A 1950s Mirrorless camera!

 

 

A new mirrorless camera - they're all the rage I gather. An Ebay find for the price of a very small round of drinks down the pub. 

 

It's a late 1950s Zeiss Ikon Signal Nettar 518/16 folding camera previously owned by some chap on the Isle of Lewis somewhere near The North Pole. Everything appears to work as it should, so it will be fun to pop some 120 format Ilford HP5 roll-film through it. Those 6 x 6cm negatives are lovely to scan marrying the film era with the digital era. 

 

The 3 element triplet lens will render the out of focus backgrounds (geek speak known as 'bokeh') with a delightful circular swirl - something which is very 'now' over 60 years after the camera was made.

I find modern digital cameras, whilst excellent and vital for commercial photography, they're utterly charmless, sadly being disposable items. But these old cameras have a far greater longevity if looked after. 

 

When this camera was made, Rock and Roll was in the hit parade, Lonnie Donegan and skiffle was just hanging in there, spandex has yet to be invented, and you could still travel by steam train to the middle of nowhere and watch Pathe News down the local flea pit.