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

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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.

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. 

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.

Polaroid One Step Close Up

Week 40 - Polaroid One Step Close Up, a Polaroid 600 instant film camera given to me by a friend who found it in his closet. The camera has a built in flip up flash powered by the internal battery of each Polaroid 600 type film pack. This closeup model features two focusing distances, with a slider between close up of 2-4 feet and distance of 4 feet to infinity. There is also a lighten/darken switch to adjust the exposure of your photos.

I had on hand an expired box of Impossible Project 600 black and white film, leftover from an expired film bag special from Impossible Project. My frugality will not allow me to purchase full price film, I usually only purchase the factory seconds or expired film bag specials. I also like the unpredictable results achieved with these films. If I want to get consistent, predictable results, I shoot with Fuji Instax Wide and Mini.

With no ideas or destinations in mind this week for subject matter, I turned to shooting photos of my friends, and a self portrait. I found I liked the outdoor shots better. One of my photographer friends commented that his portrait had Holga-like qualities with the softly focused edges and another friend liked the unique black and white instant photo, something that you don't usually see. They were all pleased when I gave them their photos after scanning them.

Time to get ready for Fall Polaroid Week coming up week after next, I hope the new Fuji Instax Mini Monochrome will be available by then.

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.

Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 531A

Week 38 - Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 531A received as a gift from my sister-in-law. She gave it to me stating that her father had given it to her years ago, but she knew that I would get more joy out of owning it than she would. It's a very nice piece to add to my collection, but I was more excited that it was still in working condition and that I could put a few rolls through it. I've had the camera for several years and this week is not the first time that I have used it, but it really is a nice little camera so I took it off the shelf.

I loaded the Super Ikonta 531A with expired Kodak Portra 160NC (I know I said I wasn't going to use any more expired film for this project, but this batch of film has been tested). The camera has a Compur Rapid shutter with speeds of 1 to 500, a Carl Zeiss Tessar Jena f3.5 lens. The shutter release has a lock which will not allow a double exposure. There are 16 6x4.5mm frames on a roll of 120 size film. The shutter must be cocked before pressing the button and sometimes I forget to do that, thinking the camera is jammed. As best as I can determine from my web search, it is a prewar model made in the late 1930's.

My mother is under home hospice care, so I have been spending a lot time at her house, but this past weekend Brenda and I had a break for the day. It was a beautiful fall-feeling morning as we drove out to Gettsyburg and went on some of our favorite parts of the auto tour. I had to catch up on my camera project so I was shooting with this camera and the following week's camera, a Rollei Prego 90. Look for those photos later this week. I tried to capture some interesting landscape photos with a few cannons thrown in and of course, a couple of photos of the always lovely, Brenda. We happened upon a cannon firing demonstration by Confederate Reenactors and I was able to snap a photo of a Union Reenacting couple.

The roll was developed at home with the FPP C-41 Home Kit and scanned on 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.

Lensless Pinhole 4x5 Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 36 - Lensless Camera Manufacturing Co. 4x5 Pinhole Camera, received at Christmas 2014 from my wife, Brenda. I have been weighing whether or not I wanted to delve into large format film photography for some time, I thought a 4x5 pinhole camera would be a good jumping off point. Some of the obstacles for me for large format film were the cost, reliable processing, and the ability to scan the negatives myself. I've pretty much been keeping to small and medium format cameras, because I could pick them up at flea markets, craigslist, and yard sales for a few dollars. I don't have a lot of extra money to spend on my hobby, and I really just enjoy the process of shooting photos and developing them myself. 

When I first started using the 4x5 pinhole camera, I found a technique referred to as the "taco method" using a Paterson two reel film tank for developing 4 sheets of film. I successfully used this method for over 70 photos but when I saw the kickstarter for Timothy Gilbert's SP-445 developing tank, I thought this would be a great option for processing my 4x5's. My tank arrived a few weeks ago and I was eager to give it go. On labor day, I loaded up 4 of my film holders with Arista EDU 100 and took a quick trip to downtown Hanover to shoot photos of St. Matthews Church on Chestnut Street and then to the square to shoot photos of the cannon display there.

I have to confess, I'm a bit afraid of the dark and only use a changing bag to load my film in holders and developing tanks. I found that loading the SP-445 from the film holders in the changing bag was a bit cumbersome, but with more practice it will go more smoothly. I think that I might invest in a larger film changing tent, especially if I wind up shooting more 4x5 film. The tank only uses 16 oz of developer for 4 sheets of 4x5 film, which is awesome! I followed the tips from the kickstarter project videos for processing and the only issue, which is very minor, is that there was a small amount of leakage around the caps. It wasn't enough to be a problem, but perhaps the next time I use it, I will follow the tip of wetting the O-ring around the lid before closing it up.

The negatives came out well, I used a 1+1 solution of Kodak D-76 for 9 minutes. I previously had scanned my 4x5's in two passes on my Epson V500 Photo, then stitched them together in Photoshop. About six months ago, I bought an old Epson Perfection 2450 Photo flatbed scanner and hooked it up to an old iMac, creating a dedicated 4x5 film scanning station. The scanner cost $12 plus shipping from ebay and I bought the dead iMac from Craigslist for $35. I was able to fix the iMac and load an old version of Photoshop on it to use the scanner.

Polaroid 420 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 35 - Polaroid 420 Automatic Land Camera received from my nephew in a junk box of cameras. I tested the camera with a 3 volt battery with some juice left in it and loaded it with my last pack of Fuji FP-100c peel-apart film. 

Our family is going through a difficult time right now - my mother is terminally ill with breast cancer and recently went on hospice home care. On Sunday morning, Brenda and I took a little break and drove to Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore to spend an hour or so walking the grounds and gardens of this beautiful and peaceful city park. The Cylburn mansion was completed in 1868, with a Carriage House, which currently contains a nature museum. I shot the entire pack of instant film while we walked around the park, thinking that it would be nice to come here and sketch sometime. After leaving there, we drove back to Hanover and had a picnic lunch at Codorus State Park, near our home.

Most of the photos from the pack came out with accurate focusing, using the rangefinder on the camera. I thought the photos turned out nicely and am pleased that those will be my last Fuji FP-100c photos. Well, I may at some point purchase additional Fuji pack camera film, but for the foreseeable future, I will be shooting with Fuji instax mini and wide films. I also occasionally purchase impossible project films when there is a sale on expired packs and factory seconds.