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.
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rangefinder-35mm
The Aires 35-V (1958) is a 35mm fixed-lens coupled-rangefinder camera produced by Aires Camera Industry Co., Ltd. of Tokyo. Its defining feature is the Coral 45mm f/1.5 lens -- one of the fastest lenses fitted to any production Japanese rangefinder camera of the 1950s. At f/1.5, the Coral surpassed the f/1.9 glass on the earlier Aires III-L and placed the 35-V in direct specmanship competition with the fastest fixed-lens cameras available anywhere.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm 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.
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Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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About this camera
The fastest lens in the Aires lineup: a 1958 Japanese rangefinder built around the extraordinary Coral 45mm f/1.5.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm (24x36 mm) |
| Mount | Fixed (non-interchangeable) |
| Lens | Coral 45mm f/1.5 |
| Years | 1958 -- c. 1960 |
| Shutter | Leaf: 1s -- 1/500s, B |
| Flash sync | 1/500s (full sync at all leaf speeds) |
| Meter | Selenium, uncoupled, no battery required |
| Exposure | Manual |
| Viewfinder | Bright-line with coupled RF patch |
| Focus | Coupled rangefinder |
| Battery | None required |
The 35-V represents the apex of the Aires rangefinder line. The progression through the company's fixed-lens cameras traced a steady increase in maximum aperture: early models ran f/2.8, the III-L stepped up to f/1.9, and the 35-V pushed to f/1.5. This was the same lens speed offered by Leica's Summilux -- a connection Aires's marketing was presumably happy for buyers to draw.
The Coral 45mm f/1.5 was a five- or six-element construction. At f/1.5 it exhibits the characteristic bokeh and slight spherical aberration expected of fast lenses of this era, gradually sharpening to competitive performance by f/2.8 and beyond.
The 35-V body shared the same basic platform as the III-L -- the same shutter range, the same selenium meter placement, broadly the same ergonomics. The distinction was almost entirely the glass. Aires went out of business around 1960 in the broader consolidation of the Japanese camera industry, leaving the 35-V as the final word in a camera line that had lasted less than a decade.
In 1958, an f/1.5 lens on a production rangefinder camera was genuinely exceptional. The Coral 45mm f/1.5 put the Aires 35-V in company with cameras costing several times more from European manufacturers, and made it a legitimate tool for available-light photography in environments -- dim theatres, evening interiors -- where f/2 or f/1.9 was not enough.
The camera also illustrates the ambition of second-tier Japanese manufacturers in the late 1950s: companies like Aires, Petri, Mamiya, and Taron were building legitimately sophisticated optics and mechanisms, not simply copying the market leaders. The Coral lens family was Aires's own work, and the f/1.5 version represents real optical engineering capability.
For collectors, the 35-V is notable as the fastest-aperture model from a now-extinct manufacturer -- a combination that makes it relatively uncommon and somewhat sought after among Japanese RF enthusiasts.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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