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Slovakian Gypsies

Flexaret VI

About two weeks back when I was in Olomouc (pronounced Olomoats) in the Czech republic, Greg from New Zealand who worked at the Poets Corner Hostel in the past and was familiar with the town, took me to a camera shop that was seriously in favor of analogue. City's larger than Olomouc in Ireland don't have camera shops as well stocked as this one.

I bought a Flexaret VI TLR for 850 Czech crowns, about €35. I left it in my backpack, and decided not to shoot a test roll till I got back to Dublin. The production years for that camera are 1961 to 65.

The First shot I made with it, the reflection from the back of a Fiat Punto.

The optics seem to be uncoated, yet despite that there is good tonality in the negs.


Theres a wonderful dreamlike softness to the images (due to uncoated glass), more of a portrait camera to be used in the studio or fine art projects, rather than on the street.
The Viewfinder is extremely dark, which can lead to composing difficulty's but I guess thats due to some mold forming in the top lens.
Other than that, I'm more excited about using this piece of gear, than I am about a new D700 I got a while back, yes you heard me right, I'm that much of a nerd.

Xpan scans

Just got back from my three week holiday in Eastern Europe.

I thought I'd upload some old XPAN scans before I start developing and scanning my rolls from the trip.
It was only after seeing the neg come back from the lab did I realise the boy on top of the pillar is holding a Dove.

Killorgan County Kerry.

Please note these scans were done using a €170 scanner, hence the quality is lacking, but I've finally bit the bullet and have put my Nikon coolscan into repair.

I have many more images to sort through going back some month's, but I might as well get cracking on the negs from my travels. Will have my first images by the end of the week.