Vintage cameras!, 9/27/08

My dear friends Candi and Bryon came by earlier this afternoon with a special gift for me! They just bought a house in Palm Coast and will be moving soon so they are packing up their house and found a couple of things they thought I might be interested in.

Bryon's grandfather (who everyone just called "Grandpa") passed away last year. I remember him as a really funny old man who always liked to flirt innocently with Candi's friends. He must have always been a hit with the ladies... he was a ladies' swimsuit designer in the 1940's and 50's!

And these are the cameras that he used to photograph his models. (Of course I'd kill to get my hands on some of those snaps!)

Ihagee Dresden Exakta 35mm Australian model, Carl Ziess Pancolar 2/50 f/2 lens. It's missing the Exakta emblem on the front, but it came with an old, weathered Sankyo daylight A filter on the lens. :)







(The shutter button is on the left side of the lens.)



And a 1956 Mamiyaflex C Professional TLR! Now I have a pretty big collection of vintage cameras but I think this mother takes the cake! I used to shoot with a RB67 in the studio and it was one of my favorite film cameras of all-time. I've never owned a Mamiya TLR before so I'm reeeeeeally excited to have this one now.





And it came already customized! The story goes, the outer body of the camera was starting to show some wear and tear so "Grandpa" recovered it himself. I'm assuming sometime in the 1960's. :) It is actually some type of foil finish paper with a Gemini theme.








Here's a TTV (Through The Viewfinder) shot of my Canary Islands date palm in the front yard. (aka the giant pineapple) No clue yet what the two lines on the right of the viewfinder are. I haven't cleaned either of these cameras.



Also in the box were these goodies. Clockwise from top: vintage camera strap (rusty as heck!), manual for the Ihagee, i have no clue... maybe some type of old-skool macro lens adapter?!, and i have no clue again, these little adjustable metal rods were in the pouch labeled $12. So they must have been something important to cost that much back in the day.



Any ideas on the bottom two items?