TheThree test films for the Box Brownie Flash II Are here!

They arrived yesterday and I eagerly opened them. I was reminded of how much I ADore Fuji Provia It really is a superb film. I was happy with my cheap B&W which went through the wringer as the first test film and all in all this camera is great!

Test Roll 1 Lomography.com B&W
As described in an earlier post below, this film got jammed stretched torn and re-rolled twice and STILL Provided some aceptable photos.







Test Roll 2 Testing spool hack Fujichrome Provia expired







Test Roll 3 Kodak Tri-X 1960's expired











So there you are a lovely little camera that takes cool pics (OK soft around the edges but it is 53 years old..)

Something Is Irritating Me

I have been keeping an eye on sale of ancient cameras, not always to buy just to see what things are worth. I have become very familiar with seller's language and I am getting very annoyed with some on the excuses for not giving a full description.

My pet hate is "I have no way of testing this"
Well yeah you do. Press the shutter doofus. It should click. I don't expect you to know if it works correctly but I need to now if it goes click. Or put the camera on bulb and push the shutter button . The shutter should open and stay open this is a good indication that at least it opens.
I don't mind them saying "not film tested" because if you sell a lot of cameras, who can afford the film and some film is just not available. (read 124 film)
1904 ( or any date> camera blah blah patent dates say...
well no. Patient dates tell you the time if cannot be. If it has a 1914 patient, the camera was produced AFTER this date. It does not date the camera itself. It could be a 1954 camera with a patient of 1914. Tis is misrepresenting the item.
good condition or excellent condition for it's age missing lens or rear cover
this is not good or even excellent condition. You can find 90 year old almost perfect examples. Your camera missing buts is NOT acceptable to call excellent. Do research and price accordingly and buyers don't care of you great granny bought it in 1920 during a snowstorm.
buy it now $70 not working sorry but anything that is not working is not worth a high price. Again do research. Cameras are not worth money. If it doesn't work it's essentially kitch trash.

There you have it. My gripe list for today.

Success!

Well.. I think so.
Today I was trawling for film format info when I stumbled upon a PDF that was talking about converting 120rolls to fit a 116 folding camera. The PDF was a little hard core using vices and washers and drilling flanges etc but in amongst all this was a pearl. He was talking about the 116 being longer, thinner than 120 but the flange on the 120 is bigger so he snipped the flange down using nail clippers. Ooooooo 120 is the same length as 620 but the flange is bigger and the core is thicker but the film is the same. Sooooooo if I clip the flanges of the 120 spool, it MAY work as a take up spool for the Box brownie flash II.
I discussed it with David and he agreed it may work with nail clippers. So I found some and got a spare 120 spool. Clipping the edge off, I slotted into the clipped spool into the small take up spool space. It fit!!!! Before it didn't fit at all and the 120 was too tight for the film unload space as well. But now it sat beautifully. Now to load a film and test.










Now will it all jam up when all the film gathers on the bottom roll or will it work.
I loaded the film and set off for maccas. I played with the camera in the dark, most exposures will be shaky, some or most underexposed but I don't care. I was testing the way the film moved in the camera and the performance of the Franken spool
The film progressed nicely through the roll and I came to the end of 8 exposures WIN!!! I didn't make it to 8 withe the first roll. It got well and truly stuck at 6 and that was the end of it.
I am extremely happy that this camera is for the most part, fully functioning and I don't have to buy 620 spools or special re-spooled 620 film. Yay!!!

Next to source 124 or 116 spools or film.

Film Names Why Are They So??

David set me a challenge this am. Why are 120 and 620 rolls names as such as they are essential the same film. this topic came up due to my dumbfuckery as I had rolled a 120 film on to my only 620 spool only to discover that I had a 620 film in the fridge :: head smack::
So I accepted this challenge and here is what I found.
Most of the information is from this web site I have done it in point form for ease.

