Фотографии на "Смену-6" с "Фотосессии-28" · Заметки

Very nice images, Sergey! Looks like your Smena is working great. Nice and sharp, good color. Great dog, too :)

Thanks Thomas! BTW the dog isn't mine, just an old Collie we met on the street :-)

And I just have to post a link to this splendid photo taken by John Robertson via Smena Symbol (same lens & shutter as Smena-6) in Prague:

http://www.pgallery.net/jer/image-53744.html

It tells about capabilities of T-43 better than my shots!

P.S. A bit more about I decided to try Smena-6 (copy of my post to Soviet Camera Group):

Smena is one of a few cameras which can survive Siberian winter in outer pocket without any problems. 100% metal mechanics, simple shutter almost without lubrication to freeze, no batteries to weaken in cold and no electronics to short circuit because of water condensate when you get indoor from cold, no mirror assembly or zoom lens to break if you fall on ice... The film was a "test drive" to check that the camera is useable, now it's going to live in my pocket all time. Looks like it's up to the task. The only problem is lack of rewind so one have to take spare empty cassettes to have a chance to reload film without darkroom. Smena-8M has rewind but it's quite ugly and doesn't fit into pocket, release button too stiff and also it's much harder to use in mittens because of it's winding wheel. The 6 doesn't have these problems - a very nicely looking and easy to use camera! :)
As for the lens quality, it's acceptably sharp at f/8-f/16 which are normal values for outdoor shooting with ISO 200-ISO 400 film. At wider apertures it works more like a soft-focus lens, although not blurry at focus point but aberrations at corners are pretty strong. It can be used for "mystic" effect or it can be "a fly in the ointment" (if my dictionary suggest the right translation for Russian "a spoon of tar in a barrel of honey"). Depends on how you look at it and how you use it. (Greetings to Lomographists =)) And no "bokeh problems" with triplet, it always makes backgrounds soft!