View allAll Photos Tagged flex
Crunch is a Flexer. Crunch likes to give great big hugs. Crunch likes to play frisbee with his friends Biff and Rex.
Built for the Brickset Mixels Series 2 Competition using parts from 41515, 41516, and 41517.
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I know which of these two is prettier, but that's a personal opinion and I freely admit I am not exactly unbiased.
The Contarex Special considerably exceeds the already not exactly petite Leicaflex in bulk. Keep in mind that the Special is considerably slimmer than the original Contarex "Bullauge", which has been incorrectly and non-sensically translated into English as "Bull's Eye". Bullauge means "porthole" - a ship's circular window with a solid metal frame (or "scuttle", for those who have a RN background), for obvious reasons.
Originally I didn't want a Contasaurus Rex. I certainly don't want the original one. I have a friend who has one. It doesn't work. He showed me how incredibly difficult it is just to get the top cover off. It's axiomatic that some collateral damage is incurred before you get to whatever you want to fix. No way I'll ever get one of those. But after shooting a few films with the Zeiss Ultron on an Icarex, and being delighted with the results, I can be forgiven for wanting to try a Planar on a ZI.
The Special is much simpler in layout. It's almost a normal camera. Almost, but not quite. It still is, tangibly and intimidatingly, a Contarex. But at least it doesn't have this horrendously complex, fragile and also spectacularly ugly (OK, that is just my opinion) selenium meter which would not be likely to work any more today.
The Contarex Special comes with a prism viewfinder that can easily be exchanged against a viewfinder and a plain ground glass focusing screen that can be exchanged against a Fresnel screen with a split image circle.
I only have the prism viewfinder and the plain focusing screen, but I find that focusing is rather easy with the Planar lens. The scene just appears to jump in and out of focus. However, a Contarex user should not expect (and won't get) a huge, bright viewfinder screen like in a Leicaflex.
Shot with:
Canon EOS600D
Leica Bellows R (16860)
Leica 100mm f/4 Macro Elmar-R, bellows version (11230)
" Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend"
- Bruce Lee
SB-600 to the left of the camera.
Due to restrictions of having third rail shoes attached, the first 'FLEX' Class 769 was moved to Nemesis Rail, Burton, by road. Class 50s 50007 & 50049 were dispatched to take the unit to Reading. After arriving from Leicester, the pair would encounter trouble coupling to unit to the barrier vehicles, and depart a keen 160 late. The timing of the journey via the Down Tamworth Slow allowing 10 minutes to be made up by Burton station, a mere 1 1/4 miles away. The pair then were marooned at Washwood Heath for a while as Western Region control would not allow the 769 to traverse its area with thrid rail shoes attached. After the paperwork had been updated, the pair were able to continue their journey, finally arriving 106 minutes late.
Here the pair are seen arriving at Nemesis Rail before any problems were encountered - 07/08/2020
Peco Plaubel 13x18, adapted to 9x12 / Erno Ernolux 75mm 2.5 projector lens / Agfa Gevaert expired 9x12 paper negative
Porterbrook-owned Class 769 'Flex Train' No. 769434, previously Class 319 EMU No. 319434, stands in the Great Central Railway's Leicester North station on 5th November 2018. This is a standard Class 319, but now with underfloor engines beneath both driving trailers so that the train can operate on both electric and diesel power, hence then 'Flex' name. Testing is being conducted on the GCR prior to the unit being formally handed over to Northern in the near future. A total of 8 units are heading for service with Northern, a further five, again in bi-mode, for Transport for Wales and a further nineteen tri-mode units (overhead, diesel & third rail) for Great Western Railway. Copyright Photograph John Whitehouse - all rights reserved
I think the appeal of this camera is obvious. How many cameras do you see that have cream-colored enamel and a burgundy covering? As far as I know, the styling of this camera is unique. The burgundy covering is interesting in that it has two textures at once; it's a linen-like fabric with a pebbled texture. The pebbling is just about invisible in this photo, but can be seen in Travis Gray's photo, or in Rick Soloway's photo.
Although it says "Photo Laboratories" on it, McKeown's Price Guide puts this camera under the heading of Monroe Sales Company, so I'm guessing they were the distributors. It doesn't say Monroe anywhere on the camera itself.
The Color-Flex takes 127 film and was made c1947.
The ever-present 37884 tows a former GWR Flex set 769922 through Daresbury on a cloudy 3rd October 2023. The working was 5Q08 0945 Long Marston to Kilmarnock conveying the set for, well who knows what at the Barclay works!
The Flex thing never worked out for GWR, with 19 of the units being planned for introdution in Spring 2019. The tri-mode sets were to have worked around the Thames Valley area but less than favourable reliability was a big issue and seemingly the DfT insisted that GWR cancel the lease. as part of overall savings expected to have to be made by all TOCs.
Another chapter in our race to the bottom....