The Six-20 is a relatively easy camera to shoot. The lens is fixed focus; there is only one effective shutter speed. The only variable is aperture. The tiny waist level finder is all but useless, however. The sport finder is slightly better but is still only vaguely accurate.
I find folders simply fun to use. I had difficulty remembering to rotate the finder prism before attempting to close the bed, but no harm was done.
Unfortunately something went drastically wrong. Most of my shots looked like this:
Only 2 of 8 were even remotely identifiable. The camera produced a lot of dust, and the film seems heavily fogged. I used a roll of Portra 160 respooled onto a 620 spool by a third party. I won't name or blame him as I've used his film before with no problems. I had guessed an effective shutter speed of 1/40-1/50s.
Today I gave the camera a good cleaning and timed the shutter with the Shutter Speed iPhone app. It turns out to be much closer to 1/20s. I hand-spooled a roll of FP4 myself, and I will try again tomorrow.
I'm not willing to call this one a failure yet, primarily because I can see no good reason for the poor results. We shall see. . .
Notes from Mosquito Hill 