Lissieu, l’Île Beyne - a photo on Flickriver

            On September 17 and 18, 2025, I proceeded to the first tests on film of my year-1949 French range-finder FOCA Universel and its rare OPLAR 1.9/5cm lens of the very first batch year 1948 (model-1) both constructed in Châteaudun (Eure-et-Loir), France, in the O.P.L. (Optique & Precision de Levallois) SA company factory that still exist today as a property of SAFRAN company specialized in aerospace systems. 

This FOCA Universel is of the same series 1949 of the ones that participate to the Second French Himalaya Expedition 1950 to the Annapurna, that lead the two French mountaineer Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal to the top of Annapurna bringing above 8000m altitude two FOCA’s Universel for the historical photos. The FOCA Universel of Maurice Herzog (born in Lyon, France, in 1919) with the serial number 73.497) that came back from Annapurna, was stolen at the 1958 Bruxelles Exhibition, in the Pavillon of France. Mine has the serial number 73.058 (model-2 version-3). My camera is equipped of the very first model year 1948 of the famous 1.9/5cm lens branded « OPLAR » in good condition. Soon after, the model-2 in 1949 was rebranded « OPLAREX ». 

The FOCA was loaded with a 36-exposure ADOX CHS 100 II black-and-white film that was exposed over to consecutive days, first in Lissieu Bois Dieu at the foot of the Mont d’Or massif near Lyon city, France. The film was completed the day after on the Saône river aboard my semi-rigid inflatable boat « Planète Océan » near the Island Beyne also not far away from the Mont d’Or. 

Adox is one of the oldest photographic products brand in Germany since 1860. Adox CHS 100 II is a very technical film composed of a mix of two emulsions, one ortho and another panchromatic. The resulting sensitivity profile is then bit particular with a drop around 500 nm between blue and green colors. The emulsion is coated on a clear 100 micron polyester teraphtalate (PET) base with two different anti-halation layer, a black one on the film back and a violet one between the PET base and the emulsion mix. This anti-halation are removed par two pre-soaking water bathes of 2min at the temperature of the processing (20°C).. The lens was equipped with a Genaco metal shade hood 42mm push-on and either a protective FOCA AUV  or Yellow filter

Expositions were determined for 100 ISO (50 with the yellow filter) using an Autometer III Minolta light meter fitted with a 10° finder for selective meterings privileging the shadow areas. 

Documentary smartphone picture

September 17, 2025
Le Bois-Dieu
69380 Lissieu
France

After completion to view Nr. 38, the film was processing in  ADOX Atomal 49 very fine grain developer stock solution as recommended by Adox for 6min30 at 20°C plus additional 2min to compensate the developper exhaustion.

Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and  Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite. 

The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version of Adobe Lightroom 14  (14.5, August 2025) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as print files with frame or the full size JPEG's together with some documentary smartphone color pictures.

Taken on: September 17, 2025

Tags:

Lyon

France

L'Île

Beyne

Saône

River

FOCA

Universel

Year

1949

French

Rang-finder

35mm

camera

O.P.L.

Optique

Précision

Levallois

OPLAR

Lens

1:1.9

f=5cm

Adox

CHS

100

film

photography

Atomal

developer

Sony

digitizing

Minolta

Auto

Bellows

III

Slide

Duplicator

Macro

Rokkor

50mm « less

Sets appears in: • Lissieu, l’Île Beyne

Camera: vivo V2124, f/2.0, 1/35 sec, 3.8mm, ISO 1305 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	vivo V2124
Aperture:	f/2.0
Exposure Time:	0.029 sec (1/35)
Focal Length:	3.8mm
ISO:	1305
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Not Defined
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Light Source:	D65
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 14.5.1 (Macintosh)
Show full info

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