Franka's Tower of Portable Power: The Tower 60

It was a purchase decision that took the better part of 2 minutes.  Spotted in a nearby antique mall was what seemed to be THE perfect camera to add to my collection.  A medium format folder with a fast and rather reputable f/2.9 lens AND a rangefinder.  Priced at $40 with a 20% discount, I gleefully raced up to the front desk to ask to see this camera to check its operability.

Shutter: check.  Rangefinder: check.  Folding and unfolding: check.  There was nothing whatsoever that I could detect as being of serious issue with this camera.  It was oddly parallel to several others in my collection, but having the working rangefinder was the perfect incentive to add the Tower 60 to my camera collection.

Franka made models seem to come past me with surprising regularity.  This one was was a very pleasant surprise. 

Though sold by Sears Roebuck, the Tower 60 was a product of Franka, the very same maker who made the Solida camera that is a beloved favorite of mine.  In fact, the Tower 60 is more or less a Solida Variant with different markings.  It is for all intents and purposes identical to the Franka Solida IIIE.  Equipped with the same Schnieder Radionar 80mm f/2.9 lens as my previous Solida cameras that I loved using wide open wherever possible, I wholeheartedly welcomed the ability to add a version with a rangefinder to ensure accurate distance measurement.  I was $32 poorer, but vastly enriched culturally.  

Solida Success! Sorta!

A few years ago, I had the odd (OK, well now typical for me) fortune of having a mercy camera pick-up that I shot with only half-hearted interest, only to have it pleasantly surprise me with its image results.  That camera was none other than the 6x6 folder known as the Franka Solida.  

Of course, as soon as I became more enamored of this camera and its Schneider Radionar lens, the shutter began to get particularly flaky.  It hit the point where I developed a love-hate relationship with the Solida, in which each roll would prove a major pain to shoot, but the good shots from the roll mostly made up for this headache of a camera.  

I kept my eyes open for another cheap Solida with the same specs, particularly the f/2.9 lens.  By the dawn of 2016, I had found one, and elected to more or less retire the cantankerous Solida to focus upon its sibling, whom I'd christened as my "Solida 2.0."  

One roll in this replacement camera and my thoughts began to change.  This Solida seemed to not only suffer from some lens fungus, but it didn't seem to render with any sort of pleasing tonality. Even worse was that the focusing distances didn't seem to match up to the rendering of the lens, indicating a need for a lens collimation. Finally, the film rollers tracked muck onto the film surface, resulting in gritty lines across some exposures.  

While some of its issues could be addressed, this Solida was not one that I was quite ready to putz with.  I briefly considered if I could transfer the lens from the original Solida to the "2.0" version, but the camera essentially sat next to the other one for the better part of a year.

And then a few months ago, I just happened to stumble upon this in a nearby antique store, priced at a very modest $25.  

Film Fun Folio #26: Franka Solida (2.0) and Rollei RPX 25

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #26:

Camera: ca. 1952 Franka Solida II with Schneider Radionar 75mm f/2.9 lens.

Film: Rollei RPX 25

Locale: Central Maryland and nearby.

Though the camera is called a Franka Solida II, I'm calling this camera a Franka Solida 2.0, as it is a replacement for my original unbadged Franka that I got in late 2014.  The original gave great results, but had a extremely fidgety shutter whose stickiness resulted in far too many lost shots.  I had a replacement on my radar for months, and finally found one with the same Schneider Radionar lens in January.  The shutter works great, though the lens shows some signs of internal fungus.  I elected to give it an initial try before seeking to remedy the issue on this camera (or trying to switch lenses) and here are the results. 

1 - Frederick, MD - f/2.9, 1/25 - Looking like some sort of photo taken on an Arctic expedition a century ago, I can't speak of what didn't quite go as expected with this image. 

Film Fun Folio #15 - Franka Solida and Astia 100F

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #15:

Camera: ca. 1951 Unbadged Franka Solida with Schneider 75mm f/2.9 lens.

Film: Fuji Astia 100F (Expired 2013)

Locale: Central Maryland.

It's the camera that, when I'm shooting it, I can't wait to get the roll over with, and when that is done, I can't wait to see the results.  Just after getting back the results from the last roll of Velvia 100F shot on this camera, I elected to give it another go, this time with one of only two rolls of Astia that I had been holding on to, and had no idea what to do with.  I decided to keep it simple in some respects, and keep the stubborn shutter on 1/200 and to adjust the aperture as needed.  Below are the results from this experiment.

