Kodak Brownie Fiesta

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Week 51 - Kodak Brownie Fiesta Camera in original box with exposed roll of film found by a friend in a Goodwill Store in West Virginia. I successfully developed the roll of film and posted about it previously in "A Visit To Summersville Dam". 

The Kodak Brownie Fiesta is a simple point and shoot plastic camera using 127 roll film that was made in the early 1960's. I had another roll of Triple Print Film that I had purchased in a lot from ebay to use in the Fiesta camera. The last roll turned out pretty well and I was hopeful this one would as well. 

Nearing the end of my year long 2016 film camera project, I've found it difficult to find the time to finish it up with the hustle and bustle of the holidays. I started the roll in the beginning of last week by stopping on my way to work at the MICA campus on Mount Royal Avenue in Baltimore. I grabbed a few shots there and then in my hometown to finish up the roll. The camera is very easy, just frame up the shot and press the button. The camera makes a sort of springy sound when the shutter fires, seeming like the photo would come out blurry. 

The photos seemed to come out in focus, but the quality of the shots was not as good as the previous roll. I had some difficulty removing the tape at the end of the roll of film in the changing bag and ripped the corner off one of the frames. I developed the roll in Kodak D-76 stock solution and scanned the negatives with Epson V500 Photo.

Kodak Brownie Starmatic

Week 48 - Kodak Brownie Starmatic from my collection, purchased with a roll of exposed film inside. I had developed that exposed roll of film and found only a couple of multiple exposed frames with a woman's face and a minivan. The Kodak Brownie Starmatic uses 127 roll film and features auto exposure with a fixed focus lens. The film speed can be set with a dial on top of the camera and exposure can be set to auto or adjusted with the EV (exposure value) dial on top of the camera. The film that I chose for this week was an unidentified color film with England printed on the wrapper. After opening it, the metal spool was rusted, who knows how the film had been stored over the years. Wondering what I would get from the photo results with such a sorry looking roll of film and an untested camera, I ventured out on my lunch break on a brisk, late fall day last week.

Not knowing the speed of the film, (I guessed it might be a 100 speed color film) I set the film speed on the camera to 50 and the the EV dial to auto exposure. I went for walk down to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore on this bright sunny day and shot a few photos along the way. I got a few of the usual touristy photos - the U.S.S. Constellation, Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, and the Water Taxi with the National Aquarium in the background. I really was not confident that I would get any images on the roll of film, but I did enjoy going on that photo walk on such a nice sunny day. 

I had mixed up a fresh batch of Kodak D-76 the day before developing and eagerly took the whole camera into the changing bag, just in case there were any snafus with the film roll. I usually have some difficulty spooling older 127 roll films onto the Paterson reel, the rolls are so tightly wound that it's difficult to get them started. I developed the roll of film for 10 minutes with my usual method (room temp developer - I don't take the temp), water stop bath, 5 minute fixer, rinse and then generic film rinse aid from Freestyle Photo. This method works for me (varying the developing time with each type of film) so I haven't experimented too much with different temps and developers.  I use D-76 or Caffenol for black and white films,  C-41 for color, and I've taken a stab at E6.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the photos I got from this roll of film, the auto exposure on the camera worked pretty well for this unidentified film. After developing, I hang the negatives from a clothes hanger with clothespins on the ceiling light fixture in my studio to dry, then scan the negatives with an Epson V500 Photo flatbed scanner. Photos are then spot dusted in Photoshop with levels adjusted.

Kodak Baby Brownie Special - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 29 - Kodak Baby Brownie Special that I've had for many years, not sure where I purchased this camera. A bakelite 127 roll film camera made from the late 1930's to the mid 1950's, it has an optical viewfinder, an improvement over the original Kodak Baby Brownie.

I used a roll of Triple Print film from a lot of expired 127 and 620 roll films purchased from ebay. Triple Print film was only to be processed by the Triple Print lab in Philadelphia, PA and as the name implies, triple prints would be returned to the customer. I took the Baby Brownie Special along on a Sunday drive through Lancaster County, PA, where we went on portion of the covered bridge driving tour.

