I mentioned my  brief  experiment using a roll of expired film --- Fuji Velvia 50 transparency---  here on the Leica poetics blog. Though the results were pretty ordinary, if not largely  disappointing,  I've  decided to continue with the expired film experiment.

I've been gifted  with more  expired Velvia 50 in both 35mm and 120 formats.  I had hoped to use  the Rolleifex 6006 for the 120 film,  but it is not working, despite a newly packed  battery. The electronics are the problem by all accounts, and it needs to go overseas to be repaired as  nobody in Australia  is willing to, or capable of  repairing  it. That's expensive,  so I will  continue  the experiment  in the short term  with the expired 35mm Velvia 50. 

I recently  acquired, courtesy of  Brett Rogers in Moleswoth, Tasmania,   a Zeiss Ikon Contaflex Super  SLR camera with a standard 50mm Tessar lens, leaf shutter and   coupled selenium light meter, along with filters,  lenshood and a  camera bag plus  the loan of 35mm and 85mm lenses  to use with the 35mm Velvia 50.  The Zeiss Ikon Contaflex  SLR, which  was manufactured by Zeiss-Ikon AG in Stuttgart, West Germany between the years 1959 and 1962, is what's known as a vintage camera.    Mike Eckman has a very informative account of the  post war history  of both the Contaflex and the Zeiss-Ikon company.   Zeiss today is a high end lens manufacturer.

This history indicates that I have stepped back into the subculture of collectors and vintage cameras  with  its nostalgia, archives,  museum  and memories --- often to the extent of living off its  remembered inheritance and history. It  is a step back into past times  so as to  use a quality vintage, mechanical camera  in the present with expired film.  This requires  that you have  access to skilled technicians,  like Brett Rogers,  who have the knowledge and expertise to  repair these antique cameras, restore them back to life, then to look after and service them with tender loving care.    

So the experiment will start with  the expired  35mm Velvia 50 and the old world  Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex SLR.  This will be take a while to kickstart as the Contaflex is yet to arrive, the film needs to be  exposed, then developed by a lab and  scanned by me. I'll post the images  on this blog, even though it lacks  a photo gallery facility or plugin. 

 The  two photos on this post are from the original roll of expired Velvia 50 that were  made with a Leica M4-P rangefinder. Looking at them I can see that the film needs to be rated at 32  instead of 50 ASA so as to increase the shadow detail.  They provide a starting point. The photos in the next post  will be those made with the Contaflex.  

 There is a lot of photographic history behind  the Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex.  The pre-WW 11 history of Zeiss-Ikon and its medium format folding cameras  is here. After World War II, Zeiss-Ikon was  split into separate West German and East German divisions.  The East German version of the company  remained in Dresden whilst the West German version of the company continued to use the Zeiss-Ikon name as Zeiss-Ikon AG Stuttgart. It merged  with Voigtländer in 1965, camera   production ceased in 1972, and  what remained was purchased by Rolleiflex who  went into  bankruptcy   around 2014-15.  A Zeiss-Ikon  ZI rangefinder, manufactured by Cosina in Japan,  resurfaced between 2005-12. It would have  been a success in 2024.  

The photography industry had seen  a huge change in the 1950s with the rise of the Japanese camera industry and professional photographer’s growing shift from rangefinders to single lens reflex cameras. If the Germans had dominated the rangefinder series before and after the war with cameras  like the Leica II/III and Zeiss Contax series, the Japanese created the new single lens reflex (SLR) market  and the Germans found themselves having to play catch up to the excellent designs that the Japanese were manufacturing.  

The Germans  weren't able to,  given the relative unreliability of the leaf shutter design. Even  the  newly designed  Leica's   SLR Leicaflex  couldn't catch up to the Japanese.   By the 1970s the Japanese SLR's (eg., Canon, Pentax  and Nikon) ruled  the camera world of professional photography. This continued into the digital era that emerged in the 21st century. 

Though the consensus is that the Germans (Voigtländer, Zeiss-Ikon, Rollei,  Leica) made the finest lenses and wrapped them in well-designed, nearly indestructible bodies,  and so are much sought after by collectors, the Contaflex SLR is not a popular,  or a highly sought after vintage camera.  I gather this has partly to do with the unreliability of the leaf shutter design. Leica's SLR's, in contrast  with their  excellent Leica R lenses,   are expensive, even though this camera series was seen as a failure by the market.