I was recently given a rather rare Futura P 35mm rangefinder camera. Futura cameras were made in Germany during the late '40s and early '50s and feature interchangeable lenses, an "in the lens" shutter and very solid build quality. It looked immaculate but was jammed, so I had it cleaned, lubricated and adjusted and it then seemed to work very well. The rangefinder patch coincided at infinity correctly and was very bright and clear, despite slight vertical misalignment. There's nowhere to attach a strap, and I don't like using a camera without one, so I had the case repaired by a saddler and fitted a strap.
A trip to Kearsney Abbey Gardens near Dover offered an opportunity to try the camera, the forecast for the day was for light cloud and sunshine so I loaded the camera with Ilford FP4+. Unfortunately, there was heavy cloud when I got there, I really could have done with some 400 ISO film in the camera as the maximum aperture on the lens I have is f3.5 and it was quite dark in the woodland areas.
Sadly after about a dozen shots the camera jammed and I had to stop shooting. When I got home I opened the camera in a changing bag and found the film was very loose on the take-up spool and had folded back on itself and jammed around the sprocket spindle, putting a nasty crease in the film. Having put the film into a developing tank I had a good look at the camera, the take-up spool clutch is slipping too much so the film doesn't wind tightly on the spool. After a few frames, there is nowhere for the film to go when winding on, and it wraps around the sprockets.
The shots before the disaster came out quite well for a 70 year old camera with a simple lens. The coating isn't great, so bright objects including the sky tend to "bloom" across adjacent darker areas in the image but I rather like the rendering. Apart from the film jamming, I found I could only see the centre of the viewfinder whilst wearing glasses, which was a nuisance. Despite the gorgeous build quality, rarity and excellent cosmetic condition of this camera, A local repairer has had a look at the clutch and aligned the rangefinder, I'll update the blog when I have put anotehr film through the camera!
I like the rendering of the lens, here are some images from before the film jammed.
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