Konica Z-up 80 RC (I)

The "Z-up 80 RC Limited Super Zoom High Precision Autofocus Camera" has a name that is very much longer than the zoom range of only 40-80mm. But the list of built-in features could be longer than the name. The camera seems to be a boy´s dream come true. On every side of the body there are some gimmicks to play with:



On the top you find the illuminating window for the finder rightlines on the left, the main switch and the shutter release on the right. In the middle the popup flash is placed.



Left side, zoom at 40mm.



Left side, lens fully zoomed out at 80mm. The flash zooms with the lens. Lower on the body there is the opening switch for the back.



On the bottom you find the battery door, the tripod mount and a little gizmo named "TILT". Flip it out and the camera is tilted upward ( approx. 20 degrees) when placed on a flat surface.



On the right side of the body there is the bulky handgrip, that contains the battery (2CR5 Lithium). Push the point of the grip that is marked "PUSH" and the remote pops out. On the side there is also the strap lug.



The back is the control station of the Z-up.
Top left the adjustable finder. Top right the zoom switch and the remote sensor. Under the finder the film cartridge window is placed. In the middle you find the big display for all the camera functions: frame counter, battery status, flash mode/+1,5EV backlight function; drive modes S, C, selftimer, remote; the modes for date imprint and setting the date/time. ME for multiexposures (up to 37 exposures on one frame!), TE for longtime exposures (max. 99h, 59m, 59s!!) and the INT mode for interval timing (max. 37 frames with a delay of 99h, 59m, 59s between each frame!!!)





On the front you see the lens, that has a orbicular cover, the front remote sensor, the finder and on the lower right the infinity switch.
The body is made of black, gold-spotted plastic, all letters are golden.











The finder shows parallax markings in red when the distance is in the macro range. Other distance marks are shown in red too. The manual is now available on butkus.org

C-41 III

I used the Tetenal Colortec 1l-kit for my first selfmade C-41. On the box they tell you that there is a maximum of 10-16 films
(135) that can be developed. I used it for 29 films with no noticeable (for me!) falloff in quality. The working solution was used from 10th september until 30th october. It was stored in my bathroom, I did not squeeze the air out of the bottles!







The pictures were taken with the Pentax PC35AF:

Rolleimat AF

The Rolleimat AF has all the features the Rollei 35 doesn´t. Its fully automatic including a AF with focus lock and it has a built in flash. But it has nothing of the 35´s charm! Its feel is a little bit crappy and lightweight especially when used parallel with the 35. The pictures are sharp and the AF is mostly spot on.

Rollei 35 (I)

The Rollei 35 is so cute!
Such a little camera and so heavy. All manual, no battery needed (except of the meter- but who needs it)
My Rollei is the Singapore model with Tessar. The Compur shutter is smooth through all speeds, which is very enjoyable, body and lens are fine and the fact that many people sell those cuties to buy crappy digitals made the price very affordable!

FED 3

Another rangefinder from the FSU. Its bigger than my Zorki 1, but has the full speed range from 1s - 1/500s. The mounted
I-61 is not the L/D version, but gives really sharp pictures which seem to have nicer oof areas than the L/D version. The takeup spool broke when changing film the first time, but fortunately the Zorki´s spool fits in. The shutter cloth is still light-tight, but the speed dial was twisted and had to be brought in the right position.






All pictures on Polypan F @ 200ASA; Rodinal 1+40, 25min

C-41 II

Some pictures on developing C-41 at home with a minimalistic setup:
I develop in my bathroom, on the top of the washing machine. The green tub is big enough to contain 3 litres of water, the three chemistry bottles and the developing tank. I fill in 1,5 litres cold water and then add 1,5 litres boiling water, which gives enough heat to bring the developer to a temperature of ca. 38 degrees C.



Heating up the tank by filling in warm water and putting it in the tub.





After filling in the developer I lay the tank in the warm water and rotate it manually during the developing time. Before filling in the developer I check the temperature and increase the developing time when the temperature below 38 degrees C.
Note: This is not recommended by the manual and I cant say whether it will work for others!
The manual rotation is repeated for the bleach bath and the stabilization bath.



Between bleach and stabilization the watering is done under running warm water with different water changes.



Done. The tub is from IKEA and costs ca. 5,-EUR. The tank was bought on the fleamarket for 2,-EUR. The three bottles were 10,-EUR, the jugs are household ware for 1,-EUR each. Most of the equipment was used before for developing B&W and the thermometer was a gift.

Some pictures:
(Camera was the Nikon TW 2 AF, film was a 200ASA drugstore brand)

35mm

Kiev 4A with Jupiter-12 2,8/35mm and Altix-finder and
Zorki 1e with Leitz Summaron 35mm/3,5 and Leitz VIOOH finder.

C-41 I

Self developing color films as a step to be independent of professional labs is not as difficult as I thought.
I used the Tetenal Colortec C-41 kit with three baths and a Jobo 2400 tank.











The camera was the Lomo LC-A

Konica FS-1

Introduced in 1979 the FS-1 was the first SLR with integrated electronic winder for the film advance. I really like the fact that the rewind has to be done manually, which saves energy and is much less disturbing than a electrical rewind.
The energy comes from four AA-cells in the handgrip. The FS-1 has (Konica-typical) a speed-priority AE. The finder only shows the aperture, not the selected speed. The motor is surprisingly quiet, especially compared to my Canon T70, which is several years younger.
I bought my model in a kit with the 40mm/1,8, the 28mm/3,5 and a Soligor telezoom. The Hexanons are extremely sharp and distortion-free lenses and fun to use, the cameras seals had to be replaced (as usual!).