Old Film Cameras: Certo-Phot & Fed 3

Taken with Fed 3

This is going to be a long post.

I've started studying Fine art photography in open university and although I'd like to say that it's kept me busy it actually isn't that time consuming. I've just been lazy and the longer I've postponed my next post the harder it seems to be for me to begin writing it.

Summer and warm weather is here and I've spent time outside more and I've also concentrated on other things like thinking about starting things so there's my excuses. And now I'll try to get you updated with everything that's happened with my old camera hobby.

Lately I've also found myself reading obituaries. Of ordinary people who I don't know but who are/were about the same age as I am. Someone, their family member, a friend has and someone has written a proper article of them and posted it to the local newspaper. I read those. That's important. (It seems more important than doing a post to Hive.) Discovering that I'm a normal human being who might die some day. Well... you can forget the normal word. I'm a human who is stuck with the thought that it could be me. Dead. Though I don't think anyone would write an obituary and that's fine. I'm dead so I couldn't care less.

If you at some point start to wonder if I'm still alive when I again fail to post here you can always check my Instagram account. I'm not that active there either but occasionally it's easier to publish just that one photo there than write a proper post here.

But now I'm here. With a looooooooong post about 2 old cameras.

Actually I might not be here anymore when you read this post because you reading this post could be an hour, a day, a week after I published this so I'm here at my now but not when it's your now and obviously that might not be the same thing as you probably are not at my Hive page refreshing it every 3 seconds so that you see my post almost instantly after it emerges to the blockchain and this makes my brain cells hurt and I think my head will melt and perhaps I soon won't be anywhere anymore if my brain runs out of my ears and nose and my cats are like: "Goodie! Something new to lick from the floor!"

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Certo-Phot - Fomapan 200

https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/Certo_Phot

I guess we can assume that Heikki Hilden from Kämmenniemi (part of Tampere) Finland owned this camera at some point before me.

I bought this camera October last year and the photos with this camera were also taken last year but as I already stated, I'm lazy and thought that I will publish the photos some other day, perhaps tomorrow. Also the photos aren't that great so I wasn't that eager to show you the results. But guess what?! It's tomorrow now! It's now and it's tomorrow at the same time! Not confusing at all.

Heikki probably is the person responsible of the P scratch mark near the 8 aperture number.
I'm thinking of words that start with the letter P that could explain this.
pilvinen = cloudy?
No, that can't be it although there's a K beside the number 11 that could mean kirkas = bright but I'm sure that's not it, it must be kamala = awful or kakka = poo, so what could the P mean...
paikka = place (hmmm)
passeli = suitable (no)
paras = best (no way man)
perse = ass (could be)
paska = shit (we found a winner)
Must be either one of the last two words because those describe this camera the best which would also explain my logic of the meaning of the letter K. Kamalan kakka kamera. Awfully pooey camera. So it doesn't matter which aperture you choose, the result is always awfully shitty.

I actually love the fact that few of the cameras I find have something personal in them. Marks from it's previous owner.

A simple camera in fairly good condition.

I don't have that high hopes of this cameras abilities so in went a cheap film.

As usual I've done nothing to the photos. Few of them might be better if post-processed but as I want to show you what kind of results does this camera and this film give in different conditions, I've left them as they are and I'll show you the photos with all of mine and the cameras flaws in the pictures.

Facing the sun should show me everything I need to know. That circle. Those little vertical lines that look like a locust swarm but isn't. It's not dirt either because I did clean the camera and the lens. It is what it is as the camera is old.

The first photo is from Tampere and the second one from Turku. The soft focus isn't the cameras fault. It's mine. In the first photo I should have put the focus to infinity so that the image on the mirror would have been sharp, not the mirror frames. But since the photo isn't that grand to begin with, I think in the end it doesn't matter. In the second photo I think I couldn't keep the camera still so nothing is sharp. But could have been an ok photo. No light circles here.

These last two photos are from the railway station in Turku and near the station. Not much more to say about the photos. Kinda cool if you like light circles.

What did all this cost me?
Certo-Phot: 10€
Fomapan 200: 5,50€
Film developing: 17,90€
Film scanning to TIFF: 20€

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Fed 3 - Washi Z 400

https://camerapedia.fandom.com/wiki/FED-3

Glue here, glue there, glue on my camera, glue on my fingertips. Glue, glue, glue, fed, fed, fed.

