Pinhole Photography

Week 22 - Revisiting pinhole photography and film developing at home. Last weekend I picked up my Holga Wide Pinhole Camera, which still had a half used roll of film in it and drove out to Devil's Den in Gettysburg to finish the roll. I wanted to try a new photo composition tip that I heard about on a podcast to get better pinhole photos. 

I tried positioning my camera so that there would be close objects and objects further in the distance to create a more exaggerated pinhole effect in the photos. I couldn't remember what kind of film I had put in the camera, I had forgotten to write it on the back on a piece of tape. When I got home I developed it in caffenol (a mixture of instant coffee, super washing soda, and vitamin C powder) and saw that there were photos on the negatives when I pulled them out of the tank. I determined that it was Ilford FP4 from the brick of expired film that I had bought off of ebay last year. Some of the photos came out well considering the age of the film, but there were areas on some of the negatives where the backing paper numbers had burned into the image.

This past weekend I got out my Ondu MKII 6x6 Pinhole camera that I recieved as a Kickstarter reward last year which still had a half a roll of extremely expired Kodak Verichrome Pan film left inside from a couple of months ago. I drove out to Codorus State Park looking for a subject and wound up at the rental marina. I set about trying to make photos that had the type of pinhole composition I was trying to achieve, without worrying too much about the subject matter. I finished up and headed home to develop the roll in Kodak D-76 to find that the resulting photos were closer to the type of pinhole photos that I wanted to create.

In the next couple of weeks I want to try creating pinhole photos in my studio with some of the things in my collections, with and without flash. I plan to revisit pinhole photography on my Diana F+ camera with the instax back from Lomography to see if I can get the same kind of effect I got with the Ondu MKII. A pinhole photography exploration might be my next photography project after finishing 26 instax packs.

Meanwhile, I will be getting back into my studio and continuing my Create-A-Thon year long creative exploration soon, it's just been too nice outside to be cooped up in my studio!

Agfa B2 Cadet - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 22 - Agfa B2 Cadet - I found this camera in an antique store in Berlin, MD for $5 and couldn't pass it up. We were on a trip to Rehoboth Beach, DE and had driven down to Ocean City, MD and neighboring Berlin to spend the day. I was of course, shooting with another camera that week for my 2016 camera project. I used an expired roll of Ilford FP4 that I had purchased on Ebay - the resulting images have some light leaks around the edges and I had light leakage through the red film window on the back of the camera. I will need to tape up the camera and the film window if I use this it again. 

I like the large 6x9 negatives (minus the light leaks) and shooting with the Agfa B2 Cadet was pretty much the same as other box cameras. It has two shutter settings, time and instant, with a pull out tab to switch between the two. I had read another review online where the photographer had trouble loading the film, but I didn't have that problem (sometimes a little tape helps, lol) Composing a photo is accomplished through two top down viewfinders, one for portrait orientation and one for landscape. 

 It was a beautiful Sunday on Memorial Day weekend and I was eager to get out shooting somewhere, so we drove over to one of my favorite places - Gettysburg, PA. We drove out to Devil's Den, a frequent stop on our battlefield drives, and then to the Pennsylvania Monument and Culp's Hill areas. Brenda happily posed for a view photos (she's so supportive!)

I developed the roll in caffenol and scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

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.

Argus Minca 28 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 20 - Argus Minca 28, purchased at the Black Rose Antique Mall in Hanover, PA for $8.00. The Argus Minca 28 uses 828 film which is essentially roll film the same size as 35 mm film but with fewer frames on the roll and without sprockets. The roll I purchased online was pricey - $18, and was respooled Tri-X 400 with previously used backing paper and spool. I decided to purchase the roll with the intention of reusing the backing paper and spool in future experiments with 828 film. The Argus Minca 28 was produced 1947-48ish and was made under several other badges - the Delco 828 and Camro 28.

