An Old Favorite

I put a roll of Kentmere 100 through my Kodak Reflex II over a couple days.  It is one of those cameras for which I have a particular fondness because I was able to do a complete cleaning and adjustment without destroying it.  The reason for that is that the Reflex II is rather simple in its construction compared to my other tlr cameras.  The linked gear lenses are largely responsible for that simplicity.  

The pictures from this roll were artistically unremarkable, but I was happy with getting decent tonal results in combination with a fresh kit of PMK Pyro. 

The shot of my friend, Bob, was made in the dark corner of a coffee shop at 1/25 and f:3.5.  I was slightly off on the focus, but still pleased to get anything under those conditions.

 

It was a noteworthy accomplishment for Kodak to produce a full featured twin lens reflex at an affordable price in 1948.  The coated Anastar lens is very sharp and the viewfinder is as bright as anything made in those days.

 

f you have a Reflex II that needs some cleaning up, Rick Oleson's Tech Notes are free to download.

Fomapan

 I spent an hour at the Botanical Garden with my Kodak Reflex II.  I shot a roll of Fomapan 400 with the continuing hope that one of my usual developers would yield results that I can live with.  I processed this roll in PMK Pyro.

The negatives were very thin, looking like they could have used a couple more stops exposure or quite a bit more time in the developer.  

Meanwhile, Adorama had a half-price sale on Across II, so I picked up five rolls.  I also still have a few rolls of expired Tri-X that I like.  I'll play around with my few remaining rolls of Fomapan, but I'm not real optimistic about the prospects of getting what I want in regard to grain and tonal values.

Abó

The Abó pueblo and mission ruins are part of the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument about an hour south of Albuquerque.  The Spanish invaders took control of the Tanoan pueblo in the 17th Century and built the church.  The site was abandoned after about fifty years due to drought and  Apache raids.

These pictures were made on my last roll of Acros which I processed in Rodinal 1:50.  The camera was my Kodak Reflex II.

The challenge in photographing these ruins is to get something that looks different from the many thousands of pictures which have been made of the sites in the past.  There was also a large crew at Abó working on stabilizing the ruins.

The photographer pictured making a shot with a fine 4x5 is Joe Van Cleave.

Focus

I decided to make another attempt to properly collimate the f3.5 Anastar lens on my Kodak Reflex II. The process can be accomplished by focusing at infinity on a ground glass at the focal plane, or by holding open the shutter and using an slr to focus through the camera's objective lens on a target at the film plane.

Four little set screws in the black rim around the objective are loosened so that the lens can be rotated to obtain the sharpest image at infinity focus.  Once that was accomplished I loaded some Fomapan 100 and made 12 exposures in a variety of situations to challenge the camera's focal accuracy.

The shots of Ho Baron's Head Games sculpture were close up at f4.

I think I've got it right this time.  I'm pleased to have the Reflex II working properly as it is a favorite among my twin lens reflex cameras.  The Kodak tlr is relatively easy to work on, the view is bright, the shutter is reliable and the coated lens is very sharp.

Acros in the Kodak Reflex II

I got the lenses back on the Reflex II and then took a walk in the neighborhood to catch the remains of the last snow storm.

I mostly shoot 400 speed film with my medium format cameras, but I really like the Acros/Rodinal combination.

The close-ups I did with the camera were a little soft, so I'll need to try again to adjust the focus properly.  I think I'll likely go all the way with cleaning and adjusting as the Reflex II is really pretty easy to work on compared to most twin lens reflex cameras.  I just used the ruby window on this occasion for advancing the film, but it is faster and safer to let the camera handle the spacing when things are working right.

Snow

A sunny day illuminated the Sandia Mountains graced with a six-inch layer of snow.  I took the dog and my Kodak Reflex II tlr loaded with TMY 400 for a walk up the Embudito Trail.  I got a couple overlapping frames on the roll, but the camera otherwise performed pretty well until I reached the eighth frame.

I was able during the first half of the walk to let the dog loose while I concentrated on making pictures.  When I started running into people and their dogs I had to put the dog back on the leash, and that pushed beyond the boundaries of success with an old tlr.

Near the top of the trail I decided to try a close-up shot.  I got the film advanced to the eighth frame, but my slightlly impaired  vision, the dog pulling on the leash and numb hands ended my photo session.  I stared cranking the focus without really seeing or feeling what I was doing and managed to completely screw off both lenses which dropped into the snow.  While that was it for the tlr, I thought I might still grab a few shots on the way back down the mountain with the Olympus Infinity Stylus I had in my pocket.  Looking at the time, however, I saw that it was 3:30 PM.  I was supposed to be sitting down to dinner with freinds at 4:30 and we were at the top of a long, slippery trail and a drive across town.  So, I just hooked up the dog and we made as close as I could get to a lightning descent.

The next day, after consulting Rick Oleson's exploded-view drawing  and the berndtmn camera repair page, I spent a couple hours reinstalling and collimating the lenses on the Reflex II.  I'll load a roll of Acros to see if I got the focus properly set.  Most of the snow was burned off the Sandias after another day of sunshine, but we look to be in for another big storm starting on New Years Day.

