A while back I inherited my grandfather’s 1948(ish) Voightlander Bessa 66 camera. A fully-manual rangefinder camera that takes 120 film, it’s a tricky one to use. I used it a bit when I got it, but nearly every photo I took was unusable.
This year I started poking at it again and found the shutter speed was way off. So I got it repaired, bought some film and brought it with me to the BWCA.
Well, the shutter speed is still off. It was fine for the first roll, but at the end of that roll I noticed a problem. Further testing showed that I could now shoot as fast as 1/50, but no faster. If I used some super slow film and the sun wasn’t too bright, I could make things work.
My kid ended up taking some great photos of me. And I managed to get a few non terrible shots.
