A nice addition to my collection

usayit · Aug 10, 2005

I've been looking for a nice example of an Asahiflex ( predates "Pentax ) for quite some time now. Finally found one for a reasonable price on ebay. It was a bit dirty but after an hour it cleaned up nicely. Even better... its still operational. Asahiflex IIB 1954 with a 3.5/50mm lens (M37 screwmount).
Does anyone know if Asahi or other manufacturers produced lenses for this fellow? I've found lots of good info on the camera but limited info on the lens or lenses.

Mitica100 · Aug 10, 2005

Wow! That's a beaut! Historically very important camera since it sported the very first instant return mirror.

I'll try to locate some info on lenses for this baby.

Congrats, that's a winner in my book!!

Mitica100 · Aug 10, 2005

Here are some links, you might be familiar with some:

http://www.aohc.it/tak00e.htm

http://www.aohc.it/tak01e.htm

Also, you could research the American version of Asahiflex IIB, called Tower 23 or 24. There should be more info about other possible lenses that fit the M37 mount.

terri · Aug 11, 2005

Looks great from where I'm sitting. :thumbup: Have you run any film through it yet?

usayit · Aug 11, 2005

Thanks for those links, Mitica. I've been to the oahc site prior. Great site for info on pentax related information. Funny, I missed the second link concerning m37 lenses all this time...... Still turning up short on searches for examples of these lenses for sale. I can't help but look at the nice bright chromed lens when I hold the camera. Such a wonderfully attractive little jewel all made of chromed brass and glass.

So far, I put half a roll through it yesterday but I won't have it processed until early next week ( I'm a weekend worker ). Seems to work fine but won't know until I get the negative's processed. I already know there's a couple of overexposed frames in there. I turned the front ring of the lens to focus at full open but forgot to manually stopped it back down prior to tripping the shutter.... oops. I had to de-program myself from years of auto-takumars and the like.

What I find interesting is the second viewfinder on top of the camera. If used, it feels like an old non-coupled "rangefinder". Set the distance on the lens, set the exposure, bring it to face level, compose, and shoot. Must have come in handy in street photography/journalism when being quick was essential.

Don Simon · Aug 23, 2005

Niiiiiice... :thumbup:

usayit · Sep 21, 2005

terri said:
Looks great from where I'm sitting. :thumbup: Have you run any film through it yet?

Just got a whole batch of processed film back from the local photolab. ( I have a tendency to accumulate over time and process all at once) This 50 year old camera still takes some nice pictures. Due to its age, I had my doubts but the outcome is surprisingly nice. I had a blast experimenting and figuring out how the old camera works... Definitely one of the jewels of my collection.

Scanned from negative without any post scan processing. My old sekonic handheld meter was used to get exposure. Loaded with Kodak gold 200 slightly past its expiration date. Camera is very manual.... takes some practice to get the "workflow" going while taking pictures. I kept on forgetting to manually stop down the lens before hitting the shutter. As a result, half of my pictures were over exposed... oops.. Also took a while to get used to looking down into the mirror to compose... everything is a mirror image unlike newer prism finders. I also realized that shooting with a camera with a max shutter of 500th of second made choosing the appropriate film ISO even more important.