While tumbling the Pilot 6 camera about in my hands, I had this vision of Jessica Lang in the American Horror Stories series “Freak Show”. The thought holds true for my menagerie of messed up junk store cameras … “Zeez are my munsters.” I said, in Jessica Lang’s pretend German accent. “Zay ah my family, zeez freaks.” Vell, Zis vun is trooly a freek… Oh. I don’t need to have an accent anymore. The distressed state of this particular camera certainly qualifies it as a freak.
-
This Pilot 6 has seen better days. There's something so attractive about the patina.
-
Oddly enough, it's one of those cameras where you advance the film until the frame number is in the lower ruby window, take the shot, then advance again until the same number appears in the upper ruby window.
-
The mirror ... shabby cool with its corrosion, rainbows and cracked finish..
-
The cocking lever, shutter speed settings and shutter release button.
-
There's a magnifier that pops up into the viewfinder to aid in focusing.
-
Unfortunately, the tip of the film spool roler pin pops out of its bracket.
It’s an all metal camera, very heavy, manufactured by Kamera – Werkstatten in Dresden. I traded a Winpro 35 for it. This one is the “later” model with shutter speeds B, T and 20-150. It also has the iris diaphragm. I put a roll of Fujicolor 400 film through it before I realized the film rolling pin was loose. I believe this is why some of the images aren’t sharp. Though, obviously there could be many other reasons for this.
-
Early in the roll. Nice and sharp.
-
Pilot 6 image.
-
Is it 5 o'clock for this camera?
-
Pilot 6 image with soft focus.
-
I believe the film rolling pin had come apart by the time this shot was taken.
I found that I simply needed to bend the little metal “ears” that hold the roller pin in place, and it stayed put – for the most part. The camera’s viewfinder is through the lens. You have to cock the shutter to put the mirror in place for viewing. I don’t know if all Pilot 6s have a dark groundglass. It might be the distressed state of my mirror that makes it dark. I set the aperture ring wide open to focus and frame, then reset to expose.
-
TMax 400 thru a Pilot 6
-
TMax 400 thru a Pilot 6
I might turn this camera into a Gala Edition. But it’s almost too beautiful as is. In any case, I’ll clean it up and fix the innards. 