I bought this camera at the Boston Spa camera fair. I was trying to sell some cameras for a friend and some for myself. I ended up selling three and used the funds to buy this camera. So basically it was a swap, three cameras I was not using for this one.

The main thing that interested me was the 120 back. I recently had one but swapped it for some mint balls. On reflection, it might not have been the greatest idea, as I had a lot of trouble finding another 120 back for this type of camera. Without the back, I probably wouldn’t have bought this Voighty as it would need sheet film, which isn’t available.

The bellows looked like they were in good condition, but there was a piece of white tape on one section. When I shined a light through that area, there was a pinhole. The weave of the tape was very wide. So I decided to paint over it with some black fabric tape. It would make it look better and fix the hole.

The viewfinder, mirror and lens needed cleaning. I could still see the image, but only half of it. I set to work. The lens and viewfinder were easy to remove and clean, but the mirror caused an issue. I would like to replace it, but it didn’t seem to be easily accessible and I didn’t want to break it before sourcing a replacement.

The Avus has speeds up to 1/250th and apertures between f4.5 and f25. The tripod mount had a wide diameter so it would need an adapter for modern tripods. There was also a built-in bubble level to aid framing. Voigtlander made these kinds of cameras between 1913 to 1935, so this one was around 100 years old. It was in remarkable condition considering its age.

I loaded the 120 back with a roll of Ilford Ortho and rated it at 50asa as it was slightly out of date. The camera did come with a glass focusing back, which I initially put on to check the infinity setting, but left it off while using the 120 back. I could have used the focusing screen for each photo, but that would have been a pain in the butt. So I decided to stick to infinity and guesstimate any distance less than that.

All was going well, or so I thought. But as I got to the sixth photo, the film refused to advance any further. When I put the back in a dark bag, I found the film and backing paper had ripped. The paper was damaged on the edges, quite severely. The film had buckled and ripped. I had to tear it in half to get it on the developing spool.

There was also a little bit of fogging from the back, but how were the results?

Well, nothing amazing, apart from these images are from a 100-year-old camera. That is amazing in itself. Of course, me being me, I could not let that lie. I needed to try and fix it. Why was it jamming and where were the scratches and light leaks coming from?

On closer inspection of the back, the light shield had become crinkly and stiff. The glue holding it in place was also disintegrating. Plus, there was a patch of rust on the film plane. I decided to take out the light shield fabric and replace it with some 120 film paper. That would be light tight, smooth, and easy to replace when needed. I also sanded down the rusted area. That left it as bare metal, so I used a marker to dull it a little. The winder didn’t have a lock, so I decided to wind the film the opposite way to what was suggested on the body. That would give less stress and immediately protect the film from light. During the first roll, I had an issue of forgetting to take out the light mask, so I added some yellow tape to that. I then loaded a roll of FP4 and taped the edges of the back for extra protection.

It all worked a treat, the film did not jam and moved smoothly through the back. I went for a walk in Bradford and finished the film there. Using it caused a few raised eyebrows, one person asked if it was digital.

I developed the film in 510 pyro, and here are the results: You get 8 shots on a roll and you can do double exposures as there is no lock for that either.

I got a full roll of shots, no light leaks and the scratches have been reduced somewhat. Yatta. I think I can reduce the scratches a bit more, but I am happy with the camera at the moment and to be honest, I probably won’t use it much in the future. I will be keeping it as who knows when I will need a 120 back again.

This is the last ‘new’ Voigtlander of this month’s theme, the next posts will be from cameras I have already tried. This month has been a bit of a struggle for me. I much prefer not having a theme as I like to swap and change on a whim. I am in awe of people who do longer projects. A friend of mine did video reviews of cameras, one a day for a year. In fact, he is still going. Amazing!