Gekko MW 100 plus

 I shot a roll of the expired Gekko film in my Kodak Signet 35 and developed in HC110b for five minutes as indicated by the chart on the inside of the box.  The grain seemed pretty pronounced for 100-speed film, and it took some heavy adjustments in Photoshop to approach the correct tonal balance.

The box says "Made in Europe".  I found some claims that the Gekko is repackaged EFKE, but no evidence to support that assertion.  I thought perhaps I might use the suggested development times for dozen films listed inside the box to help identify the film.  However, nothing in the Massive Dev Chart fits that profile.

I think I'll next try using Rodinal, maybe with a bit more development time to compensate for age.  Stand development might help to smooth the grain a bit.

More from the Signet

I spent a couple days walking around with my Kodak Signet 35.  The camera is small enough to jam in a coat pocket and the Ektar lens always performs well.

The old car enthusiasts are back on the Plaza Vieja on the weekends.  This was the first time I've seen this well-restored Buick; I think it is a 1950 Special Jetback.  The lines in sideview are very graceful, but that massive grill kind of ruins the look for me.

The '54 Chevy 4-door is a work in progress.

Fins and quad lights.

Comparing Signets

I shot a roll of ColorPlus 200 in my Kodak Signet 35 to try to get a comparison of the images produced by the first and second models in the Signet line.  I cannot really see any significant differences in the qualities of the two cameras' pictures that were not a product of lighting and my own performance.

In terms of handling the slightly larger size of the Signet 40 does help the user keep the trigger finger from blocking the rangefinder window.  It does not seem to me that the lever advance or the wider range of shutter speeds in the model 40 would have impelled owners of the sturdy little 35 to abandon it in favor of the 40.

There is, however, an interesting comparison to be made between the ornamental designs of the two cameras related to the dominating influence of American car design which held sway in those days.  In 1951 when the Signet 35 came out, post-war car design showed the influence of aircraft styles -- the lines were generally rounded, the rear fenders still bulged out over the wheels and there were also remnants of deco chrome details carried over from the pre-war period.  By 1956 when the Signet 40 appeared, cars were more angular and slab-sided and camera designs reflected similar changes.

Exercising the Signet 35

I thought these recent b&w images from the Signet 35 were interesting, though the combination of TMAX and hc-110 did not yield the quality I have gotten from it in the past.  The photos from this roll also introduced too many variables and are not useful for comparison with the last outing with the Signet 40.

I'm going to shoot another roll in the Signet 35 with the same film and lighting conditions as the last Signet 40 pictures to see if I can better compare the performance of the two Kodaks.

Getting back on the bicycle

PT exercises, hardware and meds didn't seem to be doing much for my recovery.  However, a few days after starting to ride my bike, I finally seem to be making some progress.  That's good news for my photography as it is mostly a byproduct of walking around and recording what I come across.

Yesterday, I took a long, slow walk along the river and finished off a roll of Kentmere 100 in the Kodak Signet 35.  I saw a coyote slinking through the shadows and soon afterward a pair of noisy young Cooper's Hawks.  They seemed like good omens.

Getting familiar with the Signet 35

I like compact cameras, and the Kodak Signet 35 nicely meets that requirement.  The camera's small size, however, does require some attention to how it is handled in operation.  The controls are closely spaced and it is easy to let a finger obscure the rf window, or to inadvertantly block the movement of the shutter cocking lever.  I managed to commit both errors in the last roll of film I put through the camera, but  over-all I am very pleased with the experience of shooting the little '50s Kodak.

I shot a roll of TMAX 100 in the Signet 35 during one of my usual walks through Old Town and on a longer walk the next day through a nearby industrial area.  Some of the pictures I got showed me that it would have been a good idea to keep my Series V lens hood on the camera as getting the lens too close to the sun caused some loss of contrast.  Otherwise, the Ektar turned in a good performance.

Decorating Old Town

beemer and little red

Sprouts

I don't usually think about close-ups when shooting my rangefinder cameras, but the Signet 35 is more capable in that regard then most because of its capacity to focus accurately down to two feet, as well as needing little compensation for parallax error.

Margaret's Redbud

My second day's outing with the Signet 35 took me north on 12th to the rail tracks through an industrial district and then east as far as Fourth Street.  I stopped to grab a shot of the engines in the AFD service yard on Fifth; that was tricky as I had to shoot against the sun and through a wire mesh fence.

AFD Phalanx

Albuquerque's Fourth Street is a long north/south corridor which runs from the city center up to where the road curves around to cross the Rio Grande on the way to Bernalillo.  The street is lined mostly with one-story buildings housing many small Mexican restaurants, and every other block features a tire store or a used car lot.

4th Street

'57 Chevy

Garcias

The Farmacy Cafe on Mountain Road

Ektar

The images coming from the f/3.5 Ektar on my Kodak Signet 35 seem very similar to me to those produced by the f/2.8 Tessar on the Zeiss Ikon Contessa.  There are several reasons to support that judgement.  The Ektar name did not refer to a specific lens design, but rather was used by Kodak to indicate that the lens was of the highest quality that the company produced.  The Signet 35 lens, in fact, is a four-element in three-group Tessar-type design and was contemporaneous with the Tessar on the Contessa 35.  The two cameras and their lenses were early to mid-'50s products which made use of significant advances in the post-war years in glass composition, lens component design and lens coatings.  I'm looking forward now to making some pictures with the Contessa 35 for the sake of comparison, but I'm pretty sure that there will be no apparent difference in the images from the two cameras used in similar conditions.

The warm spring days have put leaves on the trees in the Plaza Vieja and brought out the custom classics for the informal Friday morning car shows.  There were a couple parked at the curb that I had not seen before including a '37 Chevy 4-door and a '49  Fastback.