I picked up 2 Paxettes initially for their look, but what made me fall in luv with it is that it's built in Nuremburg, where the trials against humanity were held post WWII. The occupied Germany was full of troops looking to send pictures home. The 135mm lens is pure joy to look at.

Nice little camera. I have one very similar. An Agfa Super Stilette. Nice street photography camera or as an every day carry.📷📸

My favourite film camera by far is my Kodak Retinette, always a conversation starter!

Nice Roger and thanks for sharing

Excellent video full of great advice and good ideas. These cameras are like little gems.

I’m of the same vintage as these cameras, 1953. I’ve collected a few of these including folders. It’s quite enjoyable to take one out every once in a while and give it some exercise. Thanks for the video.

Yay! Scooters and old cameras. My two favourite things. I do have a Zeiss Ikon Contina, but it's jammed solid. I have had great fun recently though shooting a couple of old Ilford Sportsman cameras. Got some good results as well.

Great video, Roger! I really like those german compacts from the 50s and 60s. High quality cameras that are great fun to use. I prefer to use 100 ISO film and do the settings individually for each frame, most of the time, though.

Great video - I have my Dad's Afga Silette from the late 1950s: it took pictures of my childhood and I'm hoping it'll take a few pictures of my grandchildren one day...

I love mechanical rangefinder/viewfinders. There are some gems out there. I only started shooting film a few years ago and my first rangefinder was an AGFA Sillette I found in a charity shop. I got some really nice photos from it and still use it occasionally.

Thank you for another fun video. This is probably my favourite type of analog camera. They are enjoyable to use, keeps the cost down and the images have some character. Your images turned out really well.

Love those vintage cameras! One of my favourites is my Ilford Sportsman Rangefinder. I've had it for decades. Given to me when I was 9 by a stallholder at an antique fayre when someone knocked it off the table and tried to blame me.It always had a 'sticky' shutter and the rangefinder didn't work, but I had it repaired (finally) about a year ago and its as good as new now! Only taken nearly 40 years!

I have a Werra III (the one with the rangefinder) and it's my go-to camera when I don't want to lug something big and heavy with me. Werra also has that coupled shutter/aperture setting you described at 5:25.

Great print!

Nice work Roger

I have one of those Zeiss Ikon Contina's, in mint condition. came in its original box, along with leather case, accessory clip on rangefinder and instructions. was well worth the $50 Australian I paid for it at an antique shop in South Australia where I live. 🙂

i have a few cameras of this type, they are usually very solid build and deliver good pictures

Some of these have marking that indicate the available depth of field depending on your settings something you dont really see these days. The really basic ones use weather symbols alongside aperture and would teach you the basics very quickly (sunny 16 etc)

Great video, Roger. Yep, great composition on that scooter. KB

Great video! I Have a couple of these cameras sitting on my shelf might have to give them a shoot.

The Zeiss Icon Contina was my first ever serious 35mm film camera that introduced me to photography. My grandfather gave me and I still love a full manual and you learn the fundamental speed/aperture/focus or you are busted.

i have several - just been around with a VITO CLR-- the 'Lanthar' lens is really SHARP ! ALSO it synchs with FLASH at fast speeds so I can put a small 'Sunpak' on top just right for fill-in flash in bright contrasty light

1950's 35mm cameras are very underrated! I have used everything from 1910's folding cameras to 1990's DSLR's but I always come back to my 1958 AGFA Sillet IK. Cheap, reliable easy to carry around so it is the best film camera I have ever used. Just recently I bought a 1950 Graflex 35mm so there are still plenty of them around for low prices!

Great video! I have several cameras from this era and only one is functional. Two have seized shutters but the Olympus 35- SII rangefinder works well except that the high shutter speeds seem slow. However, this camera produces images that are so nice and just have a character unlike the SLRs and DSLRs that I own. I think your method of setting a zone for street photography is super and I think I will use it even with the rangefinder to save time.

