Kodak Brownie Starmatic

Week 48 - Kodak Brownie Starmatic from my collection, purchased with a roll of exposed film inside. I had developed that exposed roll of film and found only a couple of multiple exposed frames with a woman's face and a minivan. The Kodak Brownie Starmatic uses 127 roll film and features auto exposure with a fixed focus lens. The film speed can be set with a dial on top of the camera and exposure can be set to auto or adjusted with the EV (exposure value) dial on top of the camera. The film that I chose for this week was an unidentified color film with England printed on the wrapper. After opening it, the metal spool was rusted, who knows how the film had been stored over the years. Wondering what I would get from the photo results with such a sorry looking roll of film and an untested camera, I ventured out on my lunch break on a brisk, late fall day last week.

Not knowing the speed of the film, (I guessed it might be a 100 speed color film) I set the film speed on the camera to 50 and the the EV dial to auto exposure. I went for walk down to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore on this bright sunny day and shot a few photos along the way. I got a few of the usual touristy photos - the U.S.S. Constellation, Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum, and the Water Taxi with the National Aquarium in the background. I really was not confident that I would get any images on the roll of film, but I did enjoy going on that photo walk on such a nice sunny day. 

I had mixed up a fresh batch of Kodak D-76 the day before developing and eagerly took the whole camera into the changing bag, just in case there were any snafus with the film roll. I usually have some difficulty spooling older 127 roll films onto the Paterson reel, the rolls are so tightly wound that it's difficult to get them started. I developed the roll of film for 10 minutes with my usual method (room temp developer - I don't take the temp), water stop bath, 5 minute fixer, rinse and then generic film rinse aid from Freestyle Photo. This method works for me (varying the developing time with each type of film) so I haven't experimented too much with different temps and developers.  I use D-76 or Caffenol for black and white films,  C-41 for color, and I've taken a stab at E6.

I was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of the photos I got from this roll of film, the auto exposure on the camera worked pretty well for this unidentified film. After developing, I hang the negatives from a clothes hanger with clothespins on the ceiling light fixture in my studio to dry, then scan the negatives with an Epson V500 Photo flatbed scanner. Photos are then spot dusted in Photoshop with levels adjusted.

Kodak Pazzazz Camera

Week 46 - Kodak Pazzazz 110 Camera that my stepfather found while going through his desk, which he then gifted to me (along with a few other lo-fi cameras). A web search for information on the Pazzazz indicated that it was manufactured in Mexico, but the model I have shows a "Made in U.S.A." stamp on the top. The camera came in two colors, rose and turquoise, and was a very simple 110 load, point, and shoot camera. There is an on-off switch for the flash, requiring two AA batteries.

I had not been shooting on the project for a couple of weeks as I was taking care of my mother in her battle with breast cancer and I was heartbroken when she passed two weeks ago. It's been hard to pick it up again, but I want to finish the project so that I can start the new year with hope for a less painful, loss-filled one than of 2016. My father passed in early spring, then our beloved family pet beagle, Cinnamon, two weeks later, and now my mother. Even though my parents have been divorced for many years, and I had been very distanced from my father, both of my parents had a significant, meaningful impact on my life.

My stepfather had been going through some things, and found a few cameras that he thought I might like, and this little pink (fushia?) camera was in the bunch. The name simply called out that I shoot with it, and I still had a fresh roll of Lomography Lobster Redscale 200 110 film to load it with. I had returned from work after being on family leave and wanted to get back into my routine of walking at lunch break and shooting photos of the city. I shot the entire roll of film on my lunch hour that day, but I admit, I wasn't very discriminating in my compositions.

As you can see in the resulting photos, this camera with this film requires lots of light, perhaps I should have saved a few shots to use with the flash on the camera. The film was processed with Film Photography Project C-41 kit 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.

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.