Camera Choices

Yesterday I picked up two cameras from the repair shop of Mr. Picopoulos in Lekka street in the center of Athens. There's the Canon "New F-1" handed down from my daddy. It had needed a general service, with some of the rubber seals replaced (they had turned into goo), some spring was broken behind the mirror mechanism (which resulted in the focus distance in the viewer being wrong) and the battery contact spring mechanism was gooed up. It currently sits next to me with a test film inside.

Then there is the Firstflex. This is a japanese copy of the Rolleicord from the 1950s. It's a twin-lens-reflex medium format camera (6x6cm negative format). I've bought it in 1986 or so... from the father of Mr. Picopoulos who serviced it now. The mirror was oxidized and got replaced, the shutter and the rest of the camera serviced. This morning as I saw it sitting there at home, I had a flashback... for one or two seconds I felt like I was at home in Kolonaki, back in the 80s, with the early morning sun and all. I couldn't recall the feeling any more even 5 seconds later, but it was very strong.

I will now run a test film (a Fuji Reala 100, color neg) through the F-1 to make sure everything works. On Saturday I'll take some pictures at a friend's friend's wedding and I want to make sure the camera is really ok. I guess it is, because even back in Switzerland I had done a film that turned out fine (by guessing and setting focus distance using the DOF-scale and wedging a piece of aluminium foil on the battery contact).