Kodak Duo Six-20

One of my three Duo Six-20 cameras.  This one has a distance scale in meters, an older Compur shutter with a 1/300 top speed and a Tessar f/3.5 lens.  The four-element design of the Tessar yields good correction and resolution, but the added lens-air surfaces increase the likelihood of reflective flare in an uncoated lens. The old Compur's top speed is about a stop slow, but the lower speeds are all close to being correct.

I decided to get a lens hood in order to get the best results from the Tessar, but the only ones I found in the right size on line were expensive and located in Europe.  The local Camera and Darkroom shop did not have any that would easily fit the Duo Six-20 either, so I settled for a standard Series Five hood.  I cut a small strip of black foam and glued it to the inner rim of the hood to provide a good press fit.  I also picked up a selenium cell light meter at the same time to replace my old Sekonic which has gotten lazy in its readings.

I shot all of the pictures on this roll at 1/100 with the Tri-X rated at 200 ASA and processed in Ilfosol 3 at 1:14 dilution.

3 million years

I stopped by the Museum of Natural History this morning with my Welta Perle.  The compact folder was loaded with TMAX 400 film.  

The preparator was carefully grinding away the rock surrounding one of four tusks belonging to an ancient species of elephant which roamed southern New Mexico about three million years ago.  Behind him on the bench is the complete skull of a stegomastadon from the same era that was recently discoverd on the beach at  Elephant Butte Reservoir.

Welta Perle

I snagged this fine little Welta Perle with an f/3.5 Tessar on ebay for $20 as the only bidder.  Hard to believe that such fine examples are going for such trivial prices.  I attribute it mainly to the scarcity of film in retail outlets and the disappearance of local one-hour film processors.  In this specific case, the seller also inadvertently torpedoed his chances of a better price by scrupulously entering in the camera's description that the shutter was not working on the B and T settings.  He was evidently unfamiliar with the fact that one does not need to cock the shutter when using the time settings on the old Compurs.  In fact, there is nothing at all wrong with the camera.

I shot a roll of Tri-X and processed it in Rodinal.  That gave me some period authenticity for the images, though it didn't really show off the nice qualities of the Tessar.

riverside

ojo

side channel

The Welta Perle superficially resembles cameras from the same era made by Certo and Balda, though it is considerably more compact that the Dolly Super Sport as it is not dual format and shoots only in the 6x4.5 format, yielding 16 frames from a roll of 120.  The construction is very sturdy and innovative in the details.  I haven't found an on-line manual for the camera, so I'll share a few quick observations about it that are helpful in getting started with using it.  First, the operation of the back latch is not immediately apparent.  My first inclination was to try to swing out the little lever, but it actually just needs to be slid to the left to allow opening the back.

The Perle is unusually well-designed to avoid light leaks which are a problem in some similar cameras of the time.  On this model there is no need to tape over the ruby windows as the rotating light guard provides protection from light leaks between exposures.

Inside, the camera has shrouds which cover the film on both ends.

The supply side shroud can just be rotated to allow introduction of the film roll.  On the take-up side, the advance knob must first be lifted outward to allow rotation of the shroud to put the take-up spool in place.

There is not a lot of information on the web about the Perle.  The company may not have been as commercially successful as some of the other makers of the time, but this model seem just as well built to me as the Zeiss and Voigtlander offerings available.  Several key components are identical to those on competition machines including the Compur shutter, the Tessar lens, and the flip-up finder.

Europe and America

I got some nice shots from my first Kodak Duo Six-20, but it developed a problem with the shutter linkage which ended up damaging the shutter.  I replaced some of the shutter parts recently and took the camera along on a walk to the Tingley Beach ponds in Albuquerque.  I was pleased to see that everything seemed to be working properly again.

As I reported in the previous post, I have a second Series II camera, seen below on the right, which is an example built for the European market with distance scale marked in meters and a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens.  On the left is my American market camera with a distance scale in feet and a Kodak Anastigmat lens.

Some slight differences can be seen in the lens mounts of the two examples, but I think the lens formula is essentially the same -- four elements in three groups.  A comparison of the images from the two cameras show no differences in quality that I can see.