Alpenflex IS

ALT=“Belchertown Jackson Street"
ALT="Alpenflex IS"
The Alpenflex
  c1952  – Hachiyo Kogaku Kogyo – Suwa, Japan
ALT=“Belchertown ”
Small Farm Institute – Belchertown, Ma
ALT="Alpenflex IS"

There are five models of the Alpenflex. They’re pretty much all the same. I’m the proud owner of an Alpenflex IS. The details are unimportant. The focus knob and the film advance knob are identical and mounted on the same side of the Alpenflex. It’s a terrible design and makes for interesting frame spacing. This flaw may account for the fact that The Alpenflex never made a serious run at the Rolleiflex.

ALT=“Belchertown”
Summer – Granby Ma
ALT="Alpenflex IS"
Silos on Jackson Street in Belchertown, Ma

All the Alpenflex models are equipped with 1:3.5, 7.5cm ALPO lenses. The lens designer went onto be a dog food tycoon later in life. I think the lenses are coated with blue candle wax.

Fence Post and Queen Ann’s Lace

Shutter speeds on crappy old cameras mean nothing after fifty years. Hell,  they probably meant nothing when they left the factory. I look through the lens and try to figure out how far off they are when I trip the shutter. I wasn’t too far off with the Orient II shutter mounted behind the ALPO. Like old people, shutters get slower as they age. They never get faster. These shots were done with the camera on a tripod.

I cut processing time by about fifty percent and rated the film at ASA 200 instead of the suggested 400.

Arista  Ultra EDU 400. Rated at a  wild-ass-guess of ASA 200.