A case of love at first sight! The
Periflex line of cameras is arguably the most unusual and innovative
produced in the 1950's. They accept Leica Thread Mount (LTM L39) lenses
(with exceptions - noted below), but rather than being yet-another-Leica-clone,
Corfield substituted the usual rangefinder for a tiny periscope which
is lowered down behind the lens - true through-the-lens focusing on
what is essentially a rangefinder camera body, using standard (at the
time) Leica rangefinder lenses!
Overview
The shutter release is conveniently located on the front of the camera,
similar to early Pentacon Praktica cameras. A flash synch socket is
located below the shutter release.
The vertically-oriented focusing finder has a small
spring-mounted sliding lever on it (see right),
which lowers the periscope mirror into the camera chamber behind the
lens when depressed. One peers down into the focusing viewfinder while
holding the lever down, and focusing with the other hand - it's not
as much of a juggle as it sounds. The view through the focusing patch
is surprisingly bright - it is of course easiest to do this at widest
aperture; stopping down will give you depth-of field preview for the
aperture you intend to use. There appears to be a ground-glass element
involved somewhere in the periscope assembly, as the image you see has
the same slightly grainy quality as that seen through an SLR or TLR
focusing screen.
The horizontally-oriented viewfinder is for composing the picture,
and in this case matches the f3.5/50mm Lumar lens that came standard
with this camera. The viewfinder is still necessary because, while the
periscope is sufficient for focusing, it only covers a small area of
the entire frame. Other viewfinders were supplied by Corfield for various
focal lengths - at first these were mearly masked hollow tubes with
no optics. I have found that the KMZ
Turret finder fits just fine here, and no doubt many other viewfinders
will, as long as they do not interfere with the periscope eyepiece next
door.
Film advance and shutter-cocking are uncoupled actions,
so there are two separate knobs which must be turned before (or after)
each shot: the film advance knob (on the far right in the picture below),
and the shutter-cocking knob (to the right of the periscope's vertical
eyepiece). Shutter speed is set by lifting and turning the shutter-cocking
knob to the appropriate setting. This must be done after cocking
the shutter, or the speed values will not line up properly with the
pointer.
The film counter counts backwards: after loading the
film, the correct number of exposures for the film is dialled up by
depressing the small button next to the film advance and slightly turning
the film advance back and forth until the desired number has been reached.
Each subsequent advancing of the film will notch the counter downwards
towards zero.
The entire bottom and back of the camera comes off
for film loading. The film feed itself is peculiar in that there are
no sprockets that engage the film. Another peculiarity, and a positive
one at that - is the very short travel required to advance the film
- something like a quarter-turn of the advance knob. Having only just
loaded my first film into the camera as I write this, I am taking it
on blind faith that the advance mechanism works properly! The system
does seem open to frame spacing problems, but I have not read of such
problems being part of the Periflex experience, so perhaps I'm just
being paranoid.
In the Hand
The Periflex-1 is roughly as wide as an old Leica screwmount camera,
but somewhat deeper from front to back. It's comfortable to hold. The
shutter release lies naturally under the index finger at the front of
the camera, a bit like a camera in the Pentacon
family.
In Use
While some of its quirky features conspire to make this camera somewhat
more cumbersome to operate than a traditional rangefinder or SLR, it
nevertheless is remarkable to see the true depth-of-field view through
Leica-mounted rangefinder lenses (albeit only through the small periscope
area). I think this camera would be particularly well-suited to close-up
work or wide-aperture work when shallow depth of field is desirable.
Peering into the camera chamber with the lens
removed, and the periscope lever held down, the little pop-down
mirror can be seen.
Subsequent models of the Periflex range improved useability
by enclosing the top plate, bending the periscope view back through
the rear of the top-plate (rather than through the top) so that it could
be held like a "normal" camera during focusing. Additionally,
the periscope's action was made somewhat more automatic, by having it
automatically lower into place when cocking the shutter, and automatically
retract as the shutter was fired.
Focusing really involves using two techniques in tandem
to accomplish it quickly. First, scale focus by guestimating the right
distance. If you're shooting at a f/11 or more, that's probably all
you need to do. If focus accuracy is likely to be more critical, do
the fine tuning through the periscope. What you want to avoid is focusing
every shot you take through the periscope alone - the novelty will wear
off very quickly otherwise!
