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.
Week 34 - Kodak Brownie Bull's Eye purchased from a seller on Craigslist for $10 sometime in the past year. When I met the seller he explained that it was his parents' camera that he had found in the closet, and he wondered what I would do with it. I explained that I liked to collect old cameras and try to use them if possible.
I had recently purchased a lot of expired 620 film from ebay and planned to use what I thought was an unopened box of expired Verichrome Pan for the Brownie Bull's Eye, but when I opened the box (which was not sealed) the film had already been exposed. This was actually quite exciting and I developed the film later that night - see additional blog post with the results. I went and grabbed another one of the expired rolls of 620 film, this time Kodacolor.
The Kodak Brownie Bull's Eye uses, of course, 620 roll film, but I have used respooled 120 Lomography 100 color film in it once before. It has a Kodak Twindar Lens that focuses from 4 feet to infinity with zones of scenes, groups, and close-ups. There are shutter speeds of instant and long exposure with an eye level viewfinder. I decided to go for a walk around Baltimore, near my office on my lunch break and proceeded to shoot the entire roll of 8 photos. After seeing the results developed in Kodak D-76, I've decided that for the rest of my photo project I will use fresh film when possible.
Week 32 - Kodak Brownie Special Six-16 that's been sitting in my collection for years. I bought this box camera on an antiquing trip years ago because of it's unusual flat triangular shape. I had planned to respool a roll of expired Ilford FP4 onto a 616 spool, but I searched the interwebs first to see if there was another solution. I found a blogpost by Peter Lutz on the Brownie Camera Page about converting a 116/616 camera to shoot with 120 film. He described how you could make a new mask to get 16 photos from a roll of 120 film. I only used part of his tip, to use trimmed down wall anchors in the ends of a 120 roll of film to fit in the 116/616 spool area of the camera. It worked very well, I only should have calculated the image area better to compose my shots. The other miscalculation on my part was starting on frame 1, when I should have started on frame 3, then 6, 9, 12, and 15. My first photo was cut off but I still got 5 full frames, with an extra 1/2 frame.
Made in the USA around 1940, the camera is basically a point and shoot box camera, with a simple viewfinder. It has two focusing settings of 6-15 feet and beyond 15 feet, with a Time and Instant shutter speed. The body is made of metal with a leatherette coating. Mine was peeling away a bit, so I tacked it down with rubber cement.
Photos were made at Gettysburg, on and near the Little Round Top and Culp's Hill areas of the battlefield. The sky was filled with puffy white clouds, which I tried to capture in the photos. I did forget to set the focusing lever in the shots that I made, sometimes I get caught up in composing a photo and forget to make sure I'm doing everything correctly. Nonetheless, there are photos, they don't seem to be out of focus, though maybe a little fogged. Again this week, I had a terrible time getting the film on the Paterson reel, as it was very humid. The film was processed in Kodak D-76 for 9 1/2 minutes, 1+1 dilution. Negatives were scanned with Lomography Digitaliza 120, which I found is better for larger size images than the stock Epson V500 120 holder. Levels were adjusted in Photoshop to capture the full tonal range of the negative.
Week 17 Camera - Kodak Brownie Flash 20 purchased at one of the local antique malls in Hanover. This week's post is a little late as I didn't finish shooting with this camera until yesterday. I was not feeling well last weekend, then it rained for a few days, but I managed to get this week's roll finished.
The film I used was from my batch of expired Kodak Portra 160NC given to me by a friend who found it in an old unused darkroom. The first photo on this roll was of course, one of our house, a frequent subject when trying out a newly acquired camera. I was not up to going out last Sunday though it was gorgeous out (and also Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day!). When Saturday of this week came I was excited to get back out there and decided to hop in my car and drive to a few spots that I had been wanting to photograph. First stop was our lovely Mt. Olivet Cemetery but seeing that there was a funeral about to take place, I quickly drove away. I then remembered that I hadn't seen my son's Eagle Scout project in a while and thought that would make a nice photo. For his project six years ago, he coordinated the efforts to replace the roof and repair an old historic spring house at the retirement village. It looked really nice with fresh landscaping and blooming shrubs, it made nice photos.
I then drove south of Hanover and darted into the parking lot of a pit beef joint and shot a photo of an enormous painted metal chicken that I've driven past many times, hoping the owner wouldn't come chase me away. Whew! I made it. Further south I turned on a country road to see a church and barn. While taking those photos, I noticed a small prayer garden, lush with greenery and dogwood blooms in the background.
I headed back home for a lunch break, then the sun came out! I drove back to Mt. Olivet cemetery and made a few photos and the roll was finished. Now I can concentrate on this week's camera!
Film was developed with Unicolor C-41 kit and scanned with Epson V500 photo.
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.
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.
A friend of mine found this very nice Kodak Brownie Fiesta 127 film camera in her Goodwill store and picked it up for me for $2.99. I already had one of these in my collection, but this one is in new condition and included the original box, sales receipt, flash, a couple of bulbs, and a "new" expired July 1970 roll of Kodacolor X 127 film. I was surprised to find an exposed roll of film in the camera - Kodacolor X C-22 process film, that I'll develop in black and white. The original handwritten receipt is from Merrill Photo Supply Co. Photographic Goods For Amateurs Professionals and The Graphic Arts, dated 6/2/1965. The purchase price for the Fiesta Outfit was $9.95, with four rolls of film, and two packs of AG-1 flash bulbs bringing the total to $17.30 with tax. I'm always looking for old cameras with an exposed roll of film that can be developed to get a glimpse of the past. I'll post some images from this one if they turn out.