• 1889 - No2 Kodak camera is introduced, and now there was a need to differentiate films for cameras.
- cameras were now listed on the film box like printers are now listed on ink boxes.
• 1908 - due to the now complex film ordering system, it was decided to simplify everything and use a numbering system for spooled films in order of introduction.
- the 1st spooled, flanged film was introduced with the No2 Bullet camera in 1895 and this was numbered 101
• 1913 -this new numbering system has now been phased in and it is now that it appears in the Kodak price list
- the numbers 101-129 are now in use.
• 1913 - 106-114 were numbers used for films spooled for cartridge roll holders allowing the film to be used in cameras designed for glass plates. Film to be used with these cameras were spooled with the emulsion facing outward, rather than inward as in film designed for native roll-film cameras
• 1916 - 130 film for 2 7/8 X 4 7/8 No2C Kodak camera was introduced.
- No00 cartridge Premo camera was introduced. This camera used No35 film which was made from unperforated 35mm motion picture film.
• 1931 - 620 and 616 films were designed. These films were the same picture size as 120 & 116 but the spool diameter were reduced to allow them to fit into thinner cameras
- the "6" was originally used to designate the number of pictures per roll alas but the time they were in the market place, the decision had been made to increase the number of frames to 8 per roll so the "6" became meaningless.
• 1934 - Kodak retina camera using 35mm cartridges was introduced, the number 135 was assigned to this film format. The film size could also be used in other cameras, contax and leica. There were spool versions of this 35mm films also available and these were numbered 235 and 435 respectively.
.
• 1935 - Kodak Bantam cameras produced 8 exposures of 28X 40mm so this film format was numbered 828
• 1952 (July) - a special length of 135 film was designed for stereo cameras. This film allowed for 20 pairs of photos per roll and was numbered 335
• 1965 - 220 film was introduced. As it was twice the size of 120 film, it's number was made 220. Tis film has a paper leader and trailer but no backing paper for the rest of the roll, allowing more film to fit per spool. This film is thin and designed to be used in professional cameras that automatically wound the film. This film cannot be used in unmodified 120/620 cameras. Even if you did seal the red window, it would be extremely difficult to guess how far to roll the film for each exposure.

The primary reason for all these these negative formats is that prints in the early part of the 20th century were made by contact soothe print is the same size as the negative. Enlargers were not used until later. To get an enlargement you need to re-shoot the scene with a bigger format camera.

I have made up as spread sheet from various sources of the different spool films. You will find it here

So there you are. :-)

Box brownie

Went to get the mail and we needed toilet paper. So I walked down from the post office to the supermarket, a passing an antique store. I always walk past this store. I have never gone in. Ever. In all the years I have lived here, never have I darkened their doors.. Today, I stopped dead. I had this strong feeling that I should go in, just this once.

I opened the squeaky door ( yes, creaks) and ventured into a room filled with china cabinets. Oh a bull in a china shop.. I kept my hands close to my body for fear of breaking something. Dolls looked down from their dusty shelves probably wondering why a ragged woman, in tracksuit pants and unkempt hair was daring to enter their boutique.
The well dressed lady behind the counter, finished serving the handsome fireman (yes, all true!!) looked over at me and smiled the warmest smile I have seen in a time.
She chatted to me and talked about the new store coming soon, the books in the back with the fur coats. Fur coats were 50% off... Ooo... Nono not here for coats..


I excused myself as I spied a moldy leather case. Square, thick leather.. Hmmm

Gingerly opening it I saw....



Squee!! It's cute and in nice condition. I pulled it out of the bag, taking to the lady's counter. I turned it over in my hands talking about it to the lady. She pretended to be interested. She did ask me questions.
I asked if I could test it or was it broken. She had no idea so allowed me to play with it. The shutter worked the glass was all intact and the only flaws were some dirt. For a 1958 box camera, it was in good condition.

I gave in and handed over the last of my cash for the fortnight. Sigh.

The friendly lady wrapped it lovingly in a bag and we chatted some more. Returning to the car, I suddenly remembered the toilet paper. DAMN! Rummaging through the car for change i scraped enough to get some. PHEW!!!

Returning home I opened my prize. I was aware that I had no 620 film but could I squeeze 120 inside??



Hmm




620 is slightly narrower and a lot thinner. Getting a cheap 120mm film I squeezed it onto the roll. It was a tight fit. Now I get to see what this can do. Either way it's cute and will be a lovely bookcase piece.







Posted from a remote location

Location:Menangle St,Picton,Australia

INteresting film

Well, probably only interesting to me


The first is a high ASA B&W I of course have not picked up my last B&W film... I need to ring them and get them to post it to me. I am not going to drive there I don't think.

