.

This DJI clearly was not a drone manufacturer, notwithstanding what google keeps telling me. A professional repairer? Was he/she well known back then? Hand-engraved and barely visible, was the note: Not in a very good shape.Ī look at the bottom of the camera presented a nice surprise. Usual signs of age were the failing shutter curtains, with several holes and cracks, the self-timer not self-timing at all, and the B pose leaving the curtains open after releasing the shutter button. I'd never used a waist-level viewfinder before, so when I spotted one at a reasonable price, I could not resist.Īfter some cleaning of the exterior, it looks really good. Possibly the first single-lens reflex in mass production, it featured a waist-level viewfinder and long exposure times up to 12 seconds. A beautiful camera, produced from the late 1930 to early 1940.

Kinemirror