Saturday 28 June 2014

Zorki 4

The Zorki 4 camera was made by KMZ ( Krasnogorsk Mechanical Factory)  in the former USSR near Moscow. The name 'Zorki' means 'sharp sighted' in English. Over 1,700,000 Zorki 4 cameras were made in total. The original Zorki was a direct copy of a Leica II camera but the camera underwent many alterations and improvements and the Zorki 4 was an entirely Russian design. Zorki cameras were supplied originally supplied with an Industar-22 lens ( a copy of a Carl Zeiss Tessar) but the Zorki 4 was supplied with a Jupiter-8 lens which is a copy of a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar lens. Zorki cameras were made between 1956 and 1973.
Zorki 4, front view (copyright John Margetts)

lens: Jupiter-8
focal length:  50mm
apertures: f2 to f22
focus range: 1 metre to infinity
lens fitting: LTM (or M39)
shutter: cloth focal plane
speeds: 1/60 to 1/1000 (there are also slower speeds but the numbers have worn off the dial and I cannot read them)
flash: PC socket synch for M and X
film size: 35 mm

The camera measures 145 by 35 by 85 mm (not including the lens) and the lens adds another 40 mm when focussed on 1 metre.  It weighs a significant 720 grams when loaded with a 24 exposure film.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
blog copyright 2014, John Margetts
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The controls are as you would expect and hold no surprises. On the far right is the film advance. This is a knob - rather antiquated for 1973 (when this camera was made) - which I rather like. I certainly do not miss having a film advance lever, the winding action of the knob allowing a valuable pause for thought. Set into the top of the film advance knob is the frame counter. Next to the film advance knob is a central raised section. On the right of this section is the shutter release button. This is towards the back of the camera which I find a little awkward but it is quite usable. It is threaded for a standard cable release. Around the shutter release button is a knurled collar which you turn clockwise to release the mechanism for rewinding the film.

Next to this is the shutter speed selector. The standard advice for Soviet cameras applies here - always advance the film before changing the shutter speed or risk damaging the selector mechanism. This is important enough for the original retailer of this camera to have supplied a metal sticker on then inside of the ever-ready case to remind the user.

Around the speed selector is a large ring used to set the type of flash synchronisation - either M or X. Next to this is the accessory shoe - this has no contacts so is a 'cold' shoe in flash terms.  On the far left, at the same lower level as the film advance, is the rewind knob. This is telescopic to make rewinding the film easier. A very nice touch not often found on cameras is a lever below the rewind knob which allows the user to focus the viewfinder - this means I can use the camera without my glasses on and still have a clear view.
Zorki 4 showing top plate.
The back of the camera is rather plain. On the left of the top plate is the viewfinder eye-piece. This doubles as the rangefinder eyepiece. On the right of the top plate is the KMZ logo of a prism with a ray of light passing through it and the legend 'MADE IN USSR' (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, for our younger readers). Below this is the body serial number  - with Soviet cameras the first two digits of the serial number give the year of manufacture, in this case 1973.

Zorki 4, rear view

The base plate of the camera has a tripod boss below the lens which is a standard 1/4 inch Whitworth thread. On either end of the base plate are the catches for the base/back which are removed as one to load the film.
Zorki 4, base of camera
The front of the top plate has the viewfinder which is quite large (18 by 12 mm), a centrally placed rangefinder window which is rather small and the PC socket for the flash. Above these is the stencilled legend - Zorki-4. The camera body has the lens (where else?) and the self-timer.

The lens is a Jupiter-8 lens. This is a copy of a Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar lens. Early production was cased is plain aluminium but by this date the aluminium was paint matt black. the use of aluminium gives a very light lens but at the expense of toughness. This specimen has been bashed at some point and the filter thread has a flattened part meaning I will not be able to use filters on this camera - no great loss as I rarely use filters.

The lens serial number has the same format as the body number and shows that the lens was also made in 1973.

The specification of the lens is quite impressive. It has six elements in three groups, for the optical aficionados, and has a maximum aperture of f2. This is quite a wide aperture for any lens and as wide as you will find on a camera of this age. As a landscape photographer I will rarely use any lens this wide open. The iris diaphragm has nine blades giving a close to circular aperture which should produce nice bokeh.