After finishing the roll, I went on an online search for the best way to process the film. After reading the sparse information that was available, I decided to use Kodak D-76 with the same development time as with the Kodacolor X that I've used before. I found that the July 1970 expired film did pretty well in very bright sun, and I'm pleased with how those photos came out, especially the one of the Lititz fountain.

Negatives were scanned on Epson V500 Photo with a 127 film adapter purchased from ebay.

Jiffy Kodak V. P. - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 21 - Jiffy Kodak V. P. (Vest Pocket) camera purchased at the Westminster Antique Mall. I used my last roll of Rera Pan 100, getting poor images. This roll and the previous roll of Rera Pan did not produce the quality of negatives that I have gotten in the past. It could be the limitations of the two Vest Pocket style cameras, or maybe I need to get back to using Kodak D-76 developer instead of Caffenol. 

The Jiffy Kodak V. P. was made from the mid 1930's to the early 1940's. I fell in love with this camera when I saw it in the antique mall, with it's art deco design and the pop out bellows with the push of a button. It's quite compact when folded, being able to easily fit in a pocket, just as the name implies. It has very few settings - a fixed focus lens with instant and time, with a large and small aperture slider. The viewfinder is simply a fold out metal one, which worked fine in framing up my photos.

I shot the entire roll of film on my lunch hour in Baltimore one day last week. I wish the photos had turned out better, I went on different route than usual and would have liked to have better quality photos. Nonetheless, I like the grungy, antique look - I might be able to use them in a collage or mixed-media project.

I developed the roll in caffenol and scanned with Epson V500 photo using a nifty 127 film adapter that I purchased from ebay. I've been using it for a while now and it's so much easier to scan 127 negatives.

Kodak Vest Pocket Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 14 - Kodak Vest Pocket Camera, also known as the "soldier's camera", carried in the pockets of World War I soldiers because of its small size. According to my internet search, this version of the Vest Pocket camera was made in Rochester, New York in 1912. The camera makes 8 photos on a roll of 127 size film and has a meniscus lens. It has a ball bearing shutter with speeds of 25, 50, Bulb, and Time. Aperture settings are Near View Portrait, Average View, Distant View, and Clouds Marine. The body is painted black with leather bellows, it looks like a mini version of a Kodak Junior 116 Camera in my collection.

I thought I would shoot street photography in Downtown Baltimore on my lunch break, and I managed to shoot more than half the roll on a walk to the Inner Harbor. As you can see, the photos are quite blurry, I think I didn't have the bellows fully expanded, or perhaps the lens is not in as good a condition as the camera looks. The camera looks really neat though, and will look nice in my collection, even if it doesn't work that well.

Film used was from my dwindling stash of Rera Pan 100 film - for future camera testings, I may try cutting down some rolls of 120 film using a method I saw on YouTube utilizing a cigar cutter. I developed this roll for 8 minutes in my usual Caffenol recipe, and scanned the negatives on Epson V500 Photo.

Kodak Brownie Bullet Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

For week 11 of my 2016 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks project, I dusted off the Kodak Brownie Bullet 127 film camera that's been in my collection for a while. I don't recall where I got this camera, but I believe it was acquired during the time that I was going to focus my collection on Kodak Brownie cameras (not likely now as I've gone in too many directions with my collection). The Brownie Bullet is almost identical to the Brownie Holiday Flash, made between 1953-1962, and was used as premium giveaway during the late 1950's to mid 1960's. It is a bakelite camera designed by Arthur H. Crapsey that produces 8 photographs on a roll of 127 film.

