Pilot Super

Pilot Super

 K.W. –  Dresden, Germany

c1939-1941

The Pilot Super is supposed to have an extinction meter attached to the viewing hood.  Mine doesn’t have one. Never did by the looks of it.
This SLR makes either 12 6×6 or 16 6x 4.5 cm images on 120 film.

I like weird cameras and there’s a lot to like about the Pilot Super. It has an interchangeable, screw mount lens and it goes “FLAP” when you trip  the shutter.
The film advance resets the shutter. You need to lift a little button/lever on the side to do so. The advance knob also sets shutter speeds.

Mine is equipped with a 7.5 cm f4.5 Pilotar. Other Pilot Supers had Ennastars or the fabulous Laack in either 2.9, 3.5 or 4.5.

Shutter speeds are B, 20, 50 100 and 200. The Pilotar closes down to f16.

The guillotine shutter is double exposure proof. There’s a pop-up magnifier in the hood and you need it. The viewfinder is dim as the camera is about seventy years old.

Dresden is a bleak city. Grimy and cold. A few years after my Pilot Super was built, Dresden became a lot bleaker.
Some photographers seek bokeh. Some like sharpness. I like bleakness.

If I designed a lens, I’d call it a “bleakar.”

Winter days can be filled with fog and squirrels

APX 400 in HC110(H) for 12 minutes