Using the Zorki-4

This is a rangefinder camera so the first thing to note is using the rangefinder. This is not too easy. For those who have never used a rangefinder - the technique involves turning the focus ring on the lens until two images in the viewfinder are on top of each other. To work well, the two images must be easy to see and that is where this rangefinder falls down. The rangefinder window on the front of the camera is small - 5 by 3 mm - which gives a very dim second image. It does work and I have been using it successfully but it is not easy.  One thing that is common with rangefinders is to 'silver' the internal mirror with gold rather than silver or mercury as this gives an orange image which is easier to see. Alas, Zorki have not done this and you end up peering into the viewfinder looking for the secondary image. I shall probably use this camera as a scale focus camera and rely on the hyperfocal distance as I do with most of my non-reflex cameras.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
blog copyright 2014, John Margetts
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apart from the rangefinder aspect, the viewfinder is bright and clear. As I mentioned above, it is possible to focus the viewfinder to allow for personal defects in vision and I find this to be very useful. The viewfinder is both above and to one side of the lens. This will introduce parallax errors for anything other than landscapes. Parallax is where the lens and viewfinder are both looking at the same object but from different places. For a head-and-shoulders portrait, it will be necessary to keep the person towards both the right and bottom of the viewfinder - experience will tell the photographer exactly haw far to the right or bottom to go. With many camera there are secondary bright lines in the viewfinder to frame close up shots. With up-market cameras the viewfinder adjusts its view as you focus, but this is not an up-market camera.

Focussing the lens is smooth and easy as is setting the aperture. The aperture ring has two scales - the front of the lens turns as you focus and if there was just the one scale you would not be able to read it at both near focus and infinity. The aperture ring has no click stops. This means that you can set intermediate apertures if you want to but also means that you can inadvertently alter the aperture so checking is a good idea before firing the shutter.

Setting the shutter speed is not as clear as it could be. The dot on the scale does not line up exactly with the numbers. The height of the selector knob changes with speed - 1/60 and slower raise up the selector knob - 1/125 is the slowest sped with the selector knob in the lower position - you can then count positions to accurately set 1/250, 1/500 and 1/1000.

Having framed your picture and focussed the lens, pressing the shutter release needs a firm but not excessive pressure to fire the shutter. I do not like too easy shutters as I am liable to fire accidentally as I am still composing - not a problem I shall have with this camera. When the shutter is fired, the camera makes a definite squeak. Exakta cameras are notorious for this and then it indicates that the shutter needs lubrication. I suspect that it is the same with this Zorki but the cost of paying someone to lubricate it will be much more than the camera is worth.

Winding the film on is easy even though the film advance is a knob and not a lever. The one bit I do find slightly awkward is the fact that the knob turns clockwise - the film is wound onto the take-up spool emulsion outwards. Neither really matters but I find moving the advance clockwise to be non-intuitive.

Test pictures

I am quite pleased with these pictures overall. The lab that developed the film for me (Snappy Snaps, Lincoln) told me that some frames were overexposed but mostly they are within the latitude of the film (but see the yellow flowers below). Over-exposure suggests a slow shutter ( or me moving the aperture setting inadvertently). This is a 1973 camera that has most probably never been serviced and not used in some time - there was a film in the camera that had been there long enough to be forgotten about when I bought the camera. 

I took a variety of fairly close-up shots to test the calibration of the rangefinder - all seems to be well. I also used the lens wide open and at f4 for the flower shots to see how well the lens performs.

Russian lenses are generally very good, particularly when stopped down. Where Russian lenses do not perform well it is usually down to careless assembly in the factory or an owner messing about with the lens, rather than the glass itself.

In summary, this lens gives good colour rendition and good contrast. The lens is plenty sharp enough. The camera is slightly over-exposing but not to an extent I cannot compensate for. In fact, with use, the shutter might start running correctly.

I am giving individual comments on each photo below.



This is the only photograph to show the white band on the left. It was also the last frame on the roll of film. I am assuming that its position on the film is the cause of the white band. The picture has good focus and good contrast.



Here, I focussed on one of the pink petunias. This shows that the rangefinder is pretty well calibrated as it should be. The result of some over-exposure is visible in the pink.



These buskers are a fairly regular sight in Lincoln city centre. I focussed on the accordion as being the only part of them with the strong lines that the dim rangefinder needed.



This shot did not use the rangefinder but rather my usual habit of using the hyperfocal distance. I am quite pleased with the sharpness of this.



Lincoln Market Hall. Again, using the hyperfocal distance rather than the rangefinder.



