Hexacon

Well, the note says start with a first post, so here goes.
First, this is NOT a solicitation to buy.

Second, I am looking to find, cheap, a specific camera, and do not know where to start.
Back in the early 1960's, I was a high school annual staff photographer.

I had, for my daily use, a Hexacon with a British lens. The Hexacon label was glued on, not rivetted. We pried it off one day, and someone had used a dremel-like tool to grind off the identifiers, except we could see "east Germany" at the bottom.

Horrible camera for candid shots in classrooms, as the moving shutter would wake the dead, and with the Brit lense, when you were on the ski slopes doing shots for the annual, F-22 racked it to a pinhole, and you had to sight over the top of the camera.

Got added to with what I think I remember as a Minolta SR-1, with an additional telephoto, and a Rollie.

Now that I am retired, actually disabled/retired, I would like to have a Hexacon like the one I had.
I no longer have access to a darkroom, cannot "roll my own" film, don't have trays of developer and hypo fixer (did I remember that right?), nor enlarger, so operational may not be necessary, but anyone know where I can find such a thing?

I don't do e-bay (hard anymore to see the screens), so anyone have any ideas, please let me know.

Thanks a lot.

Dave

On 6/4/2011 21:28, TOC wrote:
Well, the note says start with a first post, so here goes.
First, this is NOT a solicitation to buy.

Second, I am looking to find, cheap, a specific camera, and do not know
where to start.
Back in the early 1960's, I was a high school annual staff
photographer.

I had, for my daily use, a Hexacon with a British lens. The Hexacon
label was glued on, not rivetted. We pried it off one day, and someone
had used a dremel-like tool to grind off the identifiers, except we
could see "east Germany" at the bottom.


O.K. Taking it at face value, did the lens have a screw or a bayonet mount?

What was the british lens?

Wind lever or knob advance?

Did the mirror return instantly or did the viewfinder remain dark after
the picture=

Did it have a pentaprism or a waist level viewfinder?

To change the shutter speeds, did you have to pull the speed dial up first?


Google the Practika FX: it was common and often re-branded....

On Sat, 4 Jun 2011 19:28:53 +0000, TOC
wrote:


Well, the note says start with a first post, so here goes.
First, this is NOT a solicitation to buy.

Second, I am looking to find, cheap, a specific camera, and do not know
where to start.
Back in the early 1960's, I was a high school annual staff
photographer.

I had, for my daily use, a Hexacon with a British lens. The Hexacon
label was glued on, not rivetted. We pried it off one day, and someone
had used a dremel-like tool to grind off the identifiers, except we
could see "east Germany" at the bottom.

Apparently the camera is essentially a Contax D. See
http://captjack.exaktaphile.com/prak...%20Cameras.htm

Horrible camera for candid shots in classrooms, as the moving shutter
would wake the dead, and with the Brit lense, when you were on the ski
slopes doing shots for the annual, F-22 racked it to a pinhole, and you
had to sight over the top of the camera.

Got added to with what I think I remember as a Minolta SR-1, with an
additional telephoto, and a Rollie.

Now that I am retired, actually disabled/retired, I would like to have a
Hexacon like the one I had.
I no longer have access to a darkroom, cannot "roll my own" film, don't
have trays of developer and hypo fixer (did I remember that right?), nor
enlarger, so operational may not be necessary, but anyone know where I
can find such a thing?

I don't do e-bay (hard anymore to see the screens), so anyone have any
ideas, please let me know.

Thanks a lot.

Dave

Regards,

Eric Stevens

Originally Posted by Rol_Lei Nut

On 6/4/2011 21:28, TOC wrote:
Well, the note says start with a first post, so here goes.
First, this is NOT a solicitation to buy.

Second, I am looking to find, cheap, a specific camera, and do not know
where to start.
Back in the early 1960's, I was a high school annual staff
photographer.

I had, for my daily use, a Hexacon with a British lens. The Hexacon
label was glued on, not rivetted. We pried it off one day, and someone
had used a dremel-like tool to grind off the identifiers, except we
could see "east Germany" at the bottom.


O.K. Taking it at face value, did the lens have a screw or a bayonet mount?

Near as I can recall, bayonet. Remember, it's been 45 years since I had it in my hands.

What was the british lens?

Just remember British, and how odd for an East German Camera (height of the Cold War in 1966) to have such.

Wind lever or knob advance?