I loaded the camera with the only currently available film, Rera Pan 100 that I purchased from Freestyle Photographic Supply. The weather this week has been warm and sunny, so it was a perfect opportunity to get out at lunch break and take a walk around Baltimore with the Brownie Bullet in my camera bag. In my experience, Rera Pan 100 works best in bright sunny conditions. I usually process it with Kodak D-76, but not having any mixed up, I tried it with my usual Caffenol concoction.  I don't fuss too much with the developing temp, only using water that I've stored at room temperature, and using the same steps that I found on the Photojojo website a couple of years ago. I mix up the super washing soda, instant coffee and vitamin C in the same combination every time, develop for 8 minutes, use water for stop, fix for 5 minutes and rinse, with a final wash of generic Photoflo. I haven't experimented too much as I've been pretty happy with how the Caffenol has been working so far. I scanned the negatives using a 3D printed 127 film adapter that I bought from ebay on my Epson V500 Photo flatbed scanner.

Kodak Brownie Holiday Flash - 52 Cameras

I'm in the second week of my 52 Cameras project for 2016, and this week's camera is the Kodak Brownie Holiday Flash. The Holiday Flash uses 127 roll film and produces 8 photographs per roll. It's a bakelite camera with a Dakon lens that was produced from the mid 1950's to the early 1960's. I knew that I would need a bright sunny day to get good results from the camera and film that I was using - Rera Pan 100 film that I bought from Freestyle Photo last summer. The overcast, rainy weekend weather didn't look too promising for getting out to shoot, so I said to my wife on Sunday, "today looks like a good day to stay in my pajamas and work in my studio." She thought she would do the same and work in her sewing room. After taking a lunchtime nap, I woke up to see that the sun was glaring and I quickly got dressed and packed my camera bag to take a walk around town. It was good to get out for a walk even though it was chilly outside, the sun felt good. I had an idea of the some of the places where I wanted to take photos, so I headed in that direction. I thought it would be pretty easy to compose 8 shots on the route I was planning, but on my way to a spot that I'd thought about photographing before, the wind gusted and in came a blasting shower of sleet then rain. I quickly walked to an awning over a store entrance and texted my wife and asked her if she could come pick me up. I was soaked and had only been able to shoot 5 photos. I went home and changed into some fresh pajamas for the rest of the day. I did finish shooting the roll on Monday on my lunch hour and developed the film later that night. The finished negatives were scanned on Epson V500 Photo.

A Visit to Summersville Dam

In a recent post, I wrote about a Kodak Brownie Fiesta camera that was found in a Goodwill store in West Virginia. The camera had an exposed roll of Kodacolor X that I developed this afternoon and scanned. I developed the roll in Kodak D-76, which was what I had available, and the resulting photographs are black and white. I was able to recover eight images of what appear to be a visit to the Summersville Dam in West Virginia in the mid to late 1960's. One of the photographs was clearly of a dam, and a google search of West Virginia dams came up with photos that match the structure on the roll of film. There is another photo of a woman standing by her car with binoculars and another of a man with a body of water in the background. It was interesting to read a little bit of history about the dam, the second largest rock fill dam in the Eastern United States. I also did a search on Merrill Photo Supply Co., the photography store that was listed on the original purchase receipt of the camera and was sad to see that they closed in mid 2011 after being in business for over 70 years. Overall, I'm very pleased with this attempt at retrieving photographs from this long expired roll of film.

Kodak Brownie Fiesta

A friend of mine found this very nice Kodak Brownie Fiesta 127 film camera in her Goodwill store and picked it up for me for $2.99. I already had one of these in my collection, but this one is in new condition and included the original box, sales receipt, flash, a couple of bulbs, and a "new" expired July 1970 roll of Kodacolor X 127 film. I was surprised to find an exposed roll of film in the camera - Kodacolor X C-22 process film, that I'll develop in black and white. The original handwritten receipt is from Merrill Photo Supply Co. Photographic Goods For Amateurs Professionals and The Graphic Arts, dated 6/2/1965. The purchase price for the Fiesta Outfit was $9.95, with four rolls of film, and two packs of AG-1 flash bulbs bringing the total to $17.30 with tax. I'm always looking for old cameras with an exposed roll of film that can be developed to get a glimpse of the past. I'll post some images from this one if they turn out.