26 Instax Packs - #3 - Diana F+ with Instax Back using Fuji Instax Mini Monochrome at Gettysburg National Military Park in early evening. The exposure was a bit unpredictable and hard to get right, but there are interesting effects on the corners of some of the prints.
26 Instax Packs- #2
26 Instax Packs - #2 - Lomo'Instant Automat with Rainbow Instax Mini Frame celebrating the arrival of Spring in Baltimore, Maryland. Most photos made with close-up lens attachment.
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.
Kodak Brownie Fiesta
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.
Spartus 35
Week 50 - Spartus 35 with leather case purchased at the Black Rose Antique Mall in Hanover, PA for $12. I was drawn to this simple camera with the sans serif font spelling out the name around the lens, on a day that I was hankering to buy another camera. I didn't want to spend much money but wanted to find a nice little usable one to wind down my 2016 film camera project. The Spartus 35 is well, a 35 mm camera, made by the Herold Company of Chicago. It has a lens with focusing from 4 feet to infinity, time and instant lever, and aperture settings of Bright, Hazy, Cloudy, and Dull, with a tripod mount on the bottom.
I loaded the camera with Film Photography Project's FPP EDU 200, but when I turned the film advance knob, it kept turning, so I wasn't sure how many frames had been advanced until I noticed the film counter dial rotating as I was advancing. The film is supposed to advance one frame at time with a sprocket release button being pressed to advance to the next frame. This one apparently was not working, but I correctly observed that the film dial turned one full rotation between frames but unfortunately I had wasted a half a roll of film or so by then. I managed to get 10 frames out of this roll on a nice lunch time walk around my office in Baltimore.
It's getting increasingly difficult to find fresh material to photograph within a lunchtime walking distance around my office, and its too dark by the time I get home in the evenings to go out and shoot. I do still enjoy photography with the various cameras that I've been using this year, but as the year is winding down to a close, I feel that my project will also be closing at the end of the year as well.
I developed the roll in Kodak D-76 stock solution for 9 minutes and scanned the negatives with Epson V500 Photo. I think the photos came out nicely exposed with sharp focus where I correctly guessed the focusing distance.
Lomo'Instant
Week 45 - Lomo'Instant Camera received as a Kickstarter reward two years ago. I decided to use the Lomo'instant this week in anticipation of receiving another Lomography Kickstarter camera in a few weeks, the Lomo'Instant Automat. I thought I could compare the new camera with this older model.
Last Saturday was a beautiful Autumn Saturday and I was eager to get out and shoot some instant film. I loaded my Lomo'Instant with expired Polaroid 300 film and headed over to Lake Marburg at Codorus State Park. The trees were in full fall color and the temperature was just slightly cool.
I want to really love the Lomo'Instant and when the photos come out right, I really love them. The results from the camera are quite unpredictable, but then maybe I need to use this camera a lot more to really get the settings down. Today, the photos were coming out really well. I find the best results with the camera are when shooting in sunny weather using the minus 1 or minus 2 exposure adjustment. There's so many things that can be done with this camera with the different settings that it has. There's two focusing distances - 0.4m to 0.9m and 1.0m to infinity. It has a bulb setting, unlimited multiple exposure capability, selfie mirror, exposure compensation, flash and the ability to turn off the flash, color flash gels, a wide angle 27mm 1:8 lens with attachable portrait, fisheye, and close-up lenses. There is also a tripod mount and threaded socket for a cable release for long exposures. I just haven't been able to fully explore all the different creative possibilities available with this camera. If only I had more hours in the day for film shooting (and of course an endless supply of instant film!)
Today, I was mainly focusing on capturing the fall color in the changing leaves of the trees at the park. I was looking for good framing and the right exposure. I tried a couple of multiple exposures and a selfie as well. Later in the evening, I took a portrait of Brenda with the attachable portrait lens using the automatic flash setting. I also grabbed two flash photos of our cats, but they were both overexposed, possibly because of their very light fur color. Brenda's flash photo came out fine, but the same settings with our cats, not so well. That's what I mean about this camera - I think that I've got it figured out, but then something throws it off.
Overall though, I am pleased with the way the photos came out, most of which have a little vignetting in the corners, an effect that I like with the Lomo'Instant photos. I'm really looking forward to the new Lomo'Instant Automat, hopeful that it will be much improved over the original Lomo'Instant. I'm also eagerly awaiting my order of Fuji Instax Mini Monochrome film from B&H Photo. I ordered a few packs with the intention of using it with the new Lomo'Instant Automat.