For this flower shot, I focussed on one of the yellow flowers (a potentilla). The detail in the flowers is almost completely blown - a result of over-exposure. The leaves, being that bit darker, have retained their detail.



 These lavender flowers did better. Again, I am happy with the focus that the rangefinder gave me. This shot was with the lens wide open (f2).


The Siemens' factory on the banks of the Witham in Lincoln. Another hyperfocal picture. I like both the colour rendition and the contrast.

 The same factory complete with reflection. No flare which I had thought might be a problem with this lens.

 A close-up of a disused part of the Siemens' factory and a part of the Witham sluice. A hint of flare in the upper left of the brick-work.


 Factory and sluice from further back.


 For this close-up of the steel rail, I focussed on the top of the first upright. The lens was wide open (f2) and the metal-work is in good focus. The rangefinder is as well calibrated as it could be.


The Witham in the city centre where it flows under the medieval bridge. It is now usual to have a number of barges moored along here although a few years ago it would have been unusual.


A trio of Rockabilly buskers who play in the city centre on a regular basis. I focussed on the double bass with the lens stopped down. Again, good colours and good contrast.

Tuesday 17 June 2014

Halina 35X

Halina 35X
This is a small but heavy Chinese camera made by Haking in Hong Kong.  It looks a little like a Leica which I am sure is not a complete coincidence.  It is entirely made from metal - which metal I am not sure but I would presume an aluminium alloy of some sort.  The top plate is pressed brass which shows the manufacturing standards - none of it is quite flat or quite straight but fits well none-the-less.  This camera is small (115 x 70 x 70 mm), frankly a bit small for my hands but not too small to be used.

lens: Halina Anastigmat
focal length: 45mm
apertures: 3.5 - 16 no click stops
focus range: 3 feet to infinity
lens fitting: fixed
shutter: simple
speeds: 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200
flash: PC socket, M synch
film size:  35mm

The lens is an Halina Anastigmat, f3.5 45mm.  When I received this camera, both the focussing helical and the aperture control were so stiff it was nearly impossible to turn them.  Research on the Interweb suggests that this was usual from new.  I have applied naptha (lighter fuel) in an attempt to remove any sticky gunk from both of these and after the naptha had dried off, I applied a small amount of clock oil which seems to have freed them both nicely.  The test will be if the controls are still free in a few days time.  The lens is a triplet with the outer two elements being coated but not the middle element.
Halina 35X - top view

The aperture is adjustable from f3.5 to f16 according to the scale, but the control ring moves well beyond f16 so i suspect the smallest aperture is at least f22.  The markings on the aperture control ring are very irregular.  This is for two reasons.  Firstly, the scale is logarithmic - most of my cameras have a linear aperture scale but a few have a logarithmic one - the difference depends on how the control ring is linked to the diaphragm blades.  Secondly, the aperture range starts at f3.5 and then goes to f4 - the change from f3.5 to f4 is only half a stop; a full stop to f4 would be from f2.8.

Focussing is from three feet to infinity.  I have yet to use this camera so I have no idea how well it will perform, but my Interweb research suggests not too well.  I will make up my own mind when I have run a test film through the camera.  There is a depth of field scale next to the focussing scale which is something I wish modern lenses had.  I find it very useful.

This camera has both double exposure control and missed frame control.  Winding on the film releases the shutter release but does not cock the shutter.  This is done by a lever on the left side of the shutter housing.  So, to take a picture, you need to wind on and manually cock the shutter.  Already by the time this camera was made (1959-ish) this was a very old fashioned way of doing things.  however, this method does allow for multiple exposures if you want them - hold down the shutter release and cock and release the cocking lever for each exposure you want.

Both film advance and film rewind are managed by knobs rather than levers - again, rather old fashioned for the time.  I am quite happy with knobs rather than levers.

The viewfinder is a reverse Galilean finder - 'reverse' means that it produces a smaller than life image which in this case is only just smaller.  The viewfinder is small - much the same size as an early Voigtlander Vito B - and smaller than was usual for the time.  This makes it hard to use for spectacle wearers like myself.

