The only frustrating part of this camera is the film loading. There are two clips, one for the roll of film you’re shooting, one for the take-up spool. They are there to hold the film tightly onto the spool and work perfectly. The issue is that the camera is designed to drop the film in from the top while pulling the film across the back, all while holding the clips onto the rolls. This part of the process took some getting used to and caused me a lot of frustration.

The back of the camera has a window to see the frame numbers printed on the paper, as well as reminder numbers printed on the back. The numbers are 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15. All the user has to do is line the numbers up in the window and you’re set for shooting. A huge improvement added to the camera were locks to hold the knobs in place. Having had a few issues with loose film, Pali set to making a system to replicate my rubber band method; I had been using rubber bands around the wind knobs to keep them in place. The system he came up with incorporates “locks” that are screwed down to prevent any loosening of the wind knobs. The locking system works perfectly. At the end of the roll, it is best to remove the film once it has come off the original roll. Leaving a slight leader out allows you to pull the film out easier, while also not making the roll too tight for the clip on the take-up spool.

Framing with this camera isn’t that easy, as it has no viewfinder. I ordered a viewfinder for a 6x17 camera that fits in the cold shoe on the top plate of the camera. While it isn’t perfect, it does allow a much more accurate idea of what you’re framing and shooting. This is the viewfinder I use. This viewfinder is all metal and adds a bit of heft to the camera, but in practice having it is much better than not having it.

The shutter speed and aperture are on the lens itself. The shutter is a Copal 0, which gives me Time, Bulb, and speeds between 1 second and 1/500th. Apertures from f5.6 to F45, though I keep it around f8 and f11 for almost everything. The depth of field for this extreme wide angle allows me to not worry too much about focusing, as the depth of field is enormous. I thought I would use the helical all the time, but 9 out of 10 shots are shot at infinity. I did try some “street photography” with the camera in Israel, but I did not have the focus set correctly.