It’s my new 127 camera. Yep. To replace my recently donated Ansco Cadet camera, I snagged a 1958 Revere Eye-Matic EE 127 rangefinder camera off eBay.
And I know you’re all looking at me and saying, “Oh geez, Chuck got yet ANOTHER camera. What does this camera do that all his others can’t?”
Well, for starters, have you seen this thing? It’s made of brushed, painted aluminum and it weighs at least two pounds. That’s not just a camera. It’s a weapon – I can throw it at a mugger and it’ll probably take a picture of the perp’s head as it impacts his noggin.
Secondly, it’s a 127 shooter. This camera will take twelve 4cmx4cm photographs on 127 “vest pocket” film, and I can get either 100 ISO efke black-and-white film or respooled 100 ISO Fuji Velvia slide film, both from B&H Photo in New York City. Plus, McGreevy Pro Lab, my film developer of choice, can dunk both types of film and make my prints for me.
Thirdly, it’s a rangefinder. A rangefinder camera provides a sharp image by aligning two different images in the viewfinder. Once the images are matched together, the subject is in focus. Plus, this camera does have several different available f-stops, from f/22 to f/2.8. I think that my old Ansco Cadet had one f-stop, which was approximately f/makesurethesunisatyerback.
So this Revere camera is going to be part of some outdoor / experimental photographs, for sure. But I needed to make sure that the camera actually worked. I ordered three rolls of 100 ISO black and white efke film from B&H Photo, and used the first roll as a test to see if the camera was still mechanically sound. Looked like it was.
I then put a fresh roll of efke in the Revere, and also put a fresh roll of 35mm 100 ISO efke in my Nikon F100 film camera, with the plan to use both cameras in simultaneous same-image tests. This was similar to my experiments last April, when I compared vintage film with fresh film. In those tests, as in these, I composed the subject in my Nikon, took the picture, noted which f-stop I used, and then used the same f-stop for the Revere.
And here’s what I assembled.
| NIKON F100 | REVERE EYE-MATIC EE-127 |
| Erastus Corning Tower, shot from the Pastures neighborhood, November 10, 2011. | |
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| To Truck Garage, photographed near Radix Center for Ecological Sustainability, Albany, N.Y., November 10, 2011. | |
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| Smiling photo of Times Union blogger Stephanie Snyder (the Professor’s Wife) and Todd Snyder (the Professor’s Wife’s Husband) at Siena College, November 12, 2011. |
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| Building 94, on Grand Street, downtown Albany, November 10, 2011. | |
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And there you have it.
First observations. I need to use a higher-numbered f/stop on this camera, a lot of the Revere pictures were over-exposed. The Revere also has some corner vignetting, I have to work with that as well. Honestly, this is the kind of image one can get with those Instagram or Hipstamatic filters – only I’m doing it the old-fashioned way. With film. And if I’m going to shoot anything in a wind gust stronger than a breeze, the Revere needs to be tripod-mounted. There shouldn’t be that much camera shake in the photo of the Snyders.
I think I can do some things with this Revere camera. Not sure what… but part of me might come up with something interesting and suitable.
And when I do… look out.
Chuck The Writer 
Great photo’s ….. BUT isn’t Todd Snyder THE Professor not the Professor’s wifes husband – LOL! Have a better day Mr Miller!!!
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CAK – I think he’s both. 😉
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A rangefinder camera provides a sharp image by aligning two different images in the viewfinder. Once the images are matched together, the subject is in focus.
With %&@#ing parallax shift, which I got a good lesson in after resealing a Ricoh 500G. Still eyeing Canonet QL17’s because of that.
The Revere also has some corner vignetting
Some!
I was wondering what was up with the photo of the couple after seeing it on flickr. Google tells me the camera has a fixed shutter speed, but history alone knows what it is… since the other photos look okay I’m guessing that was focus error, not camera shake, unless you sneezed.
I think this is also supposed to be used in automatic mode. Without knowing shutter speed how to choose aperture? Does it tell you what aperture will be used in the viewfinder on auto? If so I think manual aperture is for backdoor EV+/- or flash exposure.
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Bennett – this Revere camera is supposed to have a working selenium light meter inside. I’m guessing the selenium has lost its power over the past few decades. There is an ASA control knob on top of the camera, and I did have it set for ASA 100 to match the film.
I’m still thinking I can find a way to use the vignetting to my advantage, and getting some ideas from these test experiments. I just have to figure out the best way to do so. This may take some time.
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Hm. You should be able to approximately figure the shutter speed then with another test roll. I’m going to wildly guess it’s either 1/125th or 1/500th, so maybe shoot the F100 at 60, 125, 250, 500, and 1000 for comparison (or use digital).
Setting the aperture overrides auto metering. The selenium cell not working is likely a wiring issue, you can probably fix that. The only problem I have with the vignetting is unevenness. Stopping down will reduce it, but again with no shutter control that’s difficult at best.
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😉 😉 😉
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The husband of the professor’s wife’s wife. er… something like that! My mom has a collection of old B/W photos in wrought iron frames, arranged on an antique buffet. The photos (all originals) are of her grandparents and my step-dad’s parents, and I’ve always said they have a creepiness to them – but in a good way. “Mom, your grandma is staring at me again!” Anyway, my Mom noted that our photo “looks like something from the 50’s!” And I said…
“it IS!”
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You notice the price in that ad? $139 was serious money in 1959… http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=139&year1=1959&year2=2011
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Have you looked at new camera prices lately, Rob? 😉
Yep, you can see in the ad, it was marketed toward the “serious amateur”, and not wrongly, Wollensak made excellent lenses that are still in demand for large format (though that may be due more to the even better quality of their shutters). Compare to something current, like, say, the Canon 60D, marketed with professional build quality, professional output, and fully automatic ease of use. The 60D currently retails for… ~$1100. Plus ça change…
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@B Interesting… a better viewfinder camera than I thought.
Me? I miss my Miranda Sensorex II, stolen from my car with its 28/2.8 lens. It was probably worth $300 with the lens when new in 1972 — and today would have value only to me and a few other people. Certainly none to the person who swiped it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mwhanlon/2615569907/
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Hah, that is very cool… I’ve come across a lot of Miranda lenses but have never seen that camera, or any with interchangeable prism boxes like that. Yes I spend too much time on eBay.
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