Reviving the Altissa
This camera has a great sentimental value to me - it used to belong to my grandfather. He bought it in the early 1950's, and many family photos were taken with it. As a child, I remember that I used to play with it. After which, it dropped out of sight and sat unused for more than 35 years.
I was very happy when my mother suprised me a few years ago by presenting me with this same camera. The passing years have left their mark on it - rust crept in, the lenses tarnished. I kept it as a family heirloom, and the thought of putting a roll of film into it did not cross my mind.
Until recently.
One bright day, I decided to restore the camera to its former glory. I started by taking everything apart and cleaning the rust.
Luckily, the shutter mechanism is very simple (a spring-powered rotating disk with a window), so it was easy to clean and adjust.
The inside of the camera was completely repainted in matte black paint, and it looks great now. The front plate was also restored. The two lenses and the viewfinder were carefully cleaned. Finally, the camera was ready to receive a fresh roll of film! The first in many years.
Some details about this photographic device. It was made in Dresden, East Germany, sometime between 1947 and 1953 by the company VEB Altissa Camera Werk.
It features a "Periskop" lens - a symmetric design using two elements that cancel each other's optical distortions. The focal length is 50 mm. It can switch between two apertures: f/8 and f/16. The shutter speed is a fixed and slow 1/25 of a second, or a bulb position.
The film used is the "120" type medium format, still readily available today. It shoots 12 exposures of 6x6 cm.
I was quite excited when I put a roll of Ilford HP5 black and white film in it and took it to the streets. I used a digital camera to meter the light and a ND4 filter, held in front of the lens when necessary, to adapt the slow shutter speed to the ambient light. I have even attempted a couple of double exposures. Actually, it's easy to make these by mistake - there is no mechanism to remind you to wind the film after each exposure...
I developed the film at home. It was not a first time - as a teenager I had processed a few B/W films, so the operation went without problems.
The frames were digitized by photographing them with a macro lens, back lit by a cheap LED light tablet.
