LoFi Chocolate Milk Box Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 26 - LoFi Chocolate Milk Box Camera with RetroChrome 320 from the Film Photography Project Store. The camera was purchased at FiveBelow for $1.99. The shutter button is the straw that sticks out of the top of the box camera. It has a 28mm f/9.5 lens with a photo taking distance of 1.0 and shutter speed of 1/100 sec. The side of the camera states that it is best used with 800 speed film. I maybe should have used the RetroChrome 160, as this roll came out overexposed on the sunny bright days that I used it.

I thought I could discreetly take photos while walking around Gettysburg with Brenda last Saturday, but I felt I looked somewhat conspicuous holding a chocolate milk box to my eye. So I tried just shooting a couple from the hip without really looking through the viewfinder. The camera was easy to carry around but the film counter wasn't working so I wasn't sure how many photos I had taken. I also used the camera on a lunch time walk up to the art supply store with my co-worker earlier this week.

I developed the film with my first ever E6 developing kit, after developing two other rolls first. The first two rolls came out properly exposed (probably because of the auto exposure settings on those two cameras). As you can see, these came out much lighter, I'm happy with the way some of them look though.

The slide film positives were scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 25 Camera - Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 with expired roll of 35mm Kodak Portra 160NC. I thought I would shoot sprocket hole photos with this camera rather than respooling 120 film onto a 616 spool. I like the look of color sprocket hole photos and thought they would be a nice change this week.

I brought the Kodak Brownie Target Six-16 with me on a photo walk around Hanover last weekend. I had a bag with three cameras (the Brownie, Canon AE-1, and Nikon EM), water and a snack when I went on the walk last Sunday morning. It was a beautiful day, but it did start to get a little hot walking around town. Before heading out, I taped the viewfinders of the box camera to limit my view to an approximation of the area that would cover the much thinner 35mm film area in the camera. I had previously calculated how many turns of the film advancing knob would advance the film far enough to not overlap exposures. I managed to get 5 and half sprocket photos out of the 35mm roll. Another thing to consider when shooting is to try to hold the camera level and against your body to stabilize it to make sure the resulting photos are straight. 

I mostly shot some of the old buildings around town, my favorite subjects when walking around Hanover. When finished, I needed to place the whole camera in a changing bag and rewind the film into the canister by hand before opening the film canister and placing the film in the tank. I developed the roll with the Unicolor C-41 home kit from Film Photography Project Store, I'm up to 16 rolls developed with it now, I think the results are still satisfactory to me.

Ondu MKII 6x6 Pinhole Camera - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 24 Camera - Ondu MKII 6x6 PInhole Camera received as a reward for backing the Ondu MKII Pinhole Camera Kickstarter campaign. I love pinhole photography - the wide angles, the slightly distorted views, and the occasional sun flare. I truly admire the pinhole photographers that can achieve these otherworldly images. I can't decide if I like black and white pinhole photos with smooth tones or the sometimes wildly colorful sun aberrations achieved in color pinhole photos. 

The Ondu MKII 6x6 Pinhole is a beautifully made wooden camera with a new design where magnets hold the camera back in place as well as the film advance knobs and film spool holders. Their Kickstarter campaign had a few setbacks causing a delay in shipping the rewards, but I must say the camera was well worth the wait. Everything was light tight and the first roll of film through the camera worked great.

I chose to load my Ondu MKII 6x6 with expired Kodak Portra 160NC and I went pinholing on my lunch break on a beautiful day last week. I walked to one of my usual places for lunch, the Mount Vernon area, with the Washington Monument and the Gothically styled architecture of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church. I prefer when the skies are partly sunny with puffy clouds, they look awesome in pinhole photos. It was very bright outside, without a cloud in the sky, but I did achieve aberrations in a couple of photos, not intentionally, but that was a bonus. I also shot a few photos in the backyard and of course, a front porch portrait of Brenda.

The film roll was developed with the Unicolor C41 kit from Film Photography Project and scanned on Epson V500 Photo flatbed scanner.

Polaroid Land Camera 360 - 52 Cameras, 52 WeeksWeek

Week 23 Camera - Polaroid Land Camera 360 Electronic Flash model (without the electronic flash) that Brenda bought for me on her birthday! We were poking around in a few antique stores, I saw this camera and I was mulling over whether I wanted to add another pack film camera to my collection in light of the fact that pack film will no longer be produced by Fuji. But the camera was in such good condition and had the flip up Zeiss viewfinder, so Brenda bought it for me (it was only $10). I had trouble figuring out how to get to the battery compartment, but a quick search online provided the answer. As suspected, there were a couple of corroded batteries, but after cleaning with white vinegar, I popped in a battery and the shutter clicked twice - awesome!