Great video again thanks Your right old cameras the way to go when I left school In 1969 I got a job repairing Cameras at Wallace heaton In Bond Street London Now retired i can’t stop buying all those old ones I used to repair I’ve got over 40 now all serviced and working trouble now is what one to use 😆📸📸🎞

Nice images! You're inspiring me to dig up a Contaflex that I picked up for $10 at an electronics surplus store many years ago. They thought it was broken, and as far as I could tell, it was fine, but I have yet to put a roll of film through it!

These types of cameras are very under-rated. I have 5 cameras like these and they all work great. 2 Kodak Pony IV (one has a sticky shutter), an Agfa Optima 1A which has a selenium meter and auto exposure, A Voightlander Vitomatic I with a selenium meter, manual exposure, and finally a Leidolf Wetzlar Optina 24x36 which is like the Pony having no meter.

Great video Roger. I have a Zeiss Ikon Contina with a light meter and a 45mm f2.8 Pantar lens. Its mint condition and wonderful to use. Your video shows

I've been wanting to pick up something like this for some time. Sure look like a ton of fun! I've got other things I should probably spend my pennies on for the moment ;) but I love these videos as they keep reminding me I need to add these to my list for when I have a case of GAS :)

Very Good! A broad spectrum video, showing the warts and all, which is nice, as it lets people realise that there are cheaper approaches that are fun. DG I’m surprised there isn’t a camera shop and or a community developing place on the old diamond of an island. DG

I have the Werra lovely little camera, I have a few more that I have to try yet😂

I have a Kodak Retina IIa I picked up from a flea market for like $30, and it's def my favorite camera. Range finder, no battery to worry about (I have a meter or my phone) and just feels a million bucks

I love these little fixed lens cameras, compact with full controls. My personal favorite right now is a voigtlander vito that I bought for 20 dollars on ebay and repaired making it a very compact and wonderful little camera!

Definitely an underappreciated era of cameras. 100% agree people should be exploring them, especially as the prices of the "must-have" cameras are getting ridiculous.

Great video, as always, great photos. I always tear the leader so I know that it is exposed & leave the leader out for easy loading of the reels. I load the the starter of the roll of 35mm in the light before I put in the changing bag. Makes it much easier with no loss of frames.

Those old cameras are great fun. Got a great deal looking at the ads in my local Sainburys, got an OM10 with 50mm 1.4 for £28.

I've been loving my Kodak #1a jr point and pray camera (circa 1920) lots of fun. I call it point and pray as you have to guess the settings then just point it in the general direction of the shot. Then to actually develop the image without over/underexposing or having light leaks and getting focus you have to pray to the photography gods. I always get lots of interest when I am using it. You can pick them up dirt cheap as well.

I have a Werra 1. A brilliant, fully manual camera, that simply delivers. There is no rangefinder in it, so I mostly use zone focusing - and I never shoot slower than 1/60 sec. Being new to manual metering and exposure the first time I shot with it, it felt so good to get back sharp well exposed images. But, I do prefer to shoot with something like a Canon EOS 300 with a 40mm f/2.8 or a 50mm f/1.8 in aperture priority.

We are the mods! 😂

Watching you in the darkroom brought back the magic and excitement that you feel when the image starts to appear in the developer. Film photography was so much more engaging and fun back in the day wasn't it? 👍

Beautiful candid photography, Roger. These old cameras are marvels of engineering. They should be saved and used. I just hope people do not buy these as speculation hoping for the prices to go up. This is exactly what happened to Hasselblads and Leicas, an dthe asking pricess are laughable now. Despite having a half dozen of these old folding cameras, I couldn't resist buying another one in an auction. Its a Zeiss Super Ikonta 531 with coupled rangefinder, a Tessar lens and a Compur Rapid shutter. The chap who sold it said everything is working as it should, and the lens is clear from haze and fungus. I hope so. I specifically got this one for doing urban photography in and around Manchester. Just fancied a 6X4.5 camera. I sold my Bronica ETRS in the early 90s. It was a full system including all accessories and I have missed the 6X4.5 format. Have a great Bank Holiday.

