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.

Camera and Film Prize

A couple of weeks ago, Brenda and I attended the 8mm movie screening of "The Basement" at Midtown Cinema in Harrisburg, PA sponsored by Film Photography Project. The Film Photography Project is my favorite podcast to listen to while commuting to my job in Baltimore. I listen to several other film photography and camera related podcasts, but this is the one that brought my love of collecting old box cameras and shooting and developing my own film together. I have been collecting old cameras, mostly Kodak Brownie type box cameras, since I purchased my first antique camera and a box of junk for $2.00 at a fire department auction back in 1989. The mirror was broken in the Spartus Full-Vue faux TLR film camera, but I took it apart and had a small mirror cut to replace the old one. My then mother-in-law bought me a roll of film to try it out and then I put the camera on the shelf and started my collection of vintage cameras. Several years ago I was intrigued when I saw a video on using Fuji peel-apart film in old Polaroid Pack cameras. I was amazed that film was still being made for these cameras and then I remembered that I had a Polaroid One Step in my studio closet. A search for Polaroid cameras on Youtube turned up a whole slew of videos by Film Photography Project and I proceeded to watch every one of them. Seeing that film was still being made for most of the cameras in my collection, I started a quest to shoot a roll of film in each one of my working cameras, now numbering over 100. So after finding the Film Photography Podcast several years ago on Itunes and listening to the entire back catalog and also keeping up with the current episodes, I was excited that I could meet the hosts from the show at the movie screening in Harrisburg. "The Basement" was a fun movie to watch and Brenda won an awesome Nikon N50 SLR with a Sigma 28-200mm zoom lens and I scored some free film (you might say that I won the camera, as Brenda has since given it to me). The next day I took the Nikon around town loaded with a roll of Svema 125 color film from the prize pack, then developed the film later that evening. I used the auto settings on the camera and plan to give it another test this weekend down in Washington, D.C. when we go to visit my son. A few samples from the Svema roll are shown here.

Maryland Steam Show with Two Classic Cameras

Brenda and I went out the Maryland Steam Show in Arcadia, Maryland on Saturday to see the wonderful old steam engines and browse the flea market for halloween costume parts. I love to watch the antique steam engines being driven around the grounds of the show, it reminds of the times I went to the show when I was a kid. I brought along my thirty-plus year old Pentax K1000 loaded with Arista 400 film to try out. I'm planning to develop some prints in my newly set-up darkroom in the basement next week and I needed some good shots to experiment with. I also brought the Ansco Panda 620 camera that I bought at the Rinely Yard Sale for a whopping fifty cents filled with respooled Ilford Delta 400 film. After walking around the steam engines in awe and shooting nearly all my photos we started in on the massive flea market to search for parts for this year's halloween costumes - Steampunk. There were lots of tables filled with brass valves and fittings, old gauges and watches, odd looking hand tools and other random bobs and bits. We even picked up an old english riding helmet that Brenda plans to convert into some sort of Steampunk headgear. She has been busy down in the basement working on accessories for her costume, I need to get busy with mine. I developed the film with Arista Liquid Film Developer and scanned the negatives with my Epson V500 Photo Scanner. A few of the images are show here.

Enchanted Forest through a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Camera

This past Saturday, my friend Elaine and I attended the 60th Birthday Celebration of Enchanted Forest at Clark's Elioak Farm in Howard County, Maryland. The farm is geared toward young children with activities such as a petting zoo, pony rides, and hay rides. I was only mildly disappointed that I was over the weight limit to ride the ponies, but the goats in the petting zoo were amusing and just way too cute. The main reason I was there was to see the restored nursery rhyme structures from the long closed Enchanted Forest Theme Park. I have a too distant but fond memory of going to the Enchanted Forest in Ellicott City on my very first field trip in elementary school way back in first grade. I have vague memories of that trip with the more vivid ones being of the giant slide on an island and my visit to the souvenir shop to buy a giant pair of Enchanted Forest sunglasses. My friend and I enjoyed looking at the brightly painted structures throughout the farm, but it was really hot outside! I brought along my Pentax Q10 mirrorless camera and my modified Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash box camera with a flipped lens. The modification is done by removing the film carrier inside the camera and popping out the lens and putting it in backwards. This creates photos that have blurred edges with a sharp center with a somewhat dreamy effect. I thought this would be perfect for the brightly colored nursery rhyme characters and buildings that have been restored. I developed the photos with the Unicolor C-41 kit from the Film Photography Project Store and the resulting images are above.

Evening Walk on the Hanover Trolley Trail

Earlier this week, Brenda and I took and evening walk on the Hanover Trolley Trail in Spring Grove, PA. This recreational biking/walking trail that goes from Hanover, PA to York, PA is in progress and two sections have been completed. The trail follows an abandoned trolley trail that originally connected Hanover and York. This section is approximately a mile and a half long and passes beneath a railroad bridge. Future plans call for the entire distance between Hanover and the Heritage Rail Trail in York to connect. I took the Nikon FG-20 SLR camera that I bought at the Rinely Yard sale last month with a newly acquired Nikon Series E 50mm 1.8 lens. I shot with Kodak BW400CN black and white film, one of my favorites, which has been discontinued. I still have a few rolls tucked away in the fridge. The next morning I developed the roll in a Unicolor C-41 kit purchased from the Film Photography Project store and the photos above are the result. I liked this film because I could get it processed for a couple of dollars at the local CVS, which I would scan myself and get some nice quality black and white images. I was very disappointed when the local CVS stopped processing film in the store and I don't think I've been back since. I've resorted to processing my own film now, which can be done anytime I have a few minutes, including 3:30 in the morning when our beagle wakes me up for breakfast.

A Visit to Summersville Dam

In a recent post, I wrote about a Kodak Brownie Fiesta camera that was found in a Goodwill store in West Virginia. The camera had an exposed roll of Kodacolor X that I developed this afternoon and scanned. I developed the roll in Kodak D-76, which was what I had available, and the resulting photographs are black and white. I was able to recover eight images of what appear to be a visit to the Summersville Dam in West Virginia in the mid to late 1960's. One of the photographs was clearly of a dam, and a google search of West Virginia dams came up with photos that match the structure on the roll of film. There is another photo of a woman standing by her car with binoculars and another of a man with a body of water in the background. It was interesting to read a little bit of history about the dam, the second largest rock fill dam in the Eastern United States. I also did a search on Merrill Photo Supply Co., the photography store that was listed on the original purchase receipt of the camera and was sad to see that they closed in mid 2011 after being in business for over 70 years. Overall, I'm very pleased with this attempt at retrieving photographs from this long expired roll of film.

Kodak Brownie Fiesta

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.