On Sunday, I loaded my last pack of Fuji FP-3000b, found my Polaroid 516 Cloud Filter attachment and Brenda and I were off on a car ride up to Peter's Orchards and Pine Grove Furnace State Park, in the Michaux State Forest. I'm so glad that Brenda likes to ride along with me on these little photography excursions - at Peter's Orchards we stocked up on apple butter, honey, and a jar of pumpkin butter to try. To get to Peter's Orchards, it's a straight drive up Route 94 through Cross Keys and York Springs with part of the ride over some roller coaster type hills that can leave your stomach in the air (fun!). It seems an endless drive over the hills surrounded by acres of apple trees until suddenly there is the fruit market in the middle of the orchards. I especially love to drive through the orchards after the leaves have fallen as the bare trees have interesting gnarly branches that I haven't quite been able to capture well on film.

After shooting at the fruit market, we headed north with another stop for a photo and then to Pine Grove Furnace. The Furnace stack is near the Appalachian Trail and the park campgrounds. I love the texture of the rocks that form the furnace and the remains of the walls behind it with the foliage poking through. I made a couple of accidental double exposures here as I wasn't sure I had cocked the shutter. I also took a few iPhone photos for reference to make a sketch or two. 

The Polaroid 360 operated smoothly though the exposures were a little too dark, I probably should have adjusted the exposure more. The photos were scanned on Epson V500 Photo and I also scanned the negative side of the peel apart film, one of the scans is shown above.

Agfa B2 Cadet - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 22 - Agfa B2 Cadet - I found this camera in an antique store in Berlin, MD for $5 and couldn't pass it up. We were on a trip to Rehoboth Beach, DE and had driven down to Ocean City, MD and neighboring Berlin to spend the day. I was of course, shooting with another camera that week for my 2016 camera project. I used an expired roll of Ilford FP4 that I had purchased on Ebay - the resulting images have some light leaks around the edges and I had light leakage through the red film window on the back of the camera. I will need to tape up the camera and the film window if I use this it again. 

I like the large 6x9 negatives (minus the light leaks) and shooting with the Agfa B2 Cadet was pretty much the same as other box cameras. It has two shutter settings, time and instant, with a pull out tab to switch between the two. I had read another review online where the photographer had trouble loading the film, but I didn't have that problem (sometimes a little tape helps, lol) Composing a photo is accomplished through two top down viewfinders, one for portrait orientation and one for landscape. 

 It was a beautiful Sunday on Memorial Day weekend and I was eager to get out shooting somewhere, so we drove over to one of my favorite places - Gettysburg, PA. We drove out to Devil's Den, a frequent stop on our battlefield drives, and then to the Pennsylvania Monument and Culp's Hill areas. Brenda happily posed for a view photos (she's so supportive!)

I developed the roll in caffenol 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.

Argus Minca 28 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 20 - Argus Minca 28, purchased at the Black Rose Antique Mall in Hanover, PA for $8.00. The Argus Minca 28 uses 828 film which is essentially roll film the same size as 35 mm film but with fewer frames on the roll and without sprockets. The roll I purchased online was pricey - $18, and was respooled Tri-X 400 with previously used backing paper and spool. I decided to purchase the roll with the intention of reusing the backing paper and spool in future experiments with 828 film. The Argus Minca 28 was produced 1947-48ish and was made under several other badges - the Delco 828 and Camro 28.

I brought the camera along on our vacation to Rehoboth Beach, DE and also took it on a trip to Berlin, MD. I missed the first photo on the roll, sometimes those number 1's are hard to distinguish from the arrow markings at the beginning of a roll of film. The film was very difficult to wind through the camera, I'm not sure if it was the design of the camera or something with the roll of film itself. I thought I might break the film but I finally got through the roll and finished taking it off the spool in a changing bag.

I developed the film in Caffenol, but perhaps I should mix up a new batch of D-76 for future black and white developing. Negatives were scanned with Epson V500 Photo.

Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 - 52 Cameras, 52 Weeks

Week 19 - Olympus Stylus Epic Zoom 80 purchased at the local Goodwill store for $4.99. I chose Kodak BW400CN from my dwindling stash, developed in Unicolor C-41 home kit. These photos were shot at Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, Mount Vernon, and Maytown, PA. 

I really liked the size of the camera and I thought the photos came out really nice, since it's a compact point and shoot camera. There are options for shooting in different modes including an option for turning off the flash. I got nicely exposed no-flash photos from inside the MICA main building on a recent campus tour with my son. The camera is also weather resistant, making it nice to shoot in rainy conditions, like we had on our campus tour. I think it would make a great camera for walking around town or stashing in your backpack for a day hike.

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.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2016

I had been looking forward to this year's Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day on April 24 for several months and had made plans with a friend to go to Patapsco State Park in Maryland. But as the day approached, I came down with a cold and was not feeling up to a daylong excursion carrying my pinhole gear.  So, I made the best of it, and made it out to the front yard to photograph our blooming Dogwood tree. The featured blog photo here is my entry in the WPPD online gallery this year.

Camera - Holga WPC Wide Pinhole Camera. Film - expired Kodak Portra 160NC. Developed with Unicolor C-41 home kit. Scanned with Epson V500 Photo.