I always thought lever, but might be remembering the Minolta. All the photos I've found on-line show knob.

Did the mirror return instantly or did the viewfinder remain dark after
the picture=

Hmmm. Seem to recall it cam right back, and you had as much light through the viewfinder as the iris was allowing. It viewed the iris at the F stop setting (geez, I even remembered that!) and did NOT give you full, clear view, racking the iris down to the pre-set F-stop, then after the shutter travelled, popped the iris back open. The Minolta did that, and I was amazed.
The only camera I ever used before the Hexacon was a Kodak Brownie.

Did it have a pentaprism or a waist level viewfinder?

Pentaprism. The Rollieflex that came later was waist-level.

To change the shutter speeds, did you have to pull the speed dial up first?

Seem to recall it was somewhat convoluted to set, so could be pull up.
I learned to bracket the shots with that camera, using my cord carried light meter, took three shots with different speeds, another three with different F stop, and when I developed (black and white only), learned what worked better.
I would go home on Fridays with camers, strobe, light meter, and at least 10 rolls of film, Monday morning, all rolls fully exposed.
Lots of stuff to shoot on the backside of the Sierras.


Google the Practika FX: it was common and often re-branded....

I think I did that right, answering in place. Can't figure out yet how to show the answer, but I'll figure it out! Thanks!

On 6/5/2011 6:50, TOC wrote:
Rol_Lei Nut;921025 Wrote:
On 6/4/2011 21:28, TOC wrote:-
Well, the note says start with a first post, so here goes.
First, this is NOT a solicitation to buy.

Second, I am looking to find, cheap, a specific camera, and do not
know
where to start.
Back in the early 1960's, I was a high school annual staff
photographer.

I had, for my daily use, a Hexacon with a British lens. The Hexacon
label was glued on, not rivetted. We pried it off one day, and someone
had used a dremel-like tool to grind off the identifiers, except we
could see "east Germany" at the bottom.
-

O.K. Taking it at face value, did the lens have a screw or a bayonet
mount?

Near as I can recall, bayonet. Remember, it's been 45 years since I had
it in my hands.

What was the british lens?

Just remember British, and how odd for an East German Camera (height of
the Cold War in 1966) to have such.

Wind lever or knob advance?

I always thought lever, but might be remembering the Minolta. All the
photos I've found on-line show knob.

Did the mirror return instantly or did the viewfinder remain dark after

the picture=

Hmmm. Seem to recall it cam right back, and you had as much light
through the viewfinder as the iris was allowing. It viewed the iris at
the F stop setting (geez, I even remembered that!) and did NOT give you
full, clear view, racking the iris down to the pre-set F-stop, then
after the shutter travelled, popped the iris back open. The Minolta did
that, and I was amazed.
The only camera I ever used before the Hexacon was a Kodak Brownie.

Did it have a pentaprism or a waist level viewfinder?

Pentaprism. The Rollieflex that came later was waist-level.

To change the shutter speeds, did you have to pull the speed dial up
first?

Seem to recall it was somewhat convoluted to set, so could be pull up.
I learned to bracket the shots with that camera, using my cord carried
light meter, took three shots with different speeds, another three with
different F stop, and when I developed (black and white only), learned
what worked better.
I would go home on Fridays with camers, strobe, light meter, and at
least 10 rolls of film, Monday morning, all rolls fully exposed.
Lots of stuff to shoot on the backside of the Sierras.


Google the Practika FX: it was common and often re-branded....

I think I did that right, answering in place. Can't figure out yet how
to show the answer, but I'll figure it out! Thanks!


It could have been a Contax D, as per the other post/link, though it's
likely that several Praktica/Contax models got re-branded by Hexacon.

I've seen Praktica FX's re-branded in several ways (sometimes even with
cardboard name plates!)

On 2011-06-17 17:07 , Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember
saying something like:

I no longer have access to a darkroom, cannot "roll my own" film, don't
have trays of developer and hypo fixer (did I remember that right?), nor
enlarger, so operational may not be necessary, but anyone know where I
can find such a thing?

You don't need an actual darkroom nowadays.
All I do is load film in a changing bag to a daylight reel tank and
process in normal room light. Scan the negs in a suitable desktop
scanner and then invert them in the pc; simple.

No need to "invert" them. The scanner s/w has settings for B&W, color
negative and slide films - just select the right one.

--
gmail originated posts filtered due to spam.