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. 

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2016

I had been looking forward to this year's Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day on April 24 for several months and had made plans with a friend to go to Patapsco State Park in Maryland. But as the day approached, I came down with a cold and was not feeling up to a daylong excursion carrying my pinhole gear.  So, I made the best of it, and made it out to the front yard to photograph our blooming Dogwood tree. The featured blog photo here is my entry in the WPPD online gallery this year.

Camera - Holga WPC Wide Pinhole Camera. Film - expired Kodak Portra 160NC. Developed with Unicolor C-41 home kit. Scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

Bonus Camera for 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks - Holga WPC 120

A bonus camera for my 52 Cameras project this week - with my birthday cash, I ordered a Holga WPC 120 Camera that I had been wanting to get for a couple of years. I thought I should get one soon as I wasn't sure how long they would still be available at a reasonable price. I bought one from Lomography's online store seeing they still had them in stock at a much lower price than other places where it was still available. I thought I would try another roll of the 2002 expired Kodak Portra 160NC in it and brought it along this past Sunday when we went to Codorus State Park and Glen Rock, PA. The camera is capable of shooting 6x9 or 6x12 photos with two interchangeable masks and has an f/135 pinhole, requiring the use of a tripod and a shutter release cable. I have been very impressed with the ultra wide photos that can be achieved with this camera, with some great examples being found on Flickr. After finally shooting with it myself, I can see that I need to try to come up with more interesting angles and subject matter and get in closer. Next time I will use my old standby, Shanghai GP3 100 Pan film developed in caffenol. 

Film developed in Unicolor C-41 Kit purchased from Film Photography Project store and scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

My First Holga - HolgaGlo 120n

I've had getting a Holga camera on my list of cameras to get for a long time now and I promptly ordered a bright green HolgaGlo 120n when I heard that the Holga factory had ceased operations. I've also had a Holga WPC pinhole camera on my ebay wish list for some time and hopefully I can find one of those in the next few weeks to add to my pinhole camera collection. These photographs are from the first roll I shot in the new Holga with Shanghai GP3 100 Pan film. I developed the roll in the usual caffenol concoction in the kitchen sink and scanned the negatives with my Epson V500 Photo. My favorite one is the first photo I made, an accidental double exposure in Mount Vernon, Baltimore of the Washington Monument. I also accidentally made a double exposure of a cool VW Bus and our Lava Lamp, they kind of go together though. I'm hoping to get out and shoot a couple of rolls with it on my upcoming Christmas vacation with some recently acquired expired Kodak Portra 160NC.

1938 Agfa Karat Oppar f4.5

At this year's family Thanksgiving celebration, I received a camera gift from a relative that was quite a surprise. My sister-in-law gave me her uncle's camera that he used in World War II as a reporter, a 1938 Agfa Karat 35mm camera. The camera has an Oppar f4.5 lens with bellows and uses two rapid film cassettes that can shoot just 12 photos. It was stored in a leather 1943 Eastman Kodak camera case and appears to be in working order. The focusing ring seemed to be stuck, so I took out a few screws and and loosened it and put a drop or two of household oil in it and is seems to be turning a little better now. It only had one empty film cassette, so I found a second one on ebay along with a few expired 12 exposure rolls of film to give it a try. I will need to transfer the film to the empty cassette and load it into the camera to feed into the second cassette. Fortunately there's a video on how to load the camera on YouTube. My sister-in-law gifted me with the camera as she knew that I would truly appreciate and care for it and it would probably have wound up in the donation bin at the Salvation Army otherwise. I'm still waiting for the second film cassette, but I should be able to get out and shoot with it on my upcoming vacation. I have several cameras coming my way, hopefully in time for my Christmas vacation. I backed a Kickstarter for the new Ondu pinhole line of cameras, pre-ordered a Lomo'Instant Wide camera from Lomography and ordered a neon green Holga camera from B&H when I heard the Holga factory had shut down last week. And this week, a good friend gifted me with a stash of expired Kodak Portra 160NC from an old dark room, both 120 and 35.