Ihagee, Exakta Varex IIa, 35mm SLR camera, results

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The first test roll through the Varex was a 24 exp 200ASA film tested over a variety of subjects and returned a full 24 frames of good negatives. This was most gratifying as one shutter curtain had been made from scratch during the restoration, as well as a broken spring being replaced by one wound from spring wire. At right we have a sadly rotting Westland Wessex helicopter out to grass at Lasham in Hampshire in an outdoor museum. A fate that many retired airframes find themselves in, without the resources or money to take care of them, they slowly decay.

A study of textures in the same rotting helicopter.

Below at left is a brick kiln discovered on the banks of the River Beaulieu during a cycle ride. This is of the Beehive Downdraught type and would have been used for smaller production runs.

On the subject of kilns, my talented neighbour has one in her garden shed, which she uses to fire her delightful sculptures, including this wonderful Leopard, from a series of stylized big cats she is currently doing, below right.

Part of the fabulous North coast of Jersey, a British island off the coast of France. Much of the seashore here betrays its igneous origins, though there has been no volcanic activity in this neck of Europe for a very long time. The lichens are fabulous and abundant, a clear sign of the clean air, and almost every rock surface is coated in them, as in these sulphur yellow coloured examples here.

The next bay around from above, in the distance is the coast of France, barely 13 miles away, this was the last frame from the roll, and is slightly cropped as it overlapped the penultimate frame, due to the sprockets tearing out, a fault hardly attributable to the camera.

All things considered the Exacta has proved very pleasant to use and looks very handsome into the bargain.