I wanted to be able to take indoor photos too so I chose ISO 400. Film Washi reuses film cassettes and I think I can see Fujifilm colors underneath the Washi sticker.

Fed 3 is a pretty heavy camera for it's size, I guess it's made out of solid metal. Someone has dropped it at some point since the lens was a bit damaged. The focus ring is almost stuck and the colder the weather the harder it is to focus without screwing the lens off. But as I'm not that keen on opening lenses I tried to manage with the stiff focus and after the first roll think again about opening the lens.

After taking the photos and inspecting the lens further I came to the conclusion that the lens has fungus on it.

Damn.

Now I have to open the lens to prevent the fungus from spreading.

Phone lamp under the lens and photos with my Sony and Laowa macro lens.

Yep. Fungus, dust and scratches. Fungus and dust inside the lens. Great.

"Hello tiny civilization! I mean you no harm! (except if you don't go away and vanish) How are you doing? Do you have airplanes? Rockets? Are you thinking of spreading or moving? Oh you don't? You think of me as your god? Okay! Then I command you to... to... to ascend to heavens by digesting something like... hydrogen peroxide! What? No I didn't command you to built me statues or worshiping places, I told you to di... ascend to heavens! Oh for gods... FOR MY SAKE!"

As usual I've done nothing to the photos. Few of them might be better if post-processed but as I want to show you what kind of results does this camera and this film give in different conditions, I've left them as they are and I'll show you the photos with all of mine and the cameras flaws in the pictures.

Fungus and light leaks. The fungus gives a little bit of softness to the photos. Or the old lens and the scratches. Also the fact that 400 ISO does not get you that far indoors, you still have to use shutter speed 1/30 and if you're lucky 1/60 which may not give you shaky photos if the speed still truly is 1/60 after all these years.

Tampere Kuplii comics festival.

Sometimes the fungus and the light leak fit the photo perfectly.

Sometimes the entities inside the camera add their own stories to the photos. It's like they're trying to communicate with the outside world.

On other occasions the tiny things inside the camera are just irritating. Go away light creature!

Think about it.

Our civilization is an irritating fungus to someone else.

Fungus theory.

Then again I don't believe that because I've seen The Last of Us. We aren't as resilient as true fungus is. No-one in the universe is irritated by us humans because they don't even know we exist. And I think that's a good thing. And no, this is not the fungus speaking. This is me, Insane. I've isolated the fungus in the lens and probably killed it with hydrogen peroxide which I poured in to the lens. Now the lens is worse. It's cloudy and filled with (dead?) fungus dust. But at least the civilization isn't spreading. I'll open the lens later and clean it when I get the proper equipment for it. Tomorrow.

_{Fungus over and out.}

What did all this cost me?
Fed 3: 14,50€
Washi 400: 9,90€
Film developing: 14,90€
Film scanning to TIFF: 10€

---

_{Film cameras
Baby Brownie 1
Balda-Bünde Baldixette 1
Bilora Bella 66 1
Bilora Bella 66 Standard 1
Closter C63 1
Coronet D-20 1, 2
Cosina Flash 35E 1, 2, 3, 4
Dacora Daci 1
Felica 1, 2, 3, 4
Halina Paulette EE II 1
Kodak Box 620 1, 2
Kodak Brownie Six-20 Model C 1
Lubitel 2 1
Voigtländer Bessa 66 1
Yashica 44 LM 1
ZIAG Colora F 1, 2}

_{Films (b&w)
Adox CMS 20 II Pro 1, Adox HR-50 1, Adox CHS 100 II 1, Fomapan 100 1, Fomapan 400 1, 2, Gevaert Gevapan 1, 2, Ilford PanF Plus 50 1, Ilford Delta 100 1, Ilford Delta 400 1, Ilford XP2 Super 400 1, Ilford Delta 3200 1, Lomography Fantôme 8 1, Rera Pan 400 1, Retropan soft 320 1, Rollei Retro 400S 1, Rollei RPX 400 1}

_{Films (color)
Fujifilm 200 1, Kodak Gold 200 color 1, 2, 3}

_{Digital cameras
Sony A6400, 16-50mm 1
Sony A6400, Laowa 25mm f2.8 1
Comparison: Sony A6400, Canon EOS 550D, Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7, Sony Cyber-shot DSC-P32, Canon PowerShot A550 1, 2}