Samoca EE-28

The Electric 28

From what information I could gather, the EE range of Samoca cameras was very short lived. There is one reference to a Samoca EE-35 for sale, a supposed f/3.5 version, but I believe it was someone’s auction listing calling it a 35 for 35mm. The Samoca EE-28 was a departure from the long running Samoca 35 series and a different style to the earlier released LE and M line. A matte metal body wrapped in black leatherette, with a handful of polished accents, makes this camera have a classic look. The EE-28 is heavier than expected in the hand, but not much of a bother when you use the half case for carrying. An all around good looking and solid camera, with a quality feel.

Looking through the viewfinder, you have standard frame lines with a parallax correction area. Above the frame lines is a dark rectangle with a reflection of the selenium meter. The meter is reflected from the top of the camera through a window on the right hand side. The piece reflecting the light is not very clear, so you are not able to see the meter from the top of the camera. When looking at the meter through the viewfinder, there are no markings whatsoever. Far left is f/16 and far right is wide open. The camera’s meter is coupled… sort of. It does not change with the shutter speed or aperture setting, but it does control the aperture directly. An uncommon setup, but more on that later.

Winding the camera is done from a one-stroke lever on the backside, with the frame counter being located on the bottom of the camera. The rewind release button and tripod socket can be found there as well. Rewinding the camera is done by a standard rewind knob on the left side of the top cover. A cold shoe is mounted in the center of the top plate, with the PC port being located on the under side of the lens barrel. To fire the shutter, press down on the very prominent grey plastic lever next to the lens.

All exposure controls are located on the barrel. The EE-28 is equipped with a 44mm f/2.8 Samoca branded lens with front element focusing. Looking from the top of the camera down to the lens barrel, you can see the focusing scale of infinity and 10 meters, down to 0.9 meters. Feet are on the focus scale as well, but seem to be sparsely labeled. The lens even includes the classic scale focus symbols, with occasional indents you can feel when focusing. Moving closer to the camera’s body, there is a ring where you can choose the films ASA and a window behind that for the f-stop. The ASA range is between 10 and 160, with the option of a Flash setting. However, this dial is not just an ASA selection. If you look at the bottom of the camera, you can see that each ASA correlates to a shutter speed; 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, or 1/300 and a bulb setting. Changing the aperture is done with a chrome tab on the left side of the barrel, looking down at the lens. The lens has an A ‘Automatic’ aperture mode or the option of a manual selection of f/2.8 down to f/16.

When shooting with the Samoca EE-28, you can set the camera completely manually or put the camera in an “aim-and-shoot” mode as the manual states. What’s strange is this not a shutter or aperture priority mode, closer resembling an EV like system. You set the ASA and it fixes the shutter at one speed. The meter is always reading the same ratio in Automatic mode, so the camera is set to a pseudo fully automatic mode; going to any f-stop between f/2.8 and f/16. As the manual states, if you see the needle… the exposure will be correct. No setting affects the meter, so if you do not see the needle you will over or underexpose the shot. An odd system, but one that works if you follow the recommended ASA setting.

A few odd things to note as well. The flash setting is an unmarked speed between 1/25th and bulb. There is no mention of what speed it syncs to in the manual, but it’s ever so slightly slower than 1/25th. I would guess it would be 1/20th of a second. As well as that, you can go past f/16 when manually setting the f-stop. There is no marking there, but the aperture does close slightly. Not a full stop but possibly something strange like f/18. Another thing to be aware of is the position of the meter window. The window is right above the shutter release so you can easily cover it with your hand. Lastly, I want to mention the odd ASA dial on my example. In the manual, the ASA dial goes to 100 but on my camera, it goes to 160 and even farther. There was a bit of metal glued to the barrel, covering an ASA 200 setting strangely enough. When the dial is turned to ASA 200, if you look on the under side of the lens, the shutter speed goes past 1/300th. It may be slightly faster but it’s hard to tell. Quite a few post-production fixes it seems.

THE SPECS AND FEATURES

Shutter Speeds - bulb, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/300th

Aperture - f/2.8 to f/16, Automatic mode

Meter Type - selenium cell, coupled to aperture

Shutter - metal leaf shutter

Lens - Samcoa 44mm f/2.8

Flash Option - cold shoe with PC port, fash sync shutter setting

Batteries - none

Film Type - 35mm

Other Features - no strap lugs, no threaded shutter release

The Experience

I’m not really sure how I came upon the brand Samoca, but once I saw the unique looking Samoca 35 and all of its variations, I was hooked. I looked around online and waited for some sort of deal to show up, and the first camera to come across my path was an ‘as is’ Samoca EE-28. I took a chance and thought it would be a simple repair. Turns out, I was wrong in almost every aspect.

The EE-28 showed up not working, even in the slightest. Lightmeter… dead, shutter… jammed; no advancing, no movement, nothing. I enjoy a repair challenge so I dove in. Everything seemed to just fall into place. I got the meter working, shutter firing, film advancing and everything was spot on. A week or so went by and I took it on a walk with a friend. Two shots in and the camera jammed. I tried to wind one last time, but that was a big mistake. I could feel parts move and bend in an unnatural way, completely ceasing the winding lever.

At this point, I was already 4 or so hours into working on this camera. Admittedly I was a bit aggravated that it decided to malfunction after it worked without any problems in testing. I told myself that this camera would not win, and it sure was a fight. I ended up taking the camera completely apart. Lens separated from the body, leather taken completely off, and everything in between. The problem was with the linkage somewhere between the winding mechanism, sprocket wheel, and firing mechanism. The only way to see that mechanism was to get down to the real guts of the camera. Truth be told, I had so many parts around me that I was beginning to think there was no hope of getting the camera back together. I found my way to the linkage and tried my best at working out the timing. I won’t get into the nuts and bolts here, but the mechanism that turns the takeup spool was not engaging due to wear and age. I did quite a few tests trying to work out how the heck to get a certain tab to catch and move correctly. It was a very odd design, but I finally figured out the timing and got the camera back to winding correctly. That was just one part of the process; greasing, oiling, and the bending of a few parts was still needed before I could re-assemble the camera. Once fully tested and working, the last step was fitting the top and bottom covers and gluing the leather back on. It was not easy to fit back together. Soldering wires, lining up parts with specific timing, and the calibration of the scale focus lens, proved to be difficult but manageable.

I went out again with the EE-28, and thankfully it had no winding problems. For the color and black and white rolls I shot, I set the camera to Auto and hoped for the best. The color shots turned out great, with one of my favorite pictures being the one under the bridge. The black and white shots were overexposed though. I set the camera to the correct ASA, but I guess it was too sunny of a day. All in all some great shots and a better lens than I would have guessed.

I must have taken the EE-28 apart more than a dozen times. Figuring the timing of linkages down to what wires needed to be shielded from touching the body, really tested all of the skills I have learned over the years. I took a completely dead camera and got it working to its full potential. It even turned out to be a great camera in the end. The EE-28 was a fun camera to shoot, and a repair that I am very proud of accomplishing. Samoca is a very underrated and not well talked about camera brand, and I definitely became a fan. Keep a lookout, because they are very capable cameras.