Focaflex Ektachrome 100
A photo tour in Lyon, France, May 22, 2023 with my beloved French SLR Focaflex loaded with a Kodak Professional Ektachrome 100 film.
I did not shoot on reversal color film since at least 30 years. This Kodak Professional 36-exposure Ektachrome 100 was a good occasion for a new trial. I choose as a camera the Focaflex that is an early 60's very special French SLR of a time where color slides were a standard for both professional and amateur photographers.
The film was exposed carefully for the indicated 100 ISO using my Minolta Autometer III fitted with its 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the lighted zone not to bleach the most bright parts of the scene. The Oplar-Color 1:2.8 f=5cm was equipped with a Foca Anti-UV filter and a cylindrical generic shade hood.
Rue Joséphin Soulary, May 22 2023
69004 Lyon, France
After exposure, the film was given to professional local lab for E-6 processing. As an option, the slides were mounted in projection frames by the lab.They then were digitalized using a Sony A7 body adapted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication device and a Minolta Macro Bellows lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The mini-portable LED light RGB61 Neewer source was set to 100% of available power a the color temperature to 4900K. The RAW file obtained were exported to LR and processed to the final JPEG presented. Either the print JPEG with decorating frames or the full size image are given in the dedicated album.
I recovered the joy to discover the magical and incredibly saturated colors directly on the film.
About the camera: this French SLR Focaflex was manufactured likely in 1960 by Optique & Précision de Levallois (OPL), France, in its factory of Châteaudun, Eure.
The Focaflex was released in 1958 and sold to the public from 1959 to 1964 in three different versions (Focaflex Automatic and Focaflex II) , the year where OPL stopped its camera activities. The Focaflex is equipped with a fixed lens OPLAR-COLOR (4 lenses, Tessar type) 1:2.8 f=5 cm with a central shutter. The obvserved image through the lens is not obtained by the use of a regular pentaprism but a simple prism and the use of a 45° semi-transparent mirror and the a second mirror located it the bottom of the camera. This complex solution for a SLR was likely chosen as a sort of demonstrator of the OPL company capability to design very complex camera's...
The Focaflex became "famous" in a sense after the Gérard Oury's movie "Le Corniaud" with André Bourvil and Louis de Funés (1965) where Antoine Maréchal used hardly the Focaflex for his Italy tour and the Cadillac car.
This camera came with its everready case, a shade hood with +1 diopter (possibly of the Genaco brand), and a Foca AUV 42 mm filter, the three accessories in a small leather box (non Foca).
For a description a the optical scheme used in the Focaflex see www.foca-collection.fr/index.html
Focaflex Ektachrome 100
A photo tour in Lyon, France, May 22, 2023 with my beloved French SLR Focaflex loaded with a Kodak Professional Ektachrome 100 film.
I did not shoot on reversal color film since at least 30 years. This Kodak Professional 36-exposure Ektachrome 100 was a good occasion for a new trial. I choose as a camera the Focaflex that is an early 60's very special French SLR of a time where color slides were a standard for both professional and amateur photographers.
The film was exposed carefully for the indicated 100 ISO using my Minolta Autometer III fitted with its 10° finder for selective measurements privileging the lighted zone not to bleach the most bright parts of the scene. The Oplar-Color 1:2.8 f=5cm was equipped with a Foca Anti-UV filter and a cylindrical generic shade hood.
Rue Joséphin Soulary, May 22 2023
69004 Lyon, France
After exposure, the film was given to professional local lab for E-6 processing. As an option, the slides were mounted in projection frames by the lab.They then were digitalized using a Sony A7 body adapted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication device and a Minolta Macro Bellows lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The mini-portable LED light RGB61 Neewer source was set to 100% of available power a the color temperature to 4900K. The RAW file obtained were exported to LR and processed to the final JPEG presented. Either the print JPEG with decorating frames or the full size image are given in the dedicated album.
I recovered the joy to discover the magical and incredibly saturated colors directly on the film.
About the camera: this French SLR Focaflex was manufactured likely in 1960 by Optique & Précision de Levallois (OPL), France, in its factory of Châteaudun, Eure.
The Focaflex was released in 1958 and sold to the public from 1959 to 1964 in three different versions (Focaflex Automatic and Focaflex II) , the year where OPL stopped its camera activities. The Focaflex is equipped with a fixed lens OPLAR-COLOR (4 lenses, Tessar type) 1:2.8 f=5 cm with a central shutter. The obvserved image through the lens is not obtained by the use of a regular pentaprism but a simple prism and the use of a 45° semi-transparent mirror and the a second mirror located it the bottom of the camera. This complex solution for a SLR was likely chosen as a sort of demonstrator of the OPL company capability to design very complex camera's...
The Focaflex became "famous" in a sense after the Gérard Oury's movie "Le Corniaud" with André Bourvil and Louis de Funés (1965) where Antoine Maréchal used hardly the Focaflex for his Italy tour and the Cadillac car.
This camera came with its everready case, a shade hood with +1 diopter (possibly of the Genaco brand), and a Foca AUV 42 mm filter, the three accessories in a small leather box (non Foca).
For a description a the optical scheme used in the Focaflex see www.foca-collection.fr/index.html