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After one year of Exakta repair and still not believing I have undertaken with success, every major task that the average Exakta technician would have mastered at the height of their popularity. Slow speeds and shutter curtains being the most complicated. (specifically, replacing or retensioning the curtain rollers)
“Tension”
Out of a growing boredom with the medium and in attempt to impress my peers or, stunt, I started exploring the large format era of Ihagee products. I mostly stuck with this company to keep a uniform collection, and I appreciate the noncomformist, antifascist background of the men behind the cameras. I love that it seems to have failed only by following a righteous moral compass.
There’s also a noticable quality and attention to detail that makes these cameras superior to their competition at the time. In reading the available company history I wondered if Steve Jobs had ever heard of Johan Steenbergen, as the foundation of Apple followed a similar process to his with Ihagee (hiring specialists to work in-house, pairing woodworkers with mechanics and artists, conservative design, liberal engineering, ect.)
This is when I found a baseball card dealer selling a whole Duplex kit for sixty bucks. I didn’t care if it worked or not, I can fix it,
no matter what the problem is.
B/T Works, all other speeds default to ???/1000
Leather: edged & waxed
When I realized that I had fixed this one hundred year old thing with no real help or detailed technical information and I used experience gained through diligent trial, error, and stubborn motivation to accomplish a goal that was previously unthinkable.
It hurt me deeply.
I had wanted one of these folding cameras since I was a kid, I always thought it would be a cool decoration for my future home. The first time I saw the shutter snap closed after freeing the mainspring there was like a shockwave sent through my body and a freezing chill that went up my spine. There’s a chance this lens was aimed toward Adolf Hitler at some point; this device molded the future that we live in, it was invented before my hobby, before Bugs Bunny. If I didn’t do something, it may have been broken forever. Seeing this contraption working now, and in mint condition, it made me feel a very unexpected, heavy emotion, to a point where I can barely use it a week later.
I don’t want to tell anyone how I feel exactly about this
because i don’t want its photos to be associated with my misery.
Usually, when I fix a camera there is a period of depression because all I want to do is take pictures of an old friend. I’m flooded with memories. This one has been especially difficult because I know Taco’s face would fit perfectly in this little 4 inch frame.
This last repair job has hurt me far worse than I ever thought it could.
I think I honed a difficult craft;
I miss my cat.
What the fuck
Bigly Small
