Shooting a 1934 Noviflex…
The Eichapfel Noviflex, released in 1934 was the first Single Lens Reflex camera for 120 film - predating the better known Reflex Korelle by one year. Bought from Photographica London, and looking to be working, I had to run a roll through it…
It has the mid-range Meyer Gorlitz Trioplan 7.5cm f3.5 lens, and shutter speeds to 1/1000th of a second. Upon initial inspection I could not see any light through the lens at 1/1000th, and at 1/500th I could only see light on the left hand side so decided to shoot at a maximum speed of 1/200th (which looked ok)
Eichapfel Noviflex
The view through the lens is quite nice for a camera of this age - you compose with the lens wide open at f3.5, then stop down to take the photo. This method needs a tripod really to maintain the composition. On the bottom is a 3/8” tripod socket, so I screwed in a 1/4” adapter to use my normal tripod.
Eichapfel Noviflex
It would appear that even 1/200th had an issue too! But the rest of the image is rather good. A shame really, but to have a semi working one of these very rare cameras is a positive I suppose!
These images were shot on Ilford FP4 - because that is all I had in the fridge at the time.
Eichapfel Noviflex - Ilford FP4
The curtain issue continued through the whole film, but this was not the only problem I encountered…
The first being my mistake - I realized half way through that the frame counter window on the back is for use only to find the first frame. From then on you are meant to use the frame counter on the top. Basically the numbers that appear in the red window are the 6×9 ones, and this is a 6×6 camera - hence I only got 8 frames instead of 12.
The next problem was the film got very stiff to wind for the last three frames - to a point where I had to put the camera in a dark bag and open the back to wind it on. I did not want to break it by using too much force to wind.
Eichapfel Noviflex - Ilford FP4
The image above is in a dark part of the woods, and shutter speed would have been 1/50th if I remember correctly, but still the curtain issue is there.
The images could have been very good, considering it is a 92 year old camera. The lens is quite sharp, and the chance of finding another Noviflex is very slim, especially with a working shutter.
Eichapfel Noviflex - Ilford FP4
Shooting this roll definitely had it’s challenges, but it does feel like a special camera to use. I am not going to try to fix the issues, and just keep it as it is. I do not want to make anything worse with my meddling!