Argus C3

Week 52 - Argus C3 purchased from ebay last year that I've used once before. The camera originally came in a leather case with a strap and I was carrying it around using the strap and the strap broke, causing the camera to crash to a concrete floor. Of course the camera being very sturdy, was not damaged but the film advance became jammed and while trying to unjam it, the sprockets on the film roll were torn. Thus, it was not possible to spool the film onto a Paterson reel and the roll was ruined. I thought I would give it another go, and use the camera to finish up my 2016 Film Camera Project.

The choice of film for this final roll was Film Photography Project's FPP EDU 200, I wanted to stick with a black and white film, since I have a fresh batch of Kodak D-76 mixed up, and I chose the 200 speed film because some of the slower shutter speeds were sticky on the camera. I thought if I shot on a partly sunny to sunny day, I could shoot Sunny 16 and stick with the faster shutter speeds. I ventured out and about town with my camera bag and two other instant cameras on an unseasonably warm winter day this week, excited that I was going to finish this project before the end of the year.

First I drove into downtown and parked, then walked around a couple of blocks near Merlin's Coffee shop, but I was just not inspired by too much there, so I drove out to Codorus State Park's Lake Marburg area. The water is really low right now, exposing some nice textured landscapes that are normally under water. I love shooting at Lake Marburg, especially with black and white films this time of the year. I had also packed my Lomo'Instant camera (the original, not the Wide or the Automat) loaded with the new Fuji Instax MIni Monochrome. The monochrome instant photos came out super and I was excited to see what was going to come out of the Argus C3 after developing. I was mindful of the film advancing on the Argus, so that I didn't have a repeat of the last roll of film with the torn sprockets.

I really enjoyed those couple of hours, I think this time of the year is actually my favorite to shoot, I like the contrasty photos that can be achieved with barren landscapes before the winter snows start falling. There also are not a lot of people around the local parks this time of year, not that I don't want them in my photos, I just prefer the solitude of composing photos surrounded by quiet.

I promptly unloaded the Argus when returning home to get the film developed and scanned for the final blog post on this project before the end of the year. After spending the past year shooting lots of different cameras and films, I'm ready to narrow it down to a few that I really like. For the coming year, I want to focus more on shooting with my instant cameras and getting into to my as yet unused darkroom and make prints. Experimenting with caffenol printing and making cyanotypes is on my list as well. I want to buy less crappy cameras and add just a few higher quality ones that I've had my eye on for a while. I have another year long project lined up that is a bit different than 2016 - look for an upcoming post for the details.

Konica C35 AF

Week 47 - Konica C35 AF that came in a box of free cameras that my stepfather obtained from a local newspaper listing. Modern Photography from April 1979, touts this as the "First Auto-Focus Still Camera," with a non-interchangeable 38mm f/2.8 Konica Hexanon, with apertures up to f/22, focusing to 3 1/2 ft. It has an electronically programmed shutter, with flash, powered by two AA batteries. Available film speed settings from 25-400. The magazine article lists the original price as $283. An in depth explanation of how the auto-focus feature works from the magazine article below-

“Adjacent to the viewfinder, on either side of the “Konica C35” nameplate, are the windows for the Honeywell patented Visitronic auto-focus System… the Visitronic autofocus Systems can be classified as a dual-image comparator linked to the lens by an electromechanical system. As you cock the shutter the lens moves completely forward to a ready position. When the shutter release is pressed, the lens begins to move backward, under spring tension, toward its infinity- focus position until it receives an electrical signal indicating proper focus. At this instant a claw engages a toothed rack affixed to the internal lens barrel, and the lens is automatically locked in proper focus position.”

— Modern Photography - April 1979

I loaded the camera with Fujicolor 200 film and carried it along for a visit to see my mother-in-law. We decided to go to Elizabethtown for the annual Christmas parade, though, my heart was not really in it with my mother's recent passing. I thought I would try to get a few snaps of my great-niece and nephews in the parade, but we were facing the sun, which I think hindered the auto-focusing and auto-exposure on the camera. The close-up shots that I took of Brenda and her mom came out much better, I may want to try this camera with some black and white film with the subjects closer to the lens. 

