Yay i got my City Slicker Belair in time for my family Xmas celabrations on the 22nd! First Opin...

4
Basically the second the notice email went out in October about the new fangled fancy amazing medium format beast; Belair 6×12, my ears perked up like a well clipped Doberman and especially with the 30% off for pre-ordering! The City Slicker was very cool in black and with the discount was less than $200 smackers so I couldn’t resist plus the fact is I generally don’t much care for frills in the camera’s surface appearance, I just want it to take pics and as I said already I liked the sleak black. Having mild ADD it was a bit brutal to wait as long as they said till December and especially when I started to see some of my online lomo contacts posting test albums in early Dec so I freaked out and sent 2-3 “Help where is my Belair?!?!” emails only to realize I just needed to relax it was totally on the way! That is the effect this camera has on us Lomoheads it is new and very cool like an iPhone or like a Bond gadget! Well a few days ago I got it and I tell you it was like a Christmas Miracle because I celebrate with my family on the 22nd this year and really wanted to bring my new toy.

Opening the box was very exciting and the camera looked fantastic but…
But #1. No strap! ok I thought this was a weird miss fire on Lomo’s side because obviously it needs a strap it is a huge camera and it has the hardware for it so Hello!
But #2. The bellows open really stupidly easily and too often when you don’t want them to and it is harder to shut them than it should be I mean I feel like I am going to break the camera or jam it!
But #3. The masks are a very cool feature and fit in the camera very very snuggly which is a great thing I guess except that they are almost impossible to take out to change! I mean REALLY HARD to take out and actually one of the lil tabs on my 6×6 has split!! On my lubitel, all one does is fit the frame mask in and pull it out when done…easy peasy!
But #4 and honestly this is the worst missfire…there is NO indication when the batteries are dead and the only way you have even an inkling that they MAY be dead, is if your roll is over or under exposed and at least two of my test rolls were way too dark

Oh well there is definitely a learning curve on this cam and Buts aside I really love this easy to shoot with cool as cucumber and Fresh as a Prince Belair 6×12 camera & it is worth it when you DO get great results! The lenses are wicked sharp and the frame choices are nice plus I bought the 114mm glass lens so I look forward to that too!! I posted a few of my fave test shots!!

Credits: koduckgirl

Pop me an opin of your first exp with your Belair in the comments if you like!
KDG

scritto da koduckgirl il 2012-12-18

4 Commenti

  1. clickiemcpete
    clickiemcpete ·

    There are a lot of really great straps out there for very little money. Go on Ebay and look up "leather straps Leica" and all kinds of Asian sellers come up with some very well made straps anywhere from $20-80. Shipping is often free and it just a couple of weeks usually. I have bought many different ones over the years with no trouble and there are a lot of good ones out there. For this camera Arnuvo or Cam-in straps are reasonable.

  2. koduckgirl
    koduckgirl ·

    Cool I will look into it so far I put a defunct Holga strap on it and that is working great

  3. saisai
    saisai ·

    @clickiemcpete : thanks for the advice, I just bought a cam-in for my Belair for 29 euros...

  4. petit-prevost
    petit-prevost ·

    Nice i want a belair for my birthday… just t find who offert me ^^