Exakta progress

Further to the problems I had with the shutter curtain on my Exakta Varex IIa I purchased another body from ebay at a bargain price. This one has a new shutter curtain. I still have the problem of the fungus on the Zeiss Biotar lens, however the test pictures show the camera works perfectly and the lens is very sharp.

This is an enlargement of a test shot.

Here is another test shot I often do of a fern, detail is very sharp:

Its quite interesting to compare this with the test shot I did to try out stand development. Same film, same developer (Rodinal) but different camera and different developing technique, While the picture below was developed using the stand method 1+100 for 1 hour, the one above from the Varex was done 1+25 for 7 mins.

The fungus on the Zeiss Biotar looks like this. It does not seem to effect the performance of the lens.

Interestingly I also tried the Zeiss Pancolor lens I originally got with my Exakta Varex IIb and I discovered why the photos from that camera were so poor. The lens does not stop down so all the shots were at f2. Next I should try the Biotar on that camera.