Komaflex-S A 127 Dead End

Back in the early sixties there were a number of cameras that used 127 film. A lot of them made twelve square negatives, 4cm x 4cm, and they were popular because the "super slides" fit standa 35mm slide projectors. Rollieflex, Yashica, a Ricoh made twin lens reflexes and Kowa came out with a single lens reflex, the Komaflex-S.

I made the mistake of buying one. It was smaller than a Hasselblad and had a very good quality lens. It lacked interchangeable backs and interchangeable lenses though. It was the insides that were the problem. The camera had a bad tendancy to jam. Within a year it was completely broken. I bought a 35mm camera.

A few years later Kowa came out with a 6cm x 6cm camera, the Kowaflex, which had interchangeable lenses. It also seemed to have solved the jamming problem. I knew a lot of people who bought them and they seemed quite happy with them. They were certainly a lot cheaper than a Hasselblad, but "once bitten, twice shy" as the saying goes. I'd never feel comfortable using one. I knew that! I saved up some money and bought a used Hasselblad along with a couple of extra roll film backs, a Polaroid back, a prism finder, and a couple of extra lenses. When I sold that kit I didn't lose any money. Live and learn. Sometimes the least expensive turns out to be the most costly in the end.

Fencing With The Devil

Dave is one of the neighborhood teenagers who has mowed my lawn over the years. I guess he did it for about a year until one day he showed up with another kid. He told me that his family was moving out of town and he introduced me to Enzio. Now Enzio cuts my lawn. A few years ago I'd met Dave the same way, from a kid who was heading off to college and wouldn't be mowing lawns in the neighborhood any longer. When I was in high school I picked up some spending money by cutting grass, and it's good to carry on a tradition like that. It keeps them out of trouble.

In my case trouble is caused by a neighbor and his fence. He's been a source of problems for four years now, ever since he bought the house next door. It's that bilious green house in the center of the photo. Around his back yard he built a six foot solid wood fence, and for awile he was keeping rosters there. The code at the time specified a five foot maximum fence height.

I'm beginng to suspect that my neighbor is a practitioner of Santeria and he was raising the roosters to sacrifice to the gods. The gods must not like him. He bought that house four years ago, just before the market peaked. Then he put at least another hundred thousand into it before painting it that bilious green and sticking a For Sale sign out front just as the market crashed. If he can find a buyer he'll probably have to add at least a hundred thousand of his own money to pay off the mortgage and consruction loans. He must have realized that. He took down the For Sale sign. This photo was shot about a year ago, and now that ficus hedge along the fence between the houses is almost as high as the roof. I may be stuck with a bad neighbor but at least I don't have to look at his house.