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.

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 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.

2016 Film Project - 52 Cameras, 52 rolls

Thinking about what creative projects I might want to try in 2016, and considering my longstanding goal of shooting a roll or pack of film in every camera in my collection that I'm able to (I have over a hundred cameras), I've decided to attempt a 52 week project for 2016. My goal will be to use a different camera from my collection each week and shoot a roll or pack of film for that camera depending on the film type. I have a range of film cameras to choose from that I can decide which camera each week depending on the weather or what might be going on in my life that week (pinhole photo day, polaroid week, vacation, etc.). Some of the cameras use film that is no longer manufactured or hard to come by (116/616 cameras), so I will try to use another size film like 120 film respooled onto 116/616 rolls or even shooting 35mm sprocket photos. I will mostly be developing my own film when possible and posting the results on my blog. To start off my 52 Cameras project, I have a Miniature Remington 127 roll film camera that I've had for many years, but never used. It's a bakelite camera manufactured in Chicago, Illinois sometime in the mid-twentieth century. It has dual red film windows on the back which enables 16 vertical half frame photos on a roll of 127 size film. It has two shutter modes, instant and time. I checked over the camera to make sure the shutter was working and for the most part it's basically a point and shoot camera. The problem I had was that while I was shooting with it, one of the red film windows on the back of the camera came loose and was letting in light to the back of the camera. I quickly put it in my camera bag and when I got home I covered the hole with black electrical tape and decided to continue shooting with it but would only be able to get 8 photos instead of 16. I used Rera Pan 100 film developed in Arista Black and White film developer and scanned on Epson V500 photo. Most of the roll was shot on a lunch time walk to the post office with a co-worker in Baltimore. I was pleasantly surprised that I did get 8 photos after developing the roll, though there were some light leaks. But my goal here was to get something out of a camera and roll of film each week, so first week down for 2016!