Classic Combo

The Reflex II was one of the last high-quality classic-design cameras to be produced domestically by Kodak in the immediate post-war period.  It had a nicely-bright view screen, and the paired Anastar lenses were really excellent.  The camera's controls were a bit quirky.  The shutter was cocked by flipping up the shutter release.  Film framing was automatic, but required first bumping a button over the counter.  The camera today does not command the prices of contemporary Yashica tlr models, and certainly not that of the Rollei.  So, the Kodak Reflex II is quite a bargain for those looking for a quality classic and willing to read the manual.

Sharp looking pictures are pretty much a given with virtually any medium format camera, even those with rudimentary single-element meniscus lenses.  The Reflex II Anastar is a big step beyond that, however.  The coated four-element design is very sharp, but it is also outstanding in its capacity to render a wide spectrum of subtle tonalities.  Combine that ability with Acros and Rodinal and you get results that just can't be topped.  That combination of resolution and tonal rendering has served me particularly well when photographing ancient rock art designs on dark basalt which can be extremely difficult to capture well.  Similarly, pictures made in low light conditions have a better chance of being seen by the Anastar than with many of its contemporary competitors.

I was particularly pleased with this last shot on the roll of Acros I recently ran through the Reflex II.  The dim room light demanded the shot be made wide open at f3.5 and 1/50 sec.  I did not know for sure when I made the shot if the focus would be good; even with the camera's relatively bright screen, the low light and my old eyes left quite a lot to luck.  I think luck was with me, though, and the Anastar did its part well.

The Reflex II is easier to work on than a lot of similar cameras.  I cleaned the lenses and shutter  when I got the camera and they seem faultless in their performance.  The film spacing gets a little too close if I rely only on the auto frame spacing feature, but that is easily circumvented by just making use of the ruby window. I have used 120 film in the Reflex II by just trimming down the plastic reel ends with nail scissors to be flush with the backing paper.  However, advancing the film will go more smoothly if the 120 film is re-rolled onto a 620 reel.

Kodak Reflex II with Anastar f:3.5 - 80mm
Fuji Neopan Acros 100
Adox Rodinal 1:50 at 20 deg.C
13.5 minutes development
Continuous gentle agitation first minute, then 3 inversions in 5 seconds every 30 seconds
30 second tap water stop bath with continuous agitation
6 minutes in rapid fixer
10 minute running tap water rinse and a 30 second slosh in dilute Photo-Flo
Steel tank

Shooting the Kodak Reflex II

The Kodak Reflex II is one of those cameras that I always feel I should be spending more time with.  I've got quite a few lenses on my old cameras that are as sharp or sharper than the Kodak Anastar on my Reflex II.  None, however, can best it in rendering subtleties of black and white tonality.

At the River

Kodak Reflex II

The Kodak Reflex II was the company's top-of-the-line twin-lens camera, appearing soon after WWII and incorporating many advances and innovations in design and construction. Both the taking and viewing lenses are sharp 4-element Anastars with Kodak's "Lumenized" anti-reflective coating. The big viewing lens, coupled with the viewscreen and a fresnel intensifier provides an exceptionally bright viewing image. The shuttered red window on the back is used only to position the first frame; after that the camera automatically handles frame spacing and counting. The Flash Kodamatic shutter features speeds from 1/2 to 1/300 seconds, plus T and B; it is cocked with an upswing of the release lever. Focusing is accomplished by turning either of the lenses which are coupled by external gear rings. The Reflex II is very solidly constructed with excellent materials and craftsmanship evident throughout.

To use the camera today, one needs to take into account the fact that it was designed around Kodak's 620 film format which is no longer available. My initial answer to that was to use 120 film with the spool ends trimmed down flush with the paper backing, which allows the film cartridge to fit into the camera. It is a tight fit, so it will be helpful for those using this method to unspool enough of the paper backing to allow the takeup spool to get a good grip before trying to push the cartridge into the feed side. Once in place, the film should move through the camera smoothly. More recently, I have begun re-rolling 120 film onto the old metal 620 spools, and this does smooth the film advance. Either way, there is some irregularity in the frame spacing, which may be the result of thinner backing paper on modern roll films. One easy solution to that is to just use the red window rather than depending on the camera's auto-frame spacing mechanism.

For those accustomed to other TLR cameras like the Rollei or the Yashicamat, the Kodak will take a little getting used to. Once the routines of film advance, shutter cocking and focusing have been practiced a bit, however, the Reflex II is about as fast and easy as any other similar camera. Even with the relatively bright viewing screen, I find I generally like to focus precisely using the flip-up magnifier lens. A cable release can also be helpful when shooting at slow speeds.

My camera came to me in quite good shape for its age, but did require some cleaning of lenses, view screen and shutter. Shutter and lens access is actually somewhat easier than on many other TLR cameras, but it was also a big help to have Rick Oleson's exploded-view drawing in getting things apart and back together again. Another excellent resource for Reflex II restoration is the berndtmn camera repair page on Flickr.

Below are some sample images from the camera:

Operating Instructions are at the Butkus site.