1 Lower Marlboro, MD - f/11, 1/200 - My first shot results in a somewhat washed out exposure that I had to contain in post processing by stopping down the exposure a bit.  Overall, not bad, and certainly sharp at this aperture.

Film Fun Folio #13: Franka Solida and Fuji Velvia 100F

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #13:

Camera: ca. 1951 Unbadged Franka Solida with Schneider 75mm f/2.9 lens.

Film: Fuji Velvia 100F

Locale: Central Maryland.

Working with this camera is like being in a bad relationship that you keep going back to.  It's arduous, grating, and often results in disaster, but you work within the perilous confines of its many laborious rules, it can deliver some great results.  I'd almost given up on this camera, as its shutter sticks like crazy, and seemed to be out completely, when after some tinkering, it began to work once again.  Thing is, once you get out there and try to shoot it, it is back to its old tricks.  I finally worked around this by bringing a spare lens cap to cover the lens and coercing the shutter to fire a few times before uncovering it for the actual photo. This usually worked, and the results are below. 

1 - Columbia, MD - f/2.9, 1/200 - At the same time I was undergoing my trials with the troublesome Praktica FX3, I took this shot on the Franka.  The sad thing is that it looks little different from the washed out shots on the 35mm camera.  Now I know I took a hasty exposure reading given this result. 

Film Rewind - A second take on some Film Cameras

If a look through the chronology of my posts is to be believed, I'm a "camera whore."  I get a camera, shoot a roll or two through it, and then stow it away as my fascination turns to the next novel project or acquisition in my repertoire.  

I am very proud to say that is not the case.

The story and interest in the machines does not end with the publishing of the article.  In fact, the article often sets about to be the springboard for even more new and novel fun with the camera once I have gotten a taste of its strengths and limitations.  As such, I thought it would be a nice idea to publish this follow up as a sort of "where are they now" feature. Enjoy! 

Seagull 4A-103

It's the very camera that got me interested in film photography once again, and after a little bit of trial and error, I got it working once again.  Since discovering the portability and fun of the folding cameras, I've used the Seagull less, but it is still a wonderful camera to use, though often maligned by "serious" photographers. Ironically, it is the medium format camera I've had the longest, and yet it is the newest in my collection, as every other 120 camera I own was somewhere in the world on the day I was born.  Below is a Provia 100F image taken with the Seagull.  I had to secure the camera on the rear of my car, causing the light bleed in the lower corner. 

Fun with Film: Rollei RPX 25

In a world dominated by speed, sometimes, it can be a little refreshing to slow things down. The world of cameras is no different. Today's digital equipment can shoot at ISO speeds unheard of just 20 years ago, when 3200 speed was a pure adventure in graininess.  My two digital cameras will actually shoot no slower than ISO 200, which I am not always thrilled about.  

The reason is that I sometimes would like to shoot sunny scenes at a wide open aperture to get thin depth of field and good bokeh, and the 1/4000 top shutter speed doesn't always cut it at an aperture of f/1.4.  The only alternative is to put on a ND or polarizing filter to cut off the light coming to the sensor.

So I was naturally intrigued to see an ISO 25 speed film among the options available when I got back into shooting film, and snapped up a roll to give it a try.  Only later, after getting a 120 camera with an f/2.9 lens, and finding that it actually worked pretty well, did it occur to me that I had a perfect combination of film and camera to test, and I wasted little time loading up my Franka Solida with this neat find.  

This, my friends, is Rollei RPX 25 film.  

The Anonymous Franka

Sometimes there are plenty of reasons why you shouldn't make a certain purchase, but inevitably, one key feature leads you to pull the trigger. 

Consider this.  I had begun to feel like I was hitting a saturation point as far as medium format folding cameras are concerned.  I had a few 6x9 folders that I liked as well as a very capable pocket 6x4.5 folder for which I invested in servicing to make it fully functional again.  I never really considered myself interested in getting a 6x6 folder since I already had a pair of TLR cameras for that format, and I wasn't the biggest fan of the 6x6 square format in the first place.

Then I spotted it: a fairly pedestrian looking folding camera with one very appealing feature, a comparatively fast Schneider f/2.9 lens.  Add to this that it was willing to come home with me for only $25.  I chided myself for being such easy click bait for a bit, but ultimately elected to take the chance on this one.  It wasn't the prettiest camera I'd seen, but I knew too well that my adoration of the look of the Hapo 10 had led me down a road of disappointment.

After pulling the trigger, the question then became "just what did I buy?" 

The mysterious camera with markings but no name.