Pentacon Penti II: Get Your Bling On!
written by eggzakly
on May 11th, 2009
, 17 comments
(17 votes)
image from flickr
Penti II comes with or without a light meter. Mine is the model without.
This is my first half-frame (18×24mm) camera. I love the format and I love playing with diptychs and the relationship between the frames – making objects move in and out of the frames, and having the frames complement each other. Sometimes it works out for me, sometimes it doesn’t. Mostly the diptychs that work are not the planned ones, but the random ones (which means I still have a lot to learn, I guess!).
With this camera you’ll always feel dressed up. It’s the perfect camera to bring to a party as an accessory to that little black dress. Comes in silver or gold-coloured metal body and different colours of enamel frame. Macho guys would need to have tongues firmly planted in cheeks to pull this camera off.
I mostly use very simple cameras, but it’s nice to have a few more options as far as aperture and shutter speed goes, you’re no longer limited to outdoors, sunny shots. Fully manual, of course.
The metal exterior means you’ll have very cold fingers when shooting outside in winter. The back comes off entirely, and can be a little tricky to snap back on, so double check that it’s on properly before you start shooting. Film is forwarded by pushing in the pin on the side, which is a bit of an oddity, and not particularly doubles friendly.
Penti II uses the rapid format, which means you have to make sure the camera comes with two rapid cassettes, otherwise it won’t work. Although the cassettes are only designed to hold 12 full frames, sometimes you can squeeze 24 into one – the older and more curvy the film is, the easier it goes, sometimes it’s a bit of a struggle. Loading the canisters is simple, but a bit bothersome – just push as much film into it as possible. Don’t forget to cut off the lead and round the corners on both ends of the film to make it run smoothly. I’m currently working on “organizing” some extra casettes so I can load up a bunch at home before going somewhere, which will hopefully make my life a little easier!
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