Lenses & Lens Compatibility
The 4-element Lumax 3.5/50mm lens
supplied with the Periflex is light and smooth to focus, though the
"travel" (aka "throw) required to move from infinity
to close-focus is very long. The aperture ring has no click-stops, but
is again smooth in operation. I ran out of patience counting the aperture
blades, but there are enough to form a nice circle, which is a contributing
factor in producing pleasing "bokeh". Who knows - this is
obviously no Leiss/Zeitz lens, but it may prove to be a perfectly decent
performer.
Note that because Periflex cameras do not have rangefinders,
these Corfield-supplied lenses lack rangefinder coupling, so you won't
be mounting them on your Leica (not that you'd want to anyway!)
The lens mount
is a standard Leica 39mm screwmount. Presumably to prevent possible
damage to the small drop-down periscope mirror, the camera contains
internal baffles to keep lenses with rear elements that penetrate deep
into the camera body from being mounted. The Soviet era 35mm Jupiter-12
lens is out of the question here. So too is my 28mm
Kobalux, despite extending only a small way into the body. Perhaps
there are very few wide angle lenses that are mountable on this camera
- maybe Cosina/Voigtlander makes a 28mm lens that would work. The Elmar-clone
3.5/50mm Industar-22 will mount, but cannot
be collapsed fully. My 85mm Jupiter-9 mounts
with no problem, as would any other lens that does not extend significantly
into the camera body.
The Case
Given that the whole reason d'etre of the Periflex in the early
50's was as an effort in trying to meet the demand for quality Leica-mount
cameras at a time when importing German cameras was prohibitively expensive
(or impossible, due to import restrictions), I think it is ironic that
the lovely leather case supplied with the camera is stamped with the
stylish lower-case "periflex" logo on the top, and "Made
in Germany" on the bottom!
Known Issue
My first roll of film I put through this camera was an unmitigated disaster.
Not a single photograph was in focus! Looking at the photographs, there
was clearly a film-flatness issue - something that I was able to quickly
confirm with an email to Periflex expert and author of It's
By Corfield - It Must Be Good... The Periflex Story, John E.
Lewis. The glass pressure plate on the interior of the back cover of
the camera was originally mounted with a kind of rubberised foam which,
after 50 years, has either lost its spring or disintegrated altogether.
In many cases, a home repair job has ensued, sometimes carried out with
good intentions but without practical knowledge.
In my case, the pressure plate had just been stuck
onto the back with some double-sided tape, leaving at least a 2-3mm
gap between the pressure plate and the film guides. The film was floating
quite loosely in there!
The solution is fortunately very easy. First, remove
the glass pressure plate, clean off any globs of glue or other adheisives
underneath, re-apply the black matt paint to the back side of the plate,
and re-mount it to a fresh piece of spongy foam, about 4mm thick. I
found that the foam from a Hoya filter case was just right (it should
also be painted black with a couple of coats of matt paint).
Sample Pictures It took me several months to get through a full second
roll in the Periflex; it just hasn't been the camera I grab when going
out for the day! Well, the second roll was a success, so the home repair
job described above has certainly done the trick. Some sample images
can be found here
(these are photographed prints; my scanner is still enroute... I will
add to this gallery once I have my scanner)
The Corfield Story The history of Corfield and the Periflex line of cameras
can be found at this nice website:
,
which lowers the periscope mirror into the camera chamber behind the
lens when depressed. One peers down into the focusing viewfinder while
holding the lever down, and focusing with the other hand - it's not
as much of a juggle as it sounds. The view through the focusing patch
is surprisingly bright - it is of course easiest to do this at widest
aperture; stopping down will give you depth-of field preview for the
aperture you intend to use. There appears to be a ground-glass element
involved somewhere in the periscope assembly, as the image you see has
the same slightly grainy quality as that seen through an SLR or TLR
focusing screen.
supplied with the Periflex is light and smooth to focus, though the
"travel" (aka "throw) required to move from infinity
to close-focus is very long. The aperture ring has no click-stops, but
is again smooth in operation. I ran out of patience counting the aperture
blades, but there are enough to form a nice circle, which is a contributing
factor in producing pleasing "bokeh". Who knows - this is
obviously no Leiss/Zeitz lens, but it may prove to be a perfectly decent
performer.