After discovering that my borrowed Kiev 6C is broken and cannot be fixed I started searching for a new camera. On my path Sten laid this gigantic rangefinder Rapid Omega 100 (manual here). I must admit this is one kewl camera – size as the first thing, 3 accessory adapters on top (for a dumbuser like me they all looked like flash attachments), not all settings have a dedicated knob – you just have to have a pen with you to change it. And when using, winding the film looks more like reloading an machine gun. What it’s famous for is the quality of lenses, that was what I tried to test, but failed miserably due lack of experience with (studio) flashes – not setting the right flash sync mode. Lucky enough, co-worker also did some shots and he succeeded. Shots are found here: http://www.nahui.eu/RapidOmega58/. As seen, the lenses are great, but I decided not to become an owner of this camera because:
- I’m a fan of shaft viewfinder
- It was not well kept
- Price tag of 5000 eek (Body, 2 lenses) seemed too much
But, now to the educating part – what was that I got wrong when shooting with the Rapid?
The thing is, there are 2 flash sync modes on old cameras. These are “M” and “X”.
The “M” – is meant to be used when using old magnesium bulbs as the light source. These achieve their maximum brightness with a delay, so the flash sync is triggered just before shutter is opened – by the time the shutter is completely open, the bulb should have achieved it’s maximum brightness.
The “X” – is meant to be used with new electronic flashes. When the sync is triggered by the camera, they give their maximum instantly, with no delay. So, when using this mode, the flash sync is fired when the sutter is wide open.
So my fail was sticking to “M” but using electronic flashes. By the time shutter opened, flash had already fired, which means I got zero of that light on film.
Due the fail, I did not get great test shots but I did get one akward shot combining various mishaps – camera not winding film + flash sync fail. I did add a few stops of exposure digitally to see an image at all.
Image: A result of a couple of fails – artistic Mihkel
Equipment: Rapid Omega 100, Hexanon 58mm f/5.6 @ f8(?) / Fujicolor Reala 100
Full set @ NONE
