Another Twin Lens

I took my Mamiyaflex II for a morning walk in Old Town.  The temperature at 9:00 AM was already about 70 degrees in the last week of February.  That made for a nice walk, along with a little anxiety about what will come in the Summer.  The car club guys that hang out in the Plaza on the weekend did not really take a winter break this year.

I found the Mamiyaflex at a yard sale some time ago.  I didn't really need another twin lens reflex camera, but it looked to be in pretty good shape for its age except for a little peeling of the covering.  It is also interesting because this Japanese camera from the 1950's bears a very strong resemblance to my Kodak Reflex II which is only a little older.

Given the amount of time the Mamiyaflex sat on a shelf since its last use I was not surprised to find that it was not working quite perfectly.  The advance was a little rough, and when I developed the film I found that the frame spacing was very irregular.  

I also found that I had a little trouble with framing my images in the viewfinder, which seemed dimmer than I remembered, especially in the corners.  That may have been due in part to the sunny day reflections on the viewscreen, and I suspect my own dimming visiion may also be implicated.

Over all though I can't complain about the quality of the images.  I'll see if a little cleaning and lubrication will help with the rough advance issue.  I may also try inserting a plastic fresnel lens under the viewscreen to see if that will brighten things up a bit.