This camera ended up with me, no idea when and how and where. Suffice to say that it lived in a box of old stuff, until I decided to have a look through all the junk accumulated in the last 10 or so yrs. This is how I came to check this simple but interesting item, which I do not even remember purchasing or acquiring. Strange, right?
Anyways, as luck would have it, I have a few 127 rolls left in the fridge, since my Yashica 4×4 days. So I put a Rera 400 in this thing; results were less than encouraging, but I was curious on how this simple camera will function and what the results would be. As said, not impressed at all.
The camera is a Ferrania Ibis, Italian made, somewhere in the 50’s. Very basic controls, with what appears to be a Primar 7.5 (coated ?) lens, to my eyes looks like a simple meniscus. Focal length of 75, with only two speeds, B and I, so not a lot of wiggle here. The lens is contained in a metal tube which collapses when not in use. Looks like the shutter is Ferrania’s own, which I guess is a sort of surprise for me at least. No rewind mechanism, which is understandable given the simple design. The entire body is aluminium, appears to be cast.
The film is a format which I cannot brag to know a lot of things about. When I had that excellent Yashica Baby, I used a lot of color film in it, but never processed one myself. What little b&w negatives I run through the 4×4 Baby does not ring any bells in terms of recalling details, sorry. So I cannot and will not elaborate on this particular format here. What I can say is that the pictures are somewhat muddy, but all right-ish of sorts.
My focus here was onto the middle of the street, where that lady is walking beside her bike. I was expecting a bit of good focus in that area, which is present; what I did not expect was to have some interesting clarity in the front, where I did not focus. While on the left side close up is clearly lacking the focus (of course), the right side close up is clearly well, clear. No idea why, but I find this interesting.
All in all, an interesting experience. Cleaned the camera and put it back in the box, for those who will be curious to try it in say, 100 years from now. I, for one, am not interested in it, thank you very much.