The Crappy Commie Camera Party: In Costa Nova With Expired Film And The Chaika II Half-frame Camera

A couple of months ago I picked up a dinky little camera, the Soviet era Chaika II (‘Seagull’). It was made in the Soviet Union, which is ideal for the ongoing Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP), and it’s a half-frame camera. I’m really getting into half-frame at the moment, with the Welta Penti II (which itself is fully CCCP compliant), and my favourite half-frame medium format camera, the Bencini Koroll 2.

Of course,  my Seagull was in the ‘Not Passed’ category on the Kamerastore website, with ‘flaws that will affect typical use’ (in this case, ‘fungus on the inner lens elements’), but my test images with Harman Phoenix film came out great — well, as well as might be expected with a 60-odd years old camera — so I thought it might be a good time to try it out with an entry to the Crappy Commie Camera Party. 

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHpU6

We were planning a trip out to Costa Nova, and I already had the Chaika II loaded with some expired (c.2004) Konica VX-100 colour film which I had taken to Barra but not used. Since film, especially colour film, loses light sensitivity over time, expired film, that is well past its  sell-by date, needs to be exposed differently to normal film. The ‘rule of thumb’ for shooting expired film is to give it one extra stop of exposure for each decade after the expiry date, so I exposed this ISO 100 film at ISO 25. I used the Camera Meter app to measure the exposure, and left the shutter speed at 1/125s as it was a nice sunny day.

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHZo1

On our arrival at Costa Nova, we parked the car and took a coffee on the beach. Here I was able to take a few minimalist images of the beach featuring a little bit of sand and a lot of sky. After our coffee, we walked slowly (ambled?) towards the restaurant along the river front. Here I was able to take photographs of the typical striped houses of Costa Nova, and after lunch we stopped at the wonderful ‘deckchair’ sculpture, where I think I took my favourite images of the whole roll. There were still some frames left, so a few days later, on a trip to the lab to get some films developed, I took the Chaika II and used the last of the roll in Carris and Aveiro. 

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHpMx

For a camera that was supposed to be filled with fungus the images with the expired film came out great! Unusually for me, this time there were hardly any light leaks, and the images were clear and quite detailed. Some of the other Chaika II entries for the CCCP that have been posted on BlueSky seemed rather ‘soft’, but there was little sign of that with these images, and I could not have been happier. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHpRW

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#Belomo #CCCP #Chaika #Chaika2 #CrappyCommieCameraParty #Expired #ExpiredFilm #HalfFrame #M39 #MadeInUSSR #Seagull #SovietCamera

Another Contender for The Crappy Commie Camera Challenge: The Chaika II Half-frame Camera

I came across this one by accident (if ever anything is ‘accidental’ when I’m browsing the Kamerastore website), and as it’s a half-frame camera there was instant appeal. It also has a lovely little 28mm pancake lens and I was immediately wanting to try this M39-mount lens on my micro four-thirds cameras, but more on that later.

The Chaika II is a heavy beast, weighing over 300g and made of metal with plastic innards. It features shutter speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s, 1/250s and B, and the interchangeable 28mm lens has apertures from f2.8 to f16. The Chaika II was made by Belomo in Minsk, then in the Soviet Union, between 1967 and 1972. It was called Chaika, meaning ‘seagull’ after the call-sign of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space.

My model was in the ‘Not Passed’ category on the Kamerastore website and has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’. In this case, there ‘is fungus on the inner lens elements’, though the camera body itself is fully functional. I was interested in this model for two reasons: It was made in the Soviet Union, which is ideal for the upcoming Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP), and it’s a half-frame camera, and I’m really getting into half-frame at the moment with the Welta Penti II (which itself is fully CCCP compliant).

The camera body is fully functional, and is in nice condition. Like any Soviet era camera that I’ve ever had it has some unique features that make it an interesting user experience. For a start, the shutter button is on the front of the camera, just above the lens assembly. This is actually quite good, as when you are holding the camera your fingers are automatically directed away from the lens. The shutter speed is set from a little dial on the back of the camera, near the viewfinder,  and the speed is visible through a little window on the top plate.

Like other Soviet cameras I have, like the Smena 8M, and the KMZ Horizont, the rewind knob is tucked away. In this case on the bottom of the camera combined with the film speed dial. If you pull on the knob and turn it clockwise it locks open. Then you can twist the knob to rewind the film.

Because it’s a half-frame camera, and I don’t really have the patience to use 72 frames on a 36 exposure roll, I used an ‘off-cut’ of Harman Phoenix film after respooling some film into Rapid canisters. This gave me a length of film equivalent to about 15 frames, which for me was ideal to test the camera, and a technique that I might use in the future.

For a camera that was supposed to be filled with fungus the images came out great! I will certainly have to get out the lens spanner and see if I can clean the elements, and the Harman Phoenix gave some strange colour shifts, but I really liked the results.

Oh, and about that business of wanting to use the M39 lens from the Chaika II with my micro four-thirds mirrorless cameras. That looks like it’s a non-starter, unfortunately. Apparently, the camera/lens combination was designed to be used with an Belomo enlarger that never actually materialised. So it’s not really an interchangeable lens camera but a dedicated half-frame lens that was could be removed and mounted in an enlarger. From what I gather, you can hack the lens so that it will focus to infinity on micro four-thirds cameras, but that means that the lens won’t then function properly on the Chaika II. So that’s not really something I want to do.

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#Belomo #CCCP #Chaika #Chaika2 #CrappyCommieCameraParty #HalfFrame #M39 #MadeInUSSR #Seagull #SovietCamera