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. 

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.

Deep Blue Gear 35mm Camera

Week 41 - Deep Blue Gear Waterproof Camera purchased for 99¢ at the local Community Aid. This is simply a plastic toy camera enclosed in a waterproof case. There is no battery and has a focus free 28mm lens. When I was checking it out in the store, I wasn't able to determine if the shutter worked, the shutter only works with film inside.  I couldn't find any information on the camera in a web search, but I believe that it is a snorkeling camera, I found a company called Deep Blue Gear that sells snorkeling gear.

I grabbed a roll of Kodak 400 from the supply of film that Brenda and I had bought from Craigslist a while ago. This guy had boxes of film that he was selling for 25¢ each, so we bought a 100 rolls, using it mainly for testing cameras, as who knows how the film was stored. Most of the rolls have turned out fine.

I went out and about Hanover on Sunday afternoon with the Deep Blue Gear and managed to use the whole roll of film in about an hour The camera is very light, no controls, just point and shoot. I could concentrate on composing photos, only the lens is much wider than indicated in the viewfinder. The resulting photos are much further away than they appeared in the frame. Now that I've tested it, I know I need to get in really close for the results I'm looking for the next time using it.

My favorite photos from the roll are the ones from the industrial area of Hanover along Middle Street. The film was processed with the FPP C-41 kit and scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

Disderi Robot 3

Week 37 - Disderi Robot 3 action sampler plastic toy camera purchased last year from ebay for $10 including shipping. The Disderi Robot 3 has 3 plastic lenses that look like the face of a robot, available in several color combinations. The aperture is f8, shutter speed 1/100th of a second, with each of the three lenses firing sequentially on shutter release. There is no battery required. The resulting photographs have three images per frame, a larger one on top with two smaller ones underneath. The viewfinder is simply a fold up plastic frame, which is really not very accurate, just point in the direction of your subject. 

I loaded the Disderi Robot 3 with a recently expired roll of Fuji Superia 400 and shot a few photos around the house. I carried it in my bag all week, it's very light, and used the rest of the roll on a walk around Baltimore on my lunch break. Street photography looks pretty cool in the 3 frame photos, especially with urban landscape patterns. It does make a grinding mechanical noise when firing the shutter, so don't scare anyone when taking a photo! It really is just a fun little camera when you want to get some different photos from your usual routine.

I processed the film in a Film Photography Project C-41 kit, and scanned on Epson V500 Photo with spot dusting in Photoshop.

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.