Well, these past two weeks have been a bit dramatic for me, hence the delay in any posts for this blog. More on that at the end, but for now…the Purma Speed.

I never thought I would get one of these. They are rare and out of my price range, but then this one came up on the bay, and I sent an offer. It was accepted. Wooohoo, I now have all three of the Purma cameras.

While researching this camera, I found that the Purma cameras were distributed by R.F.Hunter...wait?? I have heard of that name. I have tried a Gilbert with that name on it. I had given it to a friend, but he wasn’t using it at all, so he graciously gave it back to add to my Purma collection. The Gilbert was distributed by the same company, but wasn’t made by the same company. It still looks nice with the other models, though.

Anyway, back to the 1936 Speed. It has a snazzy metal lens cover, which keeps the lens retracted. Mine came with half of the original box and a receipt. It was only made for a year before the Bakelite Special was introduced.

There was a leather strap attached to the camera, but it had been snapped a few times and repaired. Those repairs made it impossible to remove and therefore, open the back. I needed to cut it off to load a film. At some point, I will make a new one as I am nervous using the camera without one.

I was so excited to have the Speed, that I forgave cutting a film and immediately loaded it with a gifted roll of 127. It got stuck inside the camera and eventually ripped in half. When I looked at the film afterwards, the spool was very rusty, so I blamed the issue on that. I sanded the spool and later reused it for a 120 cut-down.

After that, I loaded a very old roll of 127 Ilford HP3. The film was very hard to advance, and eventually got completely stuck inside the camera. The film did not have the same rust issue, and I managed to retrieve some of it, which I developed in Rodinal stand. I could see the camera was working, but the film was a complete dud.

Ok, so with those failures, I decided to use a fresh roll of Kentmere 400, cut from 120 on a non-rusty spool. I reloaded the speed before heading off to the Wonkey Donkey Sanctuary. The camera jammed again! But this was a fresh roll. Why was it jamming? There was nothing to get stuck to inside the camera. I retrieved this roll using a dark bag, and took solace in the fact that the shutter was working and the camera was light-tight. Here are the results of what I managed to shoot.

I looked at the inside of the camera again, nothing. Nothing to snag a film. I tried an empty spool of paper with no film, and it didn’t jam. Maybe it was a tension thing?? I tried loading the camera with the paper under the bar, like the Horizon. It tore the paper, so that method would never work with a film.

I then decided it was my camera now, and I wanted to use it…I snapped the spool tension plate off and covered the nubbins left with some soft material. I figured the film would be kept in place by the bars around the red windows.

I felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. This camera is from 1936, and I just purposely broke it. At the end of the day, I could always reattach the plate.

I then reloaded the camera with a fresh roll of FP4 cut to 127 and took it to Halifax. It didn’t jam, and I got through the whole roll without issue. Would the results be affected by my dramatic fix? Would they be out of focus? Here are those results…all of them.

Yatta!!!! It worked. Now, to be fair, I kept the camera on the same settings for the whole roll. I used the 1/50th. I guessed the aperture to be around f6.3, as that was all I could find on any of the models. Even in the book based on the manuals, the aperture of the Speed is not mentioned. But the 400asa, the 1/50th, the cloudy day, the results…the aperture seems to fit well.

Yeah I now have a working, slightly adapted Purma Speed. I will bring it out for 127 day, but it will not be a go to camera due to the need to cut-down film. For 127 cameras, I think I prefer the Yashica 44. For Purma Cameras, I think I prefer the Special.

But at the end of the day, I am a collector and now I the three cameras, lots of filters, a case for the Special and a book. The filters say either Purma Plus or Special. I have nothing for the Speed, and the other filters are not compatible. It makes me think there are no accessories for it.

I may have a Purma month in the future, but the hassle of cutting the film down to 127 has put me off for a while. I already have lots of 16mm cut-off pieces to use in my Minolta 16, which will keep me busy for a while.

As for me, I currently have influenza…this post took me ages to write in between sleeping and coughing. I also resigned from my job, so once I have recovered, I will have to decide what to do. Will I go back on supply? Will I look for a completely new job? I have no idea. I am sure I will be fine, though. If needs be, I have loads of cameras I could sell 🙂