KW Pilot Super, 120 roll film SLR camera, image gallery

Back

The very first frame from the first test roll after the Pilot Super's rebuild. A late evening ride on the Raleigh Royaleur, a half breed between the Royal and the Radonneur acquired new in 1996. This was taken in the darkness of the Yew tree tunnel a few miles from home, the cycle was glowing in the evening light filtering through the trees and the camera was focussed on the chainwheel. The Laack lens is well named as it's somewhat lacking, but given the state the lens it's hardly surprising, here it was at it's fullest aperture of f/3.5 and the shutter speed was 1/20th. hand held. The biggest drawback with the Pilot is the movement imparted during release.

The good news is that the camera is light tight, despite being displayed loaded for several weeks, there wasn't any fogging of the film and the mechanics are all working as they should including the shutter which was a happy outcome after the rebuild. I used my audio method to get the shutter set up detailed in Project 10.

In February 2021 the UK is in lock down to help prevent the spread of the COVID19 virus, we are restricted to an hour's exersise per day, luckily for me I have fairly extensive woodland just a stone's throw from my door. This image was taken as the myriad of twigs would serve to demonstrate how the Laack Pololyt would perform. Aperture was f/8 at 1/50th, the light being watery and filtered. Concentrating really hard and gripping the thing like a man possessed, just about kept the camera still. The result is pretty soft though and hard to get too enthusiastic about it. But it did produce eleven out of twelve reasonably well illuminated and exposed frames. Actually the twelfth was okay too, it's just that I set it off accidently and made a blurry study of my boots.

The Crocuses are coming up all over the place in late February 2021, groups of people are allowed out to exercise in their "social bubbles". Being late afternoon the sun was low and the subject was attired in black so I opted for for f/5.6 at 50th which seems to have worked out about right. I use a period light meter, my eyes, my best guess and a dollop of luck. Concentrate really hard to prevent the camera rotating about the shutter axis, as it really wants to get away when it fires.

This shot was taken specifically to check the amount of movement the shutter generates. The camera was tripod mounted using a Linof Tripod and 3/8ths screw. It was released with a screw in automatic release to take the human out of the equation. Despite this the camera bounced significantly. This is caused firstly the mirror accelerating away and secondly as it hits the stop, both of these events resulting in this double image.

The mirror as shutter is a compelling idea in theory, unfortunately the mass of the moving parts renders the concept all but useless and has rarely been used. A variation was used successfully in the Pentax 110, where its diminutive size and use of lightweight plastics for the mirror tray made it viable.