This one expired in 2008 so its ASA will be somewhat less than 3200.. I hope to get some inside shots with it. We shall see.

the other is an ASA variable film. Its a slide film, so I will be reserving it for my 10QS instead of wasting it on a toy camera. Unless I am inspired otherwise. I am not really happy using the 35mm back on the Diana, I am finding the guessing rather tough. Hmm I need to finish that film.
Have no had the time to touch any camera recently. :-(

So really, that is all.. :-9

Zone focusing

David tried to teach me this technique in January. It's taken me this long for the concept to click into my brain. Ok can't help being stupid.
There are a few methods, one being mathematics... Hmmm I can't do the double wavy symbol but it looks sorta like this
H~ f2/Nc where N is the lens f stop, f is the focal length and c is the circle of confusion. Ok too hard already at we can use a search engine to look up the circle of confusion for each camera... But who wants to?

Next method is to use the numbers on your lens.
I have a Cmena 2 and so will use this old lady to try to show you. ( I was going to use a zorki-C but the numbers are so very tiny that you would never see them)

1.Look at your lens and set it to infinity focus. I had the Cmena set to f/11 so let's use that. At infinity focus, f/11 has a close to depth of field ( or near to) of 4.5m ( on this camera, your may be different. A 50mm may be closer to 6m)
This is handy, but my husband and child are sitting closer than 4.5m away .. What to do?



2. We must increase our close to DOF to do that, we move the infinity to the f/11 mark on the focus ring. So now the camera shows me that the focus is set to 4.8m this is the hyperfocal distance of this lens. Now, looking at the f/11 marking on either side of the lens, you see 2.2m and infinity.
This means that everything within 2.2m to infinity will be in acceptable focus.





Of course something close to the boundary, at the 2.2m mark, will probably be out of focus to try to not have your focal point close to the end of the limits of the zone. Also with very old cameras the distances may not be accurate but this system works for all cameras with a scale.

Let's try f4.5 on this lens

1. Set to infinity and see that f/4.5 reads just over 10.2m
So is we left it here, everything over 10.2m will be in focus huh that's far away...



2.now move the infinity to f/4.5 and read the hyperfocal distance which is almost exactly 10m wow! That's still far but the other end of the scale reads 5m that's better



So for the Cmena 2 at f/4.5 the zone of in focus is 5m to infinity with the sharpest focus being 10m



So once you set your aperture, and set your zone, don't touch it and shoot from the hip. You can now raise your camera and shoot without worrying about setting it up. Good for street photography.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I got some interesting film

And I was curious so I paid the $13 for the film. It was curious as it has Evidence film.

I had to know what did the US government issue as official evidence film. LoL


I turned the canister over and saw a familiar bar code. Uh no..

Its ferrania. I have seen so many ferrania films that I can tell by its barcode.

Ran it through the DX simulator and I got a confirmation. Ferrania Imaging Color FG Plus 400

So there you are.

Into the bag for test film. :-(

From my diary..thoughts on the past few days

Lomo wise, my life has been a bit slow. Not from late of trying, I carry the Lomo fisheye with me in my bag. I like this camera but I don't love it. Maybe that will come with time.
Earlier this week a Leica copy arrived. This camera is in itself a thing of beauty. It really is a Zoki 1-E that has been dressed up in pretty clothing. She looks stunning. If she never takes a photo, I don't care. If I had a china cabinet I would keep this camera in there. She is dressing in brass with wood panelling. Someone but the Luftwaffe symbol on the top but of course this is just nonsense. No german officer had a gold coloured camera.
I am almost frightened to touch this.

Built in 1954, she was probably redressed in the 1970s or 80s. I would guess the 1980s. I took this Zorki to work and pulled her apart. I worked out how to load the test film (The four corners dark house film I discussed in the entry below) and put it all back together. I worked out the lens, but for the life of my I don't know the rest of the controls. **Sigh** I can see the shutter speed dial, but there is another two dials I don't know the use of.


Oh well I am sure David will be able to help me.

It is a range finder but the finder window is dim and dark. I will need lots of practise to make any useful image. :-(

At central recently I did some random Lomo with the fisheye, but probably got me in most of them so **Fail**
The Lomo fisheye II had a fixed shutter speed and a fixed aperture. F/8 and 1/100sec. Thats it. The only thing I can change is the ISO. And of course this required a film change.