There is an accessory shoe - a cold shoe in flash terms - and a PC flash connector.  There is a 'M' embossed in the metal beside the PC connector so this is synchronised for ordinary flash bulbs rather than fast bulbs or electronic flash. The frame counter is beneath the film advance and it counts down to zero so when loading a new film the counter needs to be set to the length of the film and the figure showing is how many frames are left.  For a thirty six exposure film, you initially set the frame counter to zero, there being thirty six divisions around the counter.
Halina 35X - base plate

To load a film you need to remove the back and base of the camera in one piece.  There is a central knob in the base plate which needs to be turned a quarter of a turn to open the camera.  The end of the film slides beneath a spring on the take-up spool and there is no tooth to engage in a sprocket hole, the film being held in place entirely by the pressure of the spring.  I have just loaded my first film and this is  very easy to do.  With cameras where the back and base come away together, I generally find loading new film quite difficult - certainly with both Zeiss Ikon Contaflex and Voigtlander Bessamatic cameras - supporting the weight of the camera while manipulating both the film and take-up spool can be quite difficult.  Not so with this camera partly, I suspect, because the camera is not so large or heavy as those cameras.

19-1-2013:  
So how does this camera work in practise?  I have a couple of issues with it.  One is the size of the viewfinder - rather small for its day and very small by modern standards.  I have to take my spectacles off to use it which is awkward to say the least.

I found myself forgetting to cock the shutter before pressing the shutter release.  This is not a problem with older cameras as one you have noticed your mistake you can cock the shutter and try again.  Alas, not here.  Once you press the shutter release, you action the double exposure device and have to wind on the film before you can operate the shutter again.  With my test film, this cost me fifteen frames out of the thirty six available on the roll of film.  OK, this is not really the cameras fault - I should be able to remember the basics and would learn to in time if I used this camera continually, but it is still annoying.

Another problem is that I have freed up the aperture control ring too much.  When I got this camera, I could barely move this control ring at all.  Now it moves itself between shots.  Knowing this, it is not too hard to reset the aperture between shots but that is not how I like to work.  I usually set the shutter speed, aperture and focus at the hyperfocal point and then use cameras as point-and-shoot cameras.

My last problem was rewinding the film into the cassette.  The rewind knob is also stiff (stiff is the one resounding quality of this camera) and I could not tell when the film was rewound.  I rewound for what seemed like a long time and opened the back - a significant amount of film was still on the take-up spool.  this did less damage than I thought it would - I lost seven frames for white-out but the last twelve frames were OK - unexposed film was clearly good enough to protect the tail end of the film from fogging.

 Here are a few of the shots from my test film - a fair amount of flare and severe vignetting which is very apparent in the last picture:

Guildhall Street, Lincoln

Looking at the Witham from Mint Street

High Bridge, Lincoln

Saltergate, Lincoln
Lincoln Cathedral

Monday 2 June 2014

Kodak Retina I (119)

I have purposefully been avoiding Kodak cameras. There are just too many of them and they are mostly towards the bottom end of the market. Kodak seems to have had an obsession with introducing new models - both camera and film. You would think that three or four film formats would suffice but Kodak introduced 36 different film sizes in roughly a century - a new format every eight years. Most of these were only slightly different from each other - sometime only the spool differed not the film, as with 120 and 620. Kodak were the same with their cameras.

Kodak Retina I (119)
However, the Retinas are special. Firstly, they were not designed by Kodak. When Kodak wanted to break into the serious amateur market they bought a German camera manufacturer (Nagel Kamerawerk) and had the good sense to keep Dr Nagal on as the chief designer. Retinas were made from 1934 to 1969 in Germany and this model (Retina I 119) was made from 1936 to 1938. I have used serial numbers to try and get a more precise date of manufacture. The lens was made between September 1935 and May 1936 according to my Schneider serial number list and was engraved with a serial number on 8 January 1936 according to Dave Jentz of the Historical Society for Retina Cameras. The shutter was made between 1935 and 1939 and the serial number is towards the end of that five year range so mid 1938 is my best guess. This means that the camera must have been made in 1938 and so one of the last model 119 to be made. More accurate records of serial numbers are not available from German companies - mostly because records were lost in the bombing in WWII. Dave Jentz has offered to more accurately date the camera body from the body serial number and when I have that information, I will update this blog with it.

This Retina I is very similar to good folding 120 cameras of the day (mid 1930s) and surprisingly similar to Zeiss Ikon's Ikonta 35 of 15 years later (it is also very similar to Balda's Baldina of a few years later).  Hubert Nerwin of Zeiss Ikon claimed to have spent the war years thinking about the design of the Ikonta 35 but I think he just had a quick shifty at a Retina.

