West Street, Lodz, Poland, old tenants in the strict city centre. Those buildings haven’t been renovated probably since the time prior WW2 or since WW2. Today most of them are abandoned with doors and windows walled up, however in some of them people are still living. This is part of the city which our city authorities are not willing to show to the foreign journalists. Clear essence of poverty, dirt and hopelessness. Camera: Konica Minolta A1 DiMage
architecture cities and towns city city authorities dimage dirt doors and windows hopelessness journalists konica minolta lodz lodz poland minolta a1 Poland poverty ww2
2007, Lodz, Poland, old Izrael Poznanski’s textile factory workers’ estate, part of a factory complex at Ogrodowa Street. Factory was shut down about 15 years ago, and for the last two years it has been a cultural and shopping centre (Manufaktura), but the old houses for the workers found themselves out of the development. Low quality not renovated blockhouses are kind of soul cages for the former factory workers. At least the scenery is worth visiting and taking some photos. There was a plan to give people new apartments and turn the old red brick blocks into very exclusive hotel, but then that part of the city would lost its character forever.
Camera: Samsung GX 10 with kit lenses (Schneider Kreuznach).
Animals architecture cities and towns factory workers gx 10 izrael lenses lodz lodz poland manufaktura old houses pigeons Poland poznanski red brick samsung scenery schneider kreuznach shopping centre Situations textile factory
One of the test night shots I took during testing my new camera Samsung GX 10. Hetmanska street, Poznan by night.
cities and towns gx 10 night shots night shots Poland poznan samsung
Published at September 4, 2007
in cameras.
SLR Cameras made by Eastern German VEB PENTACON DRESDEN was a dream of almost every amateur of photography behind the Iron Curtain. They were a symbol of much further developed technology than Soviet Union Zenit cameras. The most important was far better quality of the lenses. After 10 years using of Zenit ET (already described on my blog) I bought second hand Praktica BX 20 - a semi automatic SLR camera. I was very happy having much better quality of the photos. I took the camera twice to Scotland. I used it on my Shetland trip. Unfortunately Praktica BX 20 cameras used to have a problems with quality of the components, especially with film tranport gears. I was loosing every 3 - 5 pictures on every 36 pictures film, due to the malfunction of the gear. I stop using that camera when I bought my first Digital camera - a hybrid one, full manual Konica Minolta A1 DiMage.
Some technical specification after Praktica collector page (http://www.praktica-collector.de/235_Praktica_BX20.htm) :
Producer: VEB Pentacon Dresden Betrieb des Kombinates VEB Carl Zeiss Jena
Production period: December 1987 to December 1990
Shutter type: steplessly working electronically controlled vertical-run two-magnet metal-blade focal plane shutter
View finder: fixed eye-level view finder (Pentaprism, field of view: 95%) with field lens with triple rangefinder wedge, truncated microprism screen, groundglass field, 14 red LEDs for shutter speed signalling (right side of the view-finder image) changes their brightness with brightness of the image, on the left side one LED for flash ready signal, one for locked metered value (AEL) and one for exposure compensation (+/-), “cocked/no cocked” signal (orange colour of the aperture setting reflection window)
Film transport / frame counter: single stroke 125° wind-on quick-release lever with 25° stand off position, accepts BX-motor winder, folding crank rewind knob, auto-zeroing frame counter
Self timer: mechanically, approx. 10 sec delay
Metering system: TTL-metering (12 to 3200 ASA)
Exposure times: B, steplessly automatic speeds between 40 sec and 1/1000; manually precise speeds of 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250,1/500, 1/1000; mechanical range 1/100 sec
Lens mount: Praktica-B-mount with EDC (electronic diaphragm control)
Further details: http://www.praktica-collector.de/235_Praktica_BX20.htm
Photo taken from: http://www.collection-appareils.com/pentacon/html/
pentacon_praktica_bx20.php
automatic slr camera cameras carl zeiss motor winder pentacon dresden praktica bx praktica bx20 shutter speed slr cameras transport frame vertical run
