Re-discovered my Paxette 35 SB!

Over the past week we have been cleaning out old stuff and trash (mostly from my parents in-law and Lea's grandparents) from the shed behind our house (over 20 m3 / 700 cft, about half-way through so far!) I found a cardboard box labeled "photo lab stuff etc." in my own writing. I must have packed that box for our move back from Germany to Switzerland, back in 1992 — turns out that the contents were actually much older:

• drums for developing films, last used around 1977 — trashed
• bottles with chemicals for developing film, prepared around 1977 (almost all of these chemicals should be prepared fresh and will not hold for more than a few weeks!) — trashed
• utensils for developing paper prints (I once had everything for creating b&w prints, except for the enlarger) — trashed
• boxes with glass plates from glass-framed slides (removed all the glass some 25 years ago, in order to avoid fungi to "eat up" my photos): weird that I would keep such stuff — all gone now
• a small slide viewer — kept this, as I have sold my slide projector a couple years ago ...
• a box with five Kodak Tri-X Pan film rolls, exposed, but not developed — I think developing this now would be a pure waste of time!
• a set of 49 mm filters for my Topcon RE-2 — I may try selling these for a dime or so (the last three are only useful for analog b&w photography in the digital area there are plenty of software tools that emulate these filters and much, much more):
  
  • Hoya UV(0)
  • Hoya Skylight (1A)
  • Topcon Yellow SY 48.2 Y2 (1.5x)
  • Hoya Orange O(G)
  • Hoya Green G(X0)
• my set of non-automatic extension rings for the Topcon RE-2 (9, 14.5, and 30 mm) — I may try selling these for a dime as well, however, it will be hard to fine anyone with interest, let alone a need for such archaic equipment ...
• the non-electronic flash light "Ariosa B99" that I used with my very first camera (I may return to this in a later blog entry) — and
• I rediscovered my Paxette 35 SB! The metal parts of the hard leather enclosure are clearly corroding (after 47 years!), one belt attachment has fallen off, the camera itself still looks OK — but clearly, it is non-functional by now: the timer clockwork is not moving, the shutter doesn't open at all (the aperture blades still seem to work OK), and either the selenium cells are gone, or (more likely) the analog brightness indicator is stuck / corroded). So, I thought I would take a couple photos to document this camera, than it will go into trash:

Braun Paxette 35 SB, picture taken with
Nikon D300 (lens: 24 - 120mm f/4.0), ISO 200, f/20, 1/60, 75mm (112mm equiv.)

Braun Paxette 35 SB, picture taken with
Nikon D300 (lens: 24 - 120mm f/4.0), ISO 200, f/20, 1/60, 95mm (142mm equiv.)

Braun Paxette 35 SB, picture taken with
Nikon D300 (lens: 24 - 120mm f/4.0), ISO 200, f/20, 1/60, 100mm (150mm equiv.)

Braun Paxette 35 SB, picture taken with
Nikon D300 (lens: 24 - 120mm f/4.0), ISO 200, f/20, 1/60, 48mm (72mm equiv.)

Braun Paxette 35 SB, picture taken with
Nikon D300 (lens: 24 - 120mm f/4.0), ISO 200, f/20, 1/60, 48mm (72mm equiv.)

Braun Paxette 35 SB, picture taken with
Nikon D300 (lens: 24 - 120mm f/4.0), ISO 200, f/20, 1/60, 65mm (97mm equiv.)

I still remember well how I was holding this camera through the protective fence on the North (NW) side of the top floor of the Eiffel tower in Paris, back in 1969 (I'm not sure my current camera would fit through!)  — it was fun, but the results were rather modest in sharpness and contrast ...

View down from top floor of the Eiffel Tower, North side, in July 1969
Image scanned from color slide, using a Nikon Super CoolScan 5000 ED slide scanner, 4000 dpi

My First Photo Gear

My first camera was a gift from my parents that I received around 1964/65 - a Braun Paxette 35 SB viewfinder camera with 45 mm fixed focal length lens (f/2.8 .. f/22, shutter speeds 1/30 .. 1/250) that served me well for several years: I kept it till early 1971. I was shooting b&w photos initially, then also color negatives; in July 1969 I carried it along when I made a 2-week trip to Paris, together with a colleague from high school - shooting color slides for the first time.
The first travel experience with this camera almost ended in a disaster: I took it into a remote valley in Graubünden (near S-charl) where my eldest brother (16 months my junior) and I were attending a 3-week summer camp with the boy scouts; my brother and I walked around the camp, looking for motives for my first photos; I had this idea to start shooting from within the middle of a little mountain river; by stepping onto a couple cobbles I managed to reach a big piece of dead wood that was laying in the middle of the water (the water depth was maybe 50 cm at most, but the water was ice-cold) — all this was almost OK, but I did not realize that this piece of wood was slippery: inevitable I slipped, pulled out a shoe full of water, and in the sudden movement that I made to avoid taking a full bath, I banged the camera against the wood! It did not catch any water — but the shutter was defective before I even managed to take a single shot! So much for the photos from this camp — the lens was still OK, as it turned out, but I had to have the shutter repaired after my vacation ...