I have a Kodak Retinette 1a with a 45mm Schneider f3.5 lens. I has a V self timer setting which I use a lot. At F8, sharp all over. Centre is sharp a f4. 5, ideal for portraits.

I did: a fantastic Galileo Condor I from 1947 and I'm enjoying it. Be aware tho that old rangefinder cameras had silvered semi transparent mirrors that can get very dim after 70+ years and make focussing very hard

When I need to shoot candids in bright light with a low-cost 35mm film camera, I use a Minolta Hi-Matic 9 or Canon QL17, or Nikon L35.

I agree with Sophie. Anything from the day I was born to today is not old. Might add that some of the Scooter People look rough.

I have four film cameras, the most "modern" is from 1963. As a Twenty First Century purist I am extremely satisfied with the images produced with my retro cameras.

I have a few old 35mm 50s models like a Voightlander something or other an some Kodak Retina thing ...Amazing camera ... as long as you are good at zone focusing and Sunny 16, they are awesome!!! I have opened cameras with film in them because I forgot I had loaded it ... we all do it!!! C'mon, wasn't there a FORD CORTINA!!!

Thanks! I fondly remember the Werra I had as a teenager. No rangefinder or lightmeter. No colour, too expensive. Beautiful pictures and very sharp. Very easy to use quickly, if you know the basics. Winding was done by turning a ring around the lens. Wasn’t 400 ISO a bit fast for 1/300? Or did you use f16 and f22?

Scooters make good subjects. I've got a few pics of old Lambrettas and Vespas too. Bit of nostalgia as my brother was a mod in the 80s and had a Vespa hairdryer- sorry, Scooter. :D

Awesome work Roger. I have a few 50s 35mm cams ie the paxette a couple of vitos and a gorgeous Agfa silette folder so much fun to use and the results can be amazing all for very little initial outlay too. Great pix mate takes me back to my daze thinking I was the face from quadrophenia until a mob of punks got me trapped the buggers gave me a fair pasting ripped my shirt my tie mt fishtail parker then as a parting gift they pierced my ear thankfully this mob were mates of mine so they didn’t give me the full treatment 😂😂

I've got some cameras that are older and cheaper than those. My most common carry-around 35 mm is a Welta Weltini -- a very pocketable *folding* 35 mm with coupled rangefinder and f/2 Xenon lens (same lens formula that was on the later, larger and heavier Retina II and III series). Made in 1941, give or take a year. For a little more versatility, I carry a Kiev 2 (a very faithful copy of a pre-War Contax II) with a kit of three lenses -- Jupiter-3, Jupiter-12, and Jupiter-9 (50 mm f/1.5, 35 mm f/2.8 and 135 mm f/4) and a shoe-mount viewfinder. The Weltini cost about $150 and if I hadn't bought two partly working Kiev bodies first, I'd have only about $350 into that kit. The *first* 35 mm camera I owned (in 1972) was a Kodak Pony 135. I recall it costing $10 used, but at that time you could buy a roll of film for half a dollar. Same general class as the Kontina, late 1950s vintage, and I made some excellent images with that camera. Really, the only significant drawback for those cameras like the Contina and Pony is that they tend to have fairly low highest shutter speeds (1/300 on the Contina, 1/200 on the Pony), and slow lenses as well (f/3.5 is pretty common, f/2.8 less so, anything faster almost unheard of in that class of camera). Limited ability to go from bright to dim (fast film, can't avoid overexposing in bright conditions, anything slower and you can't shoot even in deep shade, never mind indoors without flash).

