WZFO Start

When I came back to writing this blog, I thought it would be all casual --sharing old photos while unhastily producing new. Turns out I make more new stuff than I manage to write about. Case in point: the photos in this post were taken in early February, with winter in full swing while I was complaining about to being able to go out and shoot anything nice. I thought it fitting to show them now as in a witty April Fools fashion, winter came back and I'm back to complaining and not shooting.

Bits of history
I'm not a history buff and I don't intend to get into the whole who is who of Polish photographic industry. I can only offer some scattered bits. Linked below is a big article on that if you're interested.

The Start series was launched in 1951 by WZK (Warsaw Cinema-Technical Industries) that operated in Poland after the 2nd world war and then got renamed to WZFO (Warsaw Photo-Optical Industries) which is the wider known name. They made a small-ish number of different cameras, none of them necessarily noticeable --but they did make photography accesible to Polish people which, you know, an okay move. 

Nowadays, Polish cameras are mostly collectible pieces, sought after more for their scarcity factor rather than their particular abilities. With the exception of an Alfa and Alfa 2 (which I intend to own at some point, when I can find an affordable one in working condition --stop laughing at me, camera gods), they aren't really lookers. 

How does it handle?
My Start is a very, very basic TLR, first in the series of 5 models. Everything's in working order, and although its lenses are in, well, less than pristine condition (I love fungi on my pizza, less on on my lenses), the camera looks unused otherwise. It's a basic TLR, so it handles exactly like you'd expect one to handle. The focusing screen isn't the brightest but since most of my comparisons can be drawn with a 1930s Pilot Super, famous for being unreadable, I find this one completely fine and usable.

Considering I put it through a dark 17th century church, shooting wide open at f/4.5 and handheld (or propped) at 1/10 to 1/25 of a second, I think it performed admirably. If nothing else, there's an interesting plasticity to the rendering of the lens, and just the way I like it: sharps are sharp and then quickly the lens falls off into the territory of unassuming blur that seems to have a bit of swirl to it.

This effect might have been helped by film rolling unevenly in camera and getting all skewed to one side. Not sure if that was my fault for loading improperly, or if that's what my Start does. I don't really hold it against the camera in this instance, though, as the results are rather interesting to view. I also got one double exposure as there is no prevention lock. I lucked out and it's pretty.

All in all
Is there anything special about Start? In short, no. Not in the technical or aesthetic element at least. It is the only TLR I own at the moment, however, and the only Polish camera in my collection, which is why I cherish it. That, and I'm curious to see if the film misalignment problem reoccurs, so I will definitely be shooting it again.

Further reading:
Start series on wikipedia
Mike's article on Start B and WZFO history
Polish photographic history in a series of articles: 1, 2, 3 (in Polish but you can google translate)

Funny how my friend's pose aligned exactly with the curving of film.