Retina 1938
Ikonta 1949
The camera is made from a single aluminium alloy casting. It is covered with black leather (rather than leatherette) which, on this camera, is in excellent condition. The back has the word 'Retina' embossed in the leather in italic script. The exposed parts of the aluminium are enamelled in black. Kodak produced these cameras is twin series - the 119 (this camera) was enamelled in black and the 126 was chrome plated. Otherwise they were identical.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blog copyright by John Margetts, 2014
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Retina I (119) back view
The controls on the camera (as opposed to the shutter housing - details later) are nickel plated as is the hinge and catch for the back. As new, this will have looked very good - the soft-blueish nickel against shiny black. Unfortunately, the previous owner stored this camera in a damp place. The nickel plating has corroded leaving a blue/green deposit and some pitting of the metal. On the hinge and catch - both of which are steel - corrosion has allowed the under-laying metal to rust. This has ended with the hinge being rather stiff although it is already getting freer. The controls have cleaned up quite well with Brasso wadding with the exception of the knurled milling on the circumference of the film advance and film rewind knobs., although even those are now much improved.

The one part I find rather strange - finish wise - is the depth of field calculator on the base of the camera. This is made from steel - I would have expected brass on a camera this well designed - and the nickel plating has completely worn off from the edge exposing the steel which is now rusty.

So much for the cosmetics. The controls are what you need on a 35 mm camera. On the right hand end of the top is the film advance knob. Just below this is a clutch lever to allow the film advance to be disconnected for film rewind. Next to the film advance knob is a recessed frame counter. This is not connected to the film advance. Rather, when you press the small button to free the film advance to turn to the next frame, this button also advances the counter by one.

Slightly to the left of centre is the very small viewfinder. This is a reverse Galilean finder and too small to use while wearing glasses. On the left hand end is the rewind knob.

On the base are two items - a tripod boss (the modern standard 1/4 inch Whitworth thread) and a depth of field calculator together with the release button for the lens door. 

Retina I (119) - base of camera showing the focusing knob and aperture knob.
There is no connection between any of these controls and the shutter, so the camera can only advance the film one frame, so no wasted film, but cannot prevent double exposures.

This is a folding camera so the lens/shutter are hidden behind a door. This is released by a button on the base. A spring will open the door about halfway and the user has to open the door fully. The lens/shutter come forward on struts to their operational position. There is a short bellows which are made of lacquered cloth rather than leather - the more durable option. In this case they seem to be light proof but the test film will show for sure.

Retina I (119) lens door open
The lens and shutter are mounted on a square nickel plated plate which is much more attractive than the system used by Zeiss Ikon and Voigtlander. To close the lens door, you have to depress two studs - one on top and one below the square nickel plate. You also need to make sure the lens is focussed on infinity as there is insufficient clearance to close the door is the lens is focussed any nearer.

The lens is a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar - a four element Tessar copy - which is not coated. Lens coating was around when this camera was made (1938) but was only used on really high end cameras. This lens was very dirty and did not come clean using ROR lens cleaner. As the lens is not coated an was very dirty I took the extreme step of cleaning the glass with Brasso wadding. This was both the external front face of the lens and the internal back face. The glass is now as good as new.


Retina I (119) -  close up of Xenar lens and Compur-Rapid shutter
The lens is mounted on the nickel plate as already mentioned and this means that the camera can be focused by moving the whole lens and not just the front element. this bodes well for image quality. Rather than turning the lens, there is a knob at the bottom of the shutter housing which moves over about 100 degrees to focus the lens. This is easily done by feel with the left hand. Kodak have thoughtfully provided two focus scales, one in black and one in red. The black scale is easily visible when using the camera in portrait mode and the red scale in landscape mode. I have never seen this before and it is very useful. Incidentally, the focusing scale is in feet.

The aperture is also adjusted by a knob at the bottom of the shutter housing and this can be distinguished from the focusing knob by feel. This also has two scales making this camera very easy to use. The aperture range is from f3.5 to f16 - a very usable range. I do not care about having a fast lens as I usually stop down to f8 or f11 and very rarely go as wide as f5.6.

Being a Compur shutter, the cocking lever moves clockwise  (down in this case as it is on the left). As with the focus and aperture scales, there are two shutter release buttons. Kodak have managed this is a very simple and effective way - there is a very short cable release screwed into the cable release socket - by very short, I mean 1 cm in length (see the picture above). I think this is intended to give a reachable shutter release for the right hand in both portrait and landscape positions but it also means there is a convenient release for a left handed person.