Just got back from finishing a roll of Silberra 160 in my Nikon N90s -- same as your F90x -- it is a great "almost DSLR" camera for me to be lazy with!!! It does all of the thinking, I just aim, compose and shoot!!! But yes -- I have my share of 1950's-60's rangefinder and viewfinder cameras. And if the mechanics are still OK, and the lens is fairly clear -- they help a photographer learn a lot more about the basics -- exposure, focus -- than the end-of-the-SLR era 35mm cameras do! I have had my share with sticky/stuck shutters, and really fungus-ee lenses, which go onto the display shelves, but there are a lot of Argus, Ansco and even Kodak (The Pony 135 Model C) models out there that can be a lot of fun and produce great results. In fact I was in Ohio (I live in Maryland) recently visiting my daughter and two grandsons, and I shot two rolls in a Sawyer's Nomad 620 camera with flashgun -- Fixed shutter speed, fixed aperture, fixed focus (I did clean the lens as best as I could), and I used a batch of M2/M3 flashbulbs indoors -- and the results were *FUN* -- not great, but they looked like family pictures from when my parents were young. And the blinking after the flashbulbs fired was fun to see. It's amazing how simple film photography can be (in terms of technology) to get an image onto the film....

Sorry if you mentioned it in the vid, but what was that light meter you were using? Looked like it could be a key chain. Very nice! Great job, as always Boss

"It's Bloody old. It's from the 1950's" Really. I'm from 1952 and I'm not bloody old. That's the problem with you kids, no respect. I have a camera that was built in 1948, now that is old. Nice video

I am the camera dump in my group. So colleagues often gift me these kind of cameras. Last thing I got was an Entona II, a Sowiet Zokol Automat and a Werra 1 is on the horizon as I buried both of these models before due to technical issues..

I think what you buy should be determined by what's comfortable, reliable, affordable and attains your desired goals.

Time for me to stop buying more bodies and use what I have lol

Those German compacts strangely are not that popular... I assume because there's no built-in rangefinder, so need to be familiar with zone focusing, yes? But on the other side... Rollei 35 is very popular. Weird... :D

what are the red and black dots on the lens on distances ?

Hello! Make a video - how to maintain the temperature for the paper developer tray? What is the temperature air in your dark room?

Back in the 70’s, I bought my first 35mm camera. A Zorki 4K. I still have it and the photos are still good . The only downside is that the shutter has jammed again.

brill rodger, i have an halina I aint used yet.

Have to say I can’t pass those up if they work. I have several 50’s era cameras myself 😊

Can you use the paxette electronica II in a video cause I have it and I dont know how to use it.....🙂

Honestly I've fallen in love with the East German/Soviet Bierette. It is very limited with only 1/30, 1/60, and 1/125 + Bulb shutter speeds so you are pretty well locked into slower films...and my example is covered in "1st Quality" marks so it's a better example than average, but damn does it feel fantastic to use. Has the most satisfying film advance I have ever used by a long shot.

People are probably far more apprehensive about the gopro on your camera than the camera itself. These zone focus cameras are awesome if you find one that works. Mine has lost its spring power a lot so the fastest speed is only 1/60th.

There is a switch, X V M, on this camera at 06:18 and other older film cameras I’ve seen. What is it?

I see plenty of those very clunky looking, very mechanical 1950s 1960s cameras going very cheap and always disregard them for fear they might not work but their simplicity is the very reason they mostly still work⚠️ I should have a go at getting one.👍 Edit- impressive scooter rally photos, turned out really well.

..yes I would buy a Vespa..with a flag on the back that says SflAB..

EV mode is pretty much the same as P or Program mode yes?

If you just wanna try analog photography I can recommend a Nikon F75. The only flaw is that it needs DX coding on the film can. But as long as you stick with Ilford and Kodak that's not an issue - and I suspect most beginner will shoot these two brands at the beginning. EDIT: aehm, I bought mine a year ago with a Sigma 28-80 lens for 35 €. I just looked at ebay and the cheapest I found was 100€. WTF is going on?!

zeiss connettar😂👍

why can't digitals be that bloody simple!...don't need or use a fraction of all the buttons and guff the bloat new stuff with

Another fantastic video. Thanks a lot, but please, thinking about some of your native non-English followers, could you speak more slowly? Edoardo (from Milan)

iPhone is better. People are so used to seeing smartphones that you can photograph them freely, not so with an analog camera... digital negatives from iPhone and darkroom printing is the solution for me.