Bolsey jubilee manual

T hen he designed the Bolca which became the Bolsey Reflex and then was sold to a Swiss company to become the Alpa. Bolsky emigrated to the U. He wanted affordable, well made cameras. Unfortunately the imports from Japan and Germany were too much for him and he closed his factory doors in I cover many photographic topics and techniques in my book.

Please have a look at some of my other posts here. Hi I have a Bolsey camera given to me and I am trying to determine when it was produced. It does not have the B2 or any other model id on it. It looks like the B2 but does not have that on it. Could it be older or one from the military? Thanks for any reply Don. I am not an authority on the Bolsey. However, I do know they made them for the military and other branches of the government. The army had olive colored cameras.

There may have been differently colored versions for the air force and navy. They may not have had the top notch precision engineering or advanced optics of their German and Japanese competitors, but they were well made cameras that often offered unique and innovative features in a package that was not only compact and easy to use, but at a price that was affordable to a much wider range of people. These cameras would have been the bread and butter models for American families in the middle of the 20th century.

An Argus C3 was the first camera I ever tore down, and while I only recently completed the repair of this Bolsey, I can say with confidence that reading my repair section above, doing a full CLA of a Bolsey B2 is within the capability of anyone. Does the Bolsey B2 compare to a Leica or a Nikon?

This is a very well built camera with a unique look and design that is easy and fun to use and makes images that have a vintage look to them. I cannot wait for spring to arrive so I can shoot another roll of film in more ideal lighting conditions. This first link is to a scan of an article from the August issue of Modern Photography.

It gives a lot of information and insight to the entire Bolsey product lineup of the early FYI for the knob removals. I had the same problem you did. The knobs have TWO screws, the first one locks the 2nd on in place. Remove the first screw. Then back off the second screw and the knobs come right off. Thank you for your website, it is a valuable resource to me! You were absolutely right! What a strange design?! At first, I was looking for a second screw hole on the knob, but the two screws are directly in front of one another!

I will edit the post with this new information! Bought a Bolsey B2 back in or so. Just graduated from college,got drafted, Took the Bolsey with me. Shot Kodachrome in all three and til this day I cannot tell the difference as to which camera was used for a given slide. It has a direct viewfinder thanks to a pentaprism with a split image rangefinder. What is does not have is a waist level view finder.

Butkus has a manual. I learned the basics of correct exposure while shooting Kodachrome and Plus-X with that little gem, funky double-exposure prevention plunger and all. I quickly learned that the chrome finish as applied by the Bolsey in their US plant has not aged gracefully: Many examples you see these days have severe pitting and loss of plating in areas of high finger contact.

A recommended read for the collector. The deep second screw in the knob! Home Photography Bolsey B2 It was designed to give a photographer the most value for his or her money. This was a feature packed camera that fit many modern conveniences into as small of a package as possible. The camera was sturdy, reliable, light weight, easy to use, and made great photographs.

Many of them are still available today on the used market for very little money. I absolutely enjoyed my time shooting with the Bolsey and recommend that the next time you come across one, you pick it up and give it a try! This dates the image to after A Bolex H16 cinema camera uses 16mm film and supports interchangeable lenses with the cine-C mount.

A Paillard interchangeable cylinder music box from the early 20th century. Some were sold with this same red leatherette. The Bolsey 8 was an extremely small 8mm camera. Step 1: Unscrew the front element. Step 2: Remove the two flat head screws in the front plate and put them somewhere safe.

Step 3: Remove the film compartment door, and look inside of the opening to the back of the shutter. Step 4: The picture to the right shows the black lock ring that you were unscrewing in the previous step, along with two very thin brass shims that were behind the shutter. Step 4b optional : If the focus is stiff on your Bolsey like mine was, at this point you can squirt some naphtha oil into the focus helical to loosen it up.

Step 6: I often say this is in my repair guides, but it is always a good idea to take pictures with a smartphone of each step of disassembly. Step 7: You are now ready to soak the shutter in naphtha oil, or some kind of lighter fluid like Ronsonol. Step 9: Clean the rear lens element as needed and screw it back onto the shutter and make sure it is hand tight. Step Once you are sure the shutter is correctly installed into the camera, the flash sync wire is secured and not flopping around, and both shims are in place, turn the camera upside down again and put the black locking ring into the film compartment.

Step Put the front plate back onto the shutter and secure it with the two screws you removed in Step 2. Cleaning the Viewfinder and Rangefinder optional : Depending on the condition of your Bolsey, you may want to try and get inside the top plate of the camera to clean the viewfinder and rangefinder. To get the knobs off, there are two screws right in front of another.

You must remove the outer screw and then back off the inner one and the knobs will then lift off. The Bolsey B2 had a fashionable red logo upon the top plate. This logo is often missing from many examples of this camera, thankfully mine was still attached. The rear of the Bolsey shows both viewfinder and rangefinder windows, a depth of field scale with film reminder, and on the far left, the flash contact. The metal post with the red dot on it is the double exposure prevention.

In this position, you cannot fire the shutter without first advancing the film. The Bolsey B2 comes with a coated 44mm Wollensak lens and Alphax shutter. The shutter release has a long throw which is a frequent complaint of using this camera. The focus scale goes down to 2 feet, which is quite remarkable. The bottom of the camera has a simple lever to lock and unlock the back of the camera.

The back of the Bolsey with the back removed. Notice how tight the film compartment is. One of my first images was graffiti on a static train car. This image is sharp and shows nice color detail. Another train picture. I was playing it safe here, but this image turned out nice. This image shows that I had difficulty framing tight images, likely due to parallax correction. The bottom of the sign is cut off. This is a contrasty scene that turned out really nice.

There is a lot of shadow detail here and the image is sharp. I got a little brave later in the roll and attempted some indoor shots with the lens wide open. While a bit soft, especially near the edges, I think this turned out well.

I am extremely pleased with this shot as it was done in a poorly lit bar. The lens is wide open, and I stabilized the camera on another pool table. Clarus MS Like this article? Share it! Like this: Like Loading Next Post Three Decades of Nikons. Thank you very much! Yeah, that one was a mystery to me too, until I figured it out! Like this Post? Let me hear your thoughts! Cancel reply. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. My Final Word How these ratings work. The Bolsey B2 was a very popular and well made compact 35mm rangefinder made in the USA in the mid 20th century.

The first unit was the Cinegraph Bol. He followed with the Bolec which was later renamed the Bolex. Then he designed the Bolca which became the Bolsey Reflex and then was sold to a Swisscompany to become the Alpa. There's some argument over Bolsky's real name. Some have him as Ukranian and his real name as Bogopolsky.

Bolsey emigrated to the U. He wanted affordable, well made cameras. Unfortunately the imports from Japan and Germany were too much for him and he closed his factory doors in Notes on cameras that I have used and enjoyed over the decades -- from toy cameras, working classics, and professional units. Note: Using the text or images on this site in an ebay auction without permission is a violation of your ebay Terms of Service.

I will report you to ebay if I discover such a violation taking place. Categories : 35mm , Bolsey , Rangefinder. Leave a comment. Email Address. Remember personal info? Rangefinder vs. TLR vs.