The Compur-Rapid shutter offers speeds to 1/500 seconds although received wisdom is that it is nearer to 1/350 in most cases. I have no way of checking and I do not really care - the 1/500 speed is useful and usable and that is what I care about.

Inside is fairly uncluttered. The film cassette goes on the left, there is a single sprocket at the top of the sprocket shaft and there is a fixed take-up spool. The camera's serial number is stamped into the metal of the door close to the hinge.

Retina I (119) inside view.

The only other thing to describe is the depth of field calculator on the base. This is quite simple to use. You rotate the outer ring until the distance you are focused on in against the central mark and then read off the furthest and nearest in-focus distances on the inner ring against the aperture you are using. To me, this is useful to find the hyperfocal distance of the lens at various apertures. To do this, align the infinity distance against the aperture you want to use and read the hyperfocal distance off the central mark - at f16, the hyperfocal distance is 13 feet, so I would focus at 13 feet and have everything between infinity and 8 feet in focus.

Depth of field calculator

Using the Camera (16-6-2014)

I have enjoyed using this camera with the trst film. I am still waiting for the lab to finish developing the film as I managed to get the leader oily by over-enthusiastic lubrication on the film advance mechanism - they wanted permission to sacrifice the first two frames to get an oil-free piece of film to attach to the developing machine.  I should get the processed film in the morning and I will update this essay with the pictures on Thursday, all being well.

The controls are, for the most part, ergonomically placed and easy to use. The one control I found difficult  nearly impossible to use is the aperture control. basically, this is too close to the focusing knob and it is too easy to move both accidentally. In practice, I found it easier to adjust the aperture by moving the pointer on the aperture scale.

What made this camera really easy to use is the provision of two shutter releases. Dr Nagel's intention, I am sure, was to make the camera as easy to use in portrait orientation as it is in landscape orientation. I found it easiest to fire the shutter left-handed even though I am essentially right-handed. For a left-handed person it must have been the best camera around by far.

The viewfinder is very small, as I mentioned above. It is the standard size for viewfinders from all manufacturers until the mid-1950s. It seems strange to me that it should be so. The folding viewfinders on my Zeiss Ikon and Agfa cameras are larger and easier to use and my Zeiss Ikon Icarette has a relatively enormous (glassless) 'sports' finder which is a large (6 x 9 cm) wire frame positioned at the lens' node  with a large enough frame as the eye-piece of the viewfinder. this move in the mid-1930s to enclosed reverse Galilean finders made the cameras significantly harder to use than their predecessors. having said that, the viewfinder is usable once I have removed my glasses - even if I have to compose by shape and line rather than by detail. Or is that an advantage - preventing me from being carried away by the detail?

The need to advance the frame counter before advancing the film soon became second nature and moving the clutch lever from Advance to Rewind before rewinding the film was obvious enough not to cause me any problems.

As I mentioned above, the camera had been stored in a damp place which has caused the cast aluminium body to corrode. An unexpected consequence of this was that, with very little handling, the leather covering came off the body. This was not a failure of the glue (almost certainly shellac) but the disintegration of the metal surface that the leather was glued to. This is not a problem - an application of emery paper to both camera and leather has allowed me to re-glue the leather (with modern plastic glue rather than shellac).

Test photographs:

(All copyright John Margetts)

As usual, these are all from around Lincoln. All the pghotographs are a bit on the bright sie (I have Gimped the version here) which suggests that the shutter is running a bit slow. The shutter is 76 years old so some speed variation is to be expected, perhaps, but the photographs are all exposed within the film's latitude so the camera is quite usable. 

The first picture (Silver Street, Lincoln) shows the effect of using a film in a dirty camera.  I did clean the inside of the camera before loading the film, but as you wind on the film, a very small amount of static electricity is generated - enough to attract any dirt inside the camera onto the film. It is visible in this picture as dark specks. Only this frame was affected.

First frame with statically attracted dirt.

Lincoln railway station
 This next picture has needed to be adjusted for parallax faults - the verticals were converging towards the top of the picture - a lens fault.
The Strait, Lincoln

Lincoln Exchequergate

Southern African buskers in Lincoln's St Benedict's Square
This next shows one of the very few bridges left in Europe with shops on them. In the Middle Ages, this was usual.
High Bridge, Lincoln.