C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →tlr-medium-format
The Aires Reflex is a 6x6cm twin-lens reflex camera produced by Aires Camera Industry Co. of Japan, introduced around 1955. Aires was a Tokyo-based manufacturer that produced a range of 35mm rangefinder cameras alongside its medium-format TLR work; the company is perhaps better known in Western markets for its 35mm Viscount and Accessor models, but the TLR line served the domestic amateur market during the boom years of the mid-1950s.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the — format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
View profile →BW
Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
View profile →BW
Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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About this camera
A competently made mid-1950s Japanese 6x6 TLR from Aires, offering the H.Coral lens in a no-frills budget body.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 120 film, 6x6cm (12 exposures) |
| Mount | Fixed |
| Taking lens | H.Coral 75mm f/3.5 |
| Viewing lens | H.Coral 75mm f/3.5 |
| Year introduced | ~1955 |
| Shutter | Leaf: 1s - 1/300s + B |
| Flash sync | ~ |
| Meter | None |
| Film advance | Side knob, red-window frame count |
| Viewfinder | Waist-level, ground glass + sports finder |
| Battery | None |
Aires Camera Industry was established in the early 1950s in Tokyo and built a reputation for affordable cameras aimed at domestic consumers and the export market. The Reflex model was released into a crowded field: by 1955, Yashica, Ricoh, Minolta, Beauty Camera, and a dozen smaller makers were all competing for budget TLR buyers.
Aires' TLR efforts were secondary to its 35mm line, and the medium-format cameras do not appear to have been produced in large numbers. The company ceased operations in the early 1960s as consolidation in the Japanese camera industry eliminated many smaller manufacturers.
The Aires Reflex is notable primarily for the H.Coral 75mm f/3.5 lens, which is considered a competent if modest performer among Japanese budget TLR lenses of the period. At small apertures (f/5.6 - f/11) it delivers acceptable centre sharpness; corner performance and wide-open rendering are typical of budget Tessar-type designs.
For collectors, the Aires name is associated more strongly with the 35mm rangefinder range, making the Reflex an uncommon camera -- it surfaces occasionally at Japanese camera fairs and online auction sites at modest prices. Working examples are generally cheap enough to use without anxiety.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
View profile →Aires Camera Industry Co. Reflex
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