I brought the camera along on our vacation to Rehoboth Beach, DE and also took it on a trip to Berlin, MD. I missed the first photo on the roll, sometimes those number 1's are hard to distinguish from the arrow markings at the beginning of a roll of film. The film was very difficult to wind through the camera, I'm not sure if it was the design of the camera or something with the roll of film itself. I thought I might break the film but I finally got through the roll and finished taking it off the spool in a changing bag.

I developed the film in Caffenol, but perhaps I should mix up a new batch of D-76 for future black and white developing. Negatives were scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

Benz & Gant Helioflex 3000T - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 18 Camera - Benz & Gant Helioflex 3000T purchased at the Community Aid thrift store in Hanover, PA. Came in bag with an "official" Benz & Gant tripod, flash and strap for under $10, though I'm not sure it was worth even that much. The camera is all plastic with a shiny large looking lens, only the aperture is adjustable (very cloudy, cloudy, partial sun, and full sun). It feels substantial because of the heavy weight inside the bottom of the camera, and has a fake pentaprism to fool you into thinking it's a real SLR camera. Composing photographs is done through a simple viewfinder, just point and shoot, much like a Holga. 

I knew what I was getting when I bought the Benz & Gant camera, I wanted to see what kind of photos I could get out of it. I liked the feel of the hand grip and the weight was nice. I even liked the look of the big goofy lens, but I had difficulty getting the film to stay on the camera spool to start the roll. I wound up having to tape the leader to the spool to get it started. I also had great difficulty getting the film to rewind, having to put the whole camera in a changing bag to retrieve the film.

Shooting with the Helioflex 3000T was pretty straightforward, just turn the lens to the correct icon for the lighting, compose, and snap the photo. The framing on the photos was not accurate, as the viewfinder was offset from the lens. I found close up photos with the flash turned out pretty sharp, while outdoor distance shots were a bit blurry (the days were overcast and I chose the cloudy aperture setting with a lower depth of field).

I tried out FPP EDU 400 film from the black and white EDU sampler I purchased from the Film Photography Project store. The film stock is rebadged Kentmere 400, which I've used before. This time though, I decided to process the film in caffenol instead of the usual Kodak D-76. The outdoor photos came out dark, because of the cloudy days, but I like the indoor shots with the flash. I'm not sure if I'll use this camera again, but maybe I'll try it on a sunnier day with color film and more close up photos.

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.

No. 1A Autographic Kodak Jr - 52 Cameras

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I dug out a nifty old No. 1A Autographic Kodak Jr. 116 film camera from my collection for this week's featured camera. The model I have is one that was manufactured in the 1920's and features an f7.9 lens with Time, Bulb, 25 and 50 shutter speeds. The focusing range is from 6 feet to 100 feet with a maximum f-stop of 45. The camera is in great condition and I checked it over fully before researching what I might need to do to get it to work with 120 film. I found several postings online and a youtube video of a hack using zip ties positioned at one end of the 116 spools to better fit the 120 film. This creates five photos from one roll of film, though I made a mistake when counting the frames which caused the first two shots to overlap. I also experienced light leaks in the last two frames, probably because the film was not wound tightly enough at the end of the spool. 

I thought it would be neat to get a few photos of the aftermath of the huge snowstorm we had last weekend, but I didn't really see any interesting photo opportunities when we walked around town last Sunday. I wound up shooting a couple of portrait photos of Brenda in my studio for the last few shots on the roll. I developed the film in Caffenol C - I've had good results from the recipe that I found on the Photojojo website a couple of years ago when I first started developing my own film. The process is to mix 4 3/4 teaspoons of super washing soda in 9 ounces of room temperature water and combine it with 7 1/2 teaspoons of instant coffee and 3/4 teaspoon of vitamin C powder mixed with 9 ounces of water. I develop for 9 minutes, use a water stop bath, and fix for 5 minutes. I use the cheapest instant coffee I can get, usually at the Dollar Tree. It seems to work really well with the Shanghai GP3 100 pan film that I buy from ebay to test out the cameras in my collection. Scanning was done on Epson V500 photo.