Agfa Isoflash-Rapid
Week 44 - Agfa Isoflash-Rapid 35 mm film camera purchased at the Westminster Antique Mall for $7. The Agfa Isoflash-Rapid is a German made camera produced in the 1960's that uses two rapid cassettes instead of the standard 35mmh film canister. The film from a rapid cassette is advanced by a gear inside the camera into a second empty rapid cassette. The second cassette was then sent in for processing. This two cassette system was brought back by Agfa to compete with Kodak's 126 film cassette. The Agfa Isoflash-Rapid's shutter will not fire without film in the camera. Fortunately there was film in the camera for me to test out the shutter at the antique store. I tried to develop the film in the camera but it came out blank.
I used an expired 12 exposure roll of Fujicolor 100 as the camera is only able to shoot 16 frames on a regular 12 exposure roll of 35mm film. I had to load the film from the Fuji canister into the empty rapid cassette in a changing bag before loading the film into the camera. I went for a nice walk around Hanover last Saturday morning with the intention of grabbing a few shots of autumn color, but the leaves on the trees were not quite ready. I thought the expired film performed well though, the camera was small and light, easy to shoot with using the fixed focus lens.
I hand processed the roll with Film Photography Project's C-41 kit and scanned the negatives with Epson V500 Photo.
Kodak Jr. Six-16 Series III
Week 43 - Kodak Jr. Six-16 Series III folding 616 film camera. I'm not quite sure where I acquired this camera, it's been on my shelf for years looking rather grand with it's folding bellows and lens. Speaking of the lens, I mistakenly thought this was a Kodak Kodex No. 1 camera as labeled on the lens, but on further inspection found the tiny nameplate under the lens (had to get my magnifying glass for these aging eyes!) The f8.8 Lens focuses from 4 ft to infinity with shutter speeds of Time, Bulb, 25, 50, and 100. There doesn't appear to be a cable release thread or tripod socket so I'm not sure about using it in bulb mode.
The camera uses 616 film which I didn't have, so I respooled 120 film onto the 616 spool with two zip ties at one end to fill in the empty space on the spool. I've attached a photo showing the size difference between the 616 and 120 spools, and where I placed the zip ties. This places the numbers for 16 frames in the frame counting window and I used 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 for 5 perfectly spaced photos on the roll. The resulting negatives are quite large, very sharp, but there appeared to be a white glare in a small area of the some of the photos.
I took the Kodak Jr. Six-16 on a drive around town to some of the areas that I haven't been to in a while. The focusing was pretty accurate with the focusing ring on the lens. Framing was a little off due to the smaller size of the film, I should have aimed a little higher to get more of the sky in the photos.
Developing was done in caffenol for 9 minutes and scanned on Epson V500 Photo.
World Toy Camera Day 2016 Results
My "World Toy Camera Day" camera choice for this year was my green HolgaGlo 120N loaded with expired Kodak Portra 160NC. I took the camera along for a visit to my mother-in-law's house just outside of Elizabethtown, PA. Most of the photos were shot on the drive from Harrisburg through Steelton, PA. My favorite shots are of the turnpike underpass and the abandoned Getty gas station.
The roll was developed with Film Photography Project C-41 Kit and scanned with Epson V500 Photo.
Rollei Prego 90
Week 39 - Rollei Prego 90 that Brenda purchased for $20 on one of her antique shopping stops a few weeks ago. The camera is a kind of clunky point and shoot with a Schneider-Kreuznach AF-Variogon f=28-90mm HFT Makro lens. There is a panorama setting, various modes - macro/closeup, bulb, zone focus, portrait zoom, fuzzy zoom, step zoom, multiple exposure, continuous shooting, and also exposure compensation, red eye reduction, remote control and self timer. I would like to fully explore all the options on this camera and try it with different films.
I used RetroChrome 160 from my stash in the fridge, and I'm not sure what happened when I developed it, except maybe my E6 kit is expired. It was only the fourth roll that I've used with the kit, but I did mix it up a couple of months ago. Otherwise, the photos appear sharp and crisp aside from the wild colors in them. The problem with shooting a new camera each week is that I'm not able to fully explore the features of each one and give each a thorough workout. But the purpose of this personal film project is to try out each camera to see if they are functional and revisit the ones that I find interesting at a later date. The potential of this camera's features looks very good, though it's a bit larger for the pocket than say, the Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 in my collection, which is much more compact and sleek.
I was behind a week on my film camera project due the amount of time that I was spending at my mother's place, but on Sunday, Brenda and I took a morning drive over to Gettysburg. It's one of my favorite places for a quick drive from Hanover, and great for landscape photos. I tried to carefully compose shots for this camera and the previous week's camera, but as you can see, they don't look as nice as they could with the botched E6 processing. Perhaps a nice black and white film would be better. The Rollei was easy to use, it has auto focus and of course the 28-90 zoom lens, with a LCD screen on top for the various settings and modes. It does require two CR123A batteries, which were a bit tricky to find locally, but Brenda found them at the Rite Aid Pharmacy.