Ilford Sporti

5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

By Trevor king

I am not sure where or when I had acquired the Ilford Sporti but I discovered it in a box of old photographic equipment that I had amassed over the years. Still encased in its original brown fabric case with leather strap it had probably not seen the light of day for many years! The camera takes 120 roll film which I have previously dabbled with when I purchased a Holga a couple of years ago, that is another story that I will save for another day! I do love old cameras and often wonder what scenes and memories that they have captured in years gone by.

The camera

On inspection the Sporti was in relatively clean condition, externally there was a slight dent in the pressed steel lens housing and the shutter did not fire. An internal inspection showed a light build up of rust on the shutter leaf which was probably the cause of the shutter not working. The shutter issue was soon resolved by using sewing machine oil applied gently with a cotton bud to clean the shutter leaves and opening up the front of the lens housing to expose the shutter mechanism. A quick light brushing and a little more sewing machine oil and the shutter was firing fine!

Features

The camera is a simplistic point and shoot, however in this modern age it did cause me some issues! Remembering to focus was the main one, after all we have autofocus these days!

The Ilford Sporti has one shutter speed which I believe to be around 1/125th and two two aperture settings {Cloudy f9 and sunny f11). The manual focus covers 5 ft to infinity which is also split into three focusing guide points of close ups, groups and views. There is also a cold shoe if you wish to mount a flash and a threaded hole in the shutter button for a remote release cable.

The film stock

I had a roll of Ilford XP2 Super ISO400 Black and white which I presumed would be a good film to try through the camera for the time of year (April/May). Eager to get shooting I took a couple of shots of the family (indoors), a couple walking along the towpath on my way to work, a shot of one of our dogs basking in the sunlight and finished off the roll at a local classic car show that I visited. On getting the film back from processing, the indoor shots did not turn out (not enough light), the dog in the sun would have been great had I remembered to focus, but the remaining eight were of reasonable quality.

Processing my scans

I have retouched the scans in Lightroom but only with minimal adjustments. I do not see the point of shooting film and removing the analogue feel of the emulsion, as that all seems counter intuitive to me!

Conclusion

On the whole I am happy with the results that I managed to get from this camera and film combination and I am looking forward to the next roll through (colour next time I think). I had a little bit of a cost saving when sending off the film for processing as the XP2 can be developed in colour chemistry. The shots of the classic cars was an ideal subject for this camera that was produced in the early 1950’s. One thing that I have to try next time is to crop in a little tighter on my subject, I seem to recall filling the viewfinder with the subject yet the images seem to have a wider view than I anticipated.

Leyland Military truck
On the Peak forest canal
Captured in the marina at Furness vale, note the Grey heron on the top .
An MG at the Classic car show
Not being a car buff myself I am not sure of the make of this car but I think that it is a Morgan, happy to be corrected!
Mustang
A beautiful car with a fantastic sounding engine.
Riley at the Classic car show
A Riley which is certainly one that I wouldn’t mind going out for a drive in!

Thank you for reading.

You can find more of my photographic work on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/trevor.gcc/# and Ipernity https://www.ipernity.com/home/2378978

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About The Author

By Trevor king
I received my first camera (a Zenit) back in the 80's one Christmas and have enjoyed photography ever since. I am more of a happy snapper than specialising in one particular subject (variety is the spice of life),
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Comments

Jukrei on 5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

Comment posted: 05/07/2024

No, not a Morgan. It is definitely an MG. Also very nice pictures. I guess this Ilford was not a high end camera in it's day. Good quality photos anyway.
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Jukka Reimola on 5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

Comment posted: 05/07/2024

BTW, I just noticed that there IS a Morgan, to the left of the Mustang.
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Paul Quellin on 5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

Comment posted: 05/07/2024

Hi Trevor, I enjoyed this and the images were better than I would have expected. It was timely for me, as an Alford Sporti is the next one on my conveyor of cameras awaiting cleaning and commissioning. The shutter works on mine, but the glass needs a clean. I had some vague ideas about how to get at it and your article provides encouragement to get on and do it. Thank you.
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Charles C replied:

Comment posted: 05/07/2024

Thanks for the article, it was most interesting. I took have an Ilford Sporti although I haven't used it for decades. I acquired it when I was a boy and am now in my 60s! Being medium format, the quality was pretty good I recall, under good conditions. Must try it again sometime....

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Gary Smith on 5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

Comment posted: 05/07/2024

So many cameras, so little time...
Thanks for your article on a camera with one shutter speed and two apertures!
I'm not well-versed in film types, so I don't know if the lack of contrast is due to the film (but I suspect so). I realize that you don't like to fiddle with your scans whereas I'm all for it. I would have tweaked your shots for some additional contrast (probably because I cut my teeth on Tri-X).
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Russ on 5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

Comment posted: 05/07/2024

Cheap and Cheerful describes this camera and the images are certainly a cut above what one would expect. The bloom on the lens imparts a timeless feel. Great to see this old clicker working and restored. I'd like to see what it does with color film!
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Lars on 5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

Comment posted: 05/07/2024

Filling in: The low contrast - I don´t think it´s the film, haven´t used XP2 in a long time but to my recollection perfectly normal in that respect.
I´d do a flashlight test on the lens and make sure that the glass surfaces are clean. Also, any coating on the lenses? At this age and price range I wouldn´t bet on it, and that might drop contrast a bit.
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Stephen Barnett on 5 Frames with the Ilford Sporti

Comment posted: 07/07/2024

If the photos are to represent faded images from a 'faded camera' they work very well in a nostalgic way, but in normal scanning or darkroom work it's always been the photographers job to make sure the contrast is right. It doesn't have to be a personal opinion if you want to keep the processing neutral because 'Auto Contrast' in Lightroom does a reasonable job of making them look modern, but they could be improved further than that with some hands on work on the Brightness and Contrast sliders. But it's great to recommission an old camera, and it's clearly better than a Holga!
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