The roll was processed with Film Photography Project C-41 Kit (which I'm hoping will finish out my project before needing replacement) and scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

Akira TC-002 35mm Plastic Camera

Week 42 - Akira TC-002 plastic 35mm camera purchased at a yard sale for 50¢. This camera is not very sturdy, but it had holga-like settings on the plastic lens so I thought I would give it a try.

I used a roll of Film Photography Project FPP EDU200, which is black and white surveillance film made by FOMA. I was about a week behind on cameras in the project, so I pulled a double with this week's shooting. I wanted to get this done quickly so rather than walking around town as usual, I loaded up my heavy bag with about 5 cameras (not all of them were for the project) and hopped in my car for a drive. I drove around a part of town that I hadn't been to for photos for months. I don't know if people look upon me suspiciously as I hop out of my car with my cone head shaped stocking hat, snap a photo of something mundane and quickly get back in my car.

The Akira TC-002 was easy to shoot with although the film advance seemed to skip a little, which was evident on the resulting negatives, some of the photos overlapped slightly. The settings are cloudy, partly cloudy, sun, and super sunny, which correspond to f6, f8, f11 and f16. It has a focus-free plastic f5.6 50mm lens. I couldn't judge what I was seeing in the viewfinder as accurate, I tried to frame up the shots best as possible. Regardless, I thought the compositions of the some of the photos came out great, though the negatives are a bit grainy. 

The recommended processing was with Kodak D-76, but I didn't have any mixed, so caffenol it was for the usual 9 minutes at room temp. Scanning was with Epson V500 Photo. 

Olympus OM10 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 33 - Olympus OM10 purchased from someone on Craigslist for $10. It came with a 70-205mm Vivitar Zoom lens, but I purchased a 50mm Olympus Zuiko f1.8 lens for it from ebay for $20 with free shipping. The camera came with 36 rolls of exposed color film that I plan to develop in the coming weeks (it could even take months). I'm not sure if the photos will turn out as the camera and film were in a storage shed for years.

The film for this week was expired Kodak Portra 160NC and the photos were shot around Baltimore, MD and Codorus State Park, Hanover, PA. My favorite photos are the sunrise over Lake Marburg and the field landscape with big puffy clouds.

I mixed a new batch of C-41 Chemicals for this roll, scanned with Epson V500 Photo and Spot Dusted and adjusted for levels in Photoshop. Adjusting for levels is simply scanning the film on automatic, opening the file in Photoshop and selecting the lightest and darkest points in the levels dialog box. This brings the colors into range with the least amount of manipulation of the file.

Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 25 Camera - Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 with expired roll of 35mm Kodak Portra 160NC. I thought I would shoot sprocket hole photos with this camera rather than respooling 120 film onto a 616 spool. I like the look of color sprocket hole photos and thought they would be a nice change this week.

I brought the Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 with me on a photo walk around Hanover last weekend. I had a bag with three cameras (the Brownie, Canon AE-1, and Nikon EM), water and a snack when I went on the walk last Sunday morning. It was a beautiful day, but it did start to get a little hot walking around town. Before heading out, I taped the viewfinders of the box camera to limit my view to an approximation of the area that would cover the much thinner 35mm film area in the camera. I had previously calculated how many turns of the film advancing knob would advance the film far enough to not overlap exposures. I managed to get 5 and half sprocket photos out of the 35mm roll. Another thing to consider when shooting is to try to hold the camera level and against your body to stabilize it to make sure the resulting photos are straight. 

I mostly shot some of the old buildings around town, my favorite subjects when walking around Hanover. When finished, I needed to place the whole camera in a changing bag and rewind the film into the canister by hand before opening the film canister and placing the film in the tank. I developed the roll with the Unicolor C-41 home kit from Film Photography Project Store, I'm up to 16 rolls developed with it now, I think the results are still satisfactory to me.