The Zenith Comet
The Zenith Comet is a 1940's camera - now considered an "art deco" camera - composed primarily of bakelite and with some simple, yet interesting, functionality.
There is not anything very fancy about this camera, but it does have a couple neat features. First, the lens is a simple one element mechanism, but it does have two aperture sizes - f16 and f11, labelled as "Bright" and "Dull" respectively. It also has two shutter speeds: instant, and bulb. The dial at the 3:00 position on the camera front is a shutter advance feature; until that is advanced, the shutter will not open. In this way the camera reminds you when you have taken a picture and to possibly avoid double exposures.
I think most interesting, however, is the focus mechanism, which is performed by moving the front of the camera away from the body of the camera, thereby increasing the focal length.
Focus at infinity:
Focus at two feet:
Another interesting feature of the camera is that it fits 127 size film, which is about halfway between the width of 135 and 120. It's not manufactured anymore, but I did find a fellow on eBay who takes 120 film, cuts it down to size, and rerolls it onto the correct spindle size.
I took the camera out for a spin the other the day.
My other film cameras:
- Kodak Duaflex II
- Kodak Tourist
- Agfa B2 Cadet
- Agfa Pioneer
- Brownie Special Six-16
- Kodak Flashmite 20
- Exakta VX
- Graflex 22
- Kodak Retina II
- Canon FT QL
(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe
About Me
Sometimes photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. Nerd.
General all around problem-solver and creative type.
Creator of What I Learned Today Hive community: https://peakd.com/c/hive-131257/created
Blind Skeleton
Online Radio: https://blindskeleton.one/radio/
Friday Night Concert: 6:00pm EST
80 years in existence and still able to take pictures...now that's tough...amazing
Right? It's a wonderful little contraption. Definitely built to last!
Really cool piece of equipment! 1940s Imagine what shots were made with it in it's lifetime!
Ironically there was a roll of exposed film in the camera when I picked it up that I have yet to get developed. Soon we'll know at least some of the shots made in it's lifetime!
Cool! I hope they come out ok and you make a post about it 😁
The camera has great functionality which would be highly demand of, imagine taking photographs of that distance, that is a great thing.
Nice post.
Thank you!
A beautiful piece of history! I like the soft focus and the genuine vintage look of the pictures. It is a nice change from the vintage-like effects that we see all the time.
This really does provide the real thing. I enjoyed using this one, and am probably going to do so again. Too much fun!
wow, such an interesting creature.
and great that it is still in the working conditions.
It is amazing that it still works! I've got others, too. Pictures forthcoming when I get the opportunity!
💚💚💚
How fun :)
Are you developing and printing yourself?
Thanks! Yes, I do my own developing of black and white, at least. For the most part that's all I photograph, so it seems to work!
That's really cool. To have the set up to do that
Have you done any pinhole camera stuff? Really fun to mess around with
I have done pinhole photography, yes! I actually made a pinhole lens for my dSLR which works. I have a pinhole camera for film that I 3d printed but have yet to actually use it.
:)
It was the first photography project assigned to us at varisty.
But we had to make one out of an old box or tin! I really recommend this. Highly. It's a total blast and you may ned up with some incredibly creative photos
https://twitter.com/jalp21/status/1563609142744743937
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @jlinaresp ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
This is like going back in time, and I assume you are developing the film yourself too, no? I can't imagine it's easy to find film developers anymore.