This is the second part of the image gallery from my Braun Super Paxette. The first part can be seen here August 2014 Braun Super Paxette
In the interm I’ve picked up another Super Paxette because I like this one so much. The shutter may need a little cleaning but having a backup to this camera is worth it.
It’s no secret that this is one of my favourite little blocks of steel. It’s hard to believe sometimes that this camera is nearly 60 years old when you see the results. My favourite characteristic of the images though has to be the film mask with its wavy edges. It gives each image a postage stamp like look and proves that you didn’t crop your image. More images and information about this camera can be seen here Super Paxette Photographers dont crop Paxette More Images Braun Super Paxette (Part 1) Braun Super Paxette (Part 2)
Because of the number of images I will break this into two seperate posts as well but here are the first 20. There was a lot of smoke from forest fires so many of the landscape images relect that.
If you have read my blog for a while you may already know about my affinity for this camera. Super Paxette, Real Photographers dont crop and Super Paxette More Images This time around I used Kodak’s excellent Ektar 100 film. The only thing that might make this camera better for me is if I had some of the other lenses that were made for it. I have the 45mm Kata which is the most useful focal length but there were also lenses available in focal lengths 35mm, 50, 85mm and 135mm.
It should be mentioned that the lens is not the sharpest even stopped down around f5.6-f8 and the bokeh has an odd distorted look when it’s focused on something close. The film mask creates a look something like the zig zag scissors you use in preschool and the shutter release is in a completely unfamiliar location. The flip side of all those things though is that the lens is sharp enough for making good 8x10s. The Bokeh is a cool effect that can be used when making an image and the film mask is also pretty interesting and the shutter is actually in a comfortable spot.
I’ve selected 26 images from the roll of 36 for inclusion but broken them into two separate posts. All 36 turned out technically fine it’s just that sometimes I shoot similar shots or even pictures that aren’t that interesting. (Yes I still get to decide here what is interesting or not)
Here are a few more images from the Braun Super Paxette with the Staeble Kata 45mm f2.8 lens. A lens which seems to be looked down upon by the all knowing internet but I think does alright in most situations.
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And finally the end of the roll where the film didn’t advance all the way causing the two frames to join together.
I love the little fringe the film mask on this camera creates, it makes the image look like a postage stamp. I’m kidding of course about not cropping but I do think it’s important to use as much of the negative as possible and it’s good practice to be aware of everything in the frame. I’ve written about this camera previously, a couple years ago, and that can be found here Super Paxette. I would like to add though how fun this camera is to use and I mean that in comparison to all other cameras not just as a nostalgia thing. It’s diminutive size really lends itself to being carried in the palm of your hand instead of around your neck.
You can see here how the ten curved apperature blades help form a resonably round aperature opening at f5.6
Sitting behind the lens the leaf shutter displayed here helps keep this camera quiet and also, as with all leaf shutters, it produces little to no camera shake. This is because the blades have very little weight and the symmetrical opening and closing cancels out any directional momentum. The top speed of this camera with it’s Prontor-SVS shutter however is limited to 1/300 sec
