Week 37 – The Wirgin Edixa Reflex
I think Russell must have read my mind, in recent weeks I
had felt a little flat with the direction the challenge was taking, I wanted to
push my own skills forward while experiencing some great fun cameras, which was
lacking recently in the skills. I think I got that this week with the Edixa. A
late 1950s German SLR, built like a tank and similarly weighted this angular
black and silver chunk of metal felt trustworthy. Along with the standard
Cassar f2.8 50mm lens I got a set of m42 extension tubes, a Sunagor 70-200mm zoom
with both eye line prism and waistline view finders. My trusty tripod, a yellow
filter and hood with a roll of HP5+ and Kodak 200 I was set!
The HP5 was loaded immediately and I worked a few frames on
the way home. The advance sounded sweet and the trigger button on the front
felt right with a really useful sliding locking switch alongside. The following
day I had a few free hours to play so packed up the whole lot and visited Mutton
Cove one of my favoured haunts when I want to concentrate. I had a lot of fun
and learned a lot! I have played with extension tubes a bit on digital but with
film it was new, I didn’t get drawn into stacking all of them trying to see my
reflection in a fly’s eye, instead I sampled the shorter ones keeping it
sensible. Zoomy stuff is kind of new to me too, I don’t own one. I shot one at
frame with the 50 on the tripod then screwed the fully extended 200 on a
repeated the shot. I know which I prefer, see what you think? Like the tubes it
isn’t necessary to whack on 200mm all the time I found it useful at the lower
distances too. All in all a very
satisfying shoot, nice solid results with just about ½ a stop over exposure
probably due to a little curtain lag on the focal plane shutter.
I loaded the Kodak for the weekend with the intension of
underexposing to compensate for the lag. I got that bit right, but that was
about all! I did everything, macro, zoom, street you name I tried it! I just
couldn’t visualise the images. I swapped viewers to try seeing differently but
nothing, I ended up stopping on 21 and winding it off…
So, I liked the camera! Loved playing with the accessories!
And while the black and white was in I felt in control, working DoF, the
composures and planning how I would process it for my taste, as soon as I put
in the colour it just fell apart. I was actually compelled to write a page of
drivel that might have made it out before this, just a few paragraphs on how I
intend to finish of the remaining weeks.
Hope you enjoy the pics, I like quite a few, and even one or
two of the colour…
