Ilford Sporti

[Steve Smith]

A working aperture arm??? What the heck is THAT all about?? What size film does the Sporti take, or is it general 35mm or 120/620 etc like the Holga?

the Sporti is 6x6 on 120 film with a lens which I think is just a little bit wider than standard for that format. It was not actually marked on my Sporti 6 but I think it was around 75mm. The lens on my 'new' Balda is 72mm, also on 6x6 format.

The thing I liked about my brief time with my Sporti was the fact that it easily fit into an inside jacket pocket and being mainly lightweight plastic, you couldn't really tell that it was there.

I think the 'working aperture arm' refers to the fact that the aperture selection on the Holga doesn't actually do anything.



Steve.

[RH Designs]

As a lad my first camera was an Ilford Sporti 4, the "junior" version that took 127 film. It wasn't too light-tight but it worked. I have no idea what happened to it eventually when I graduated to 35mm in my teens. There's a good site about the Sporti and other Ilford cameras here.

[Neil Purling]

I have got an Ilford Sporti too. I got it from ebay as usual. I have been through a bunch of these to find one where the lens is clear and the shutter can be un-gummed. Either you get one with a good shutter & the lens is misty or the shutter sticks. As there was nothing to lose I used some electrical contact cleaner. This is some sort of alcohol. The shutter worked until the cleaner evaporated so I then used cotton a wool bud sprayed with WD40 and the shutter now worked. I decided to put a film through it.

You can see the results for yourselves. I under-developed the film by mistake, but this worked out OK, because a scanner exaggerates contrast (as well as grain). Please bear in mind these images were done hand-held.
I don't know what the lenses were on the original Sporti, whether one element or a cemented pair. I think the later Sporti 6 had a achromat composed of what I assume is a cemented pair. Maybe this is true for the early Sporti.

I have also got a Goldixette by Goldammer. This one has a chromed pull-out lens barrel. The original Dacora Digna is similar but the barrel is plain alloy, and that sometimes produces fine debris inside the camera.
Has anyone with more experience of the Sporti know if it tends to vignette in strong lighting. So far i have not seen any evidence of this behaviour.

[Steve Smith]

I have also got a Goldixette by Goldammer. This one has a chromed pull-out lens barrel. The original Dacora Digna is similar but the barrel is plain alloy, and that sometimes produces fine debris inside the camera.

I had not heard of a Goldixette but a quick image search shows that it is very similar to the Balda Baldixette which I mentioned earlier in this thread.


Steve.

[petefoto]

hi there i think the first name this camera had was a dacora digna, hopefully the photos are attached to this reply

they are really cheap here in New Zealand, our form of ebay is called trademe.co.nz
take a look you can find some really odd stuff that has been long gone in the state and the uk

[Akki14]

Not quite the same camera. The ilford sporti does not have a pull out lens like that one. It was made by the same company, though.