Agfa Jsolette: in the hand at last!
The Agfa Isolette (called JSOLETTE, rather charmingly, on the front of the camera), arrived on Wednesday morning, just as we were setting off for two days and nights in London. So it went into the bag, and I passed the train journey playing around with it.
The biggest problem is that the door doesn't latch shut. I've holding it together with elastic bands just now - I think that the solder on the holding catch has come away, and probably can't be mended. So I need to look out for a "spares or repair" Jsolette on eBay.
The flash is firing, but I won't know if it's been synching, of course, until I dev the test roll tonight.
It feels very good in the hand. It's very similar in design to the Kodak 66, but feels slightly more compact and lighter.
And a stupid thing I was doing: I noticed that changing the shutter speeds had the mechanism making the sound old clockworks make when you're turning them the wrong way... And then I noticed that they don't make that noise if you haven't cocked the shutter... And then I realised, it's a stupid thing to do, and might damage the mechanism, if you change the shutter speeds after cocking the mechanism. So a numpty learned a lesson.
I won't know until I've done half a dozen rolls with it, but this feels like the start of a beautiful friendship. All of the Leica gear: lenses, filters, the IIIf body, is going on eBay next week.
The biggest problem is that the door doesn't latch shut. I've holding it together with elastic bands just now - I think that the solder on the holding catch has come away, and probably can't be mended. So I need to look out for a "spares or repair" Jsolette on eBay.
The flash is firing, but I won't know if it's been synching, of course, until I dev the test roll tonight.
It feels very good in the hand. It's very similar in design to the Kodak 66, but feels slightly more compact and lighter.
And a stupid thing I was doing: I noticed that changing the shutter speeds had the mechanism making the sound old clockworks make when you're turning them the wrong way... And then I noticed that they don't make that noise if you haven't cocked the shutter... And then I realised, it's a stupid thing to do, and might damage the mechanism, if you change the shutter speeds after cocking the mechanism. So a numpty learned a lesson.
I won't know until I've done half a dozen rolls with it, but this feels like the start of a beautiful friendship. All of the Leica gear: lenses, filters, the IIIf body, is going on eBay next week.
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