Kodak Vest Autographic

I made some pictures with  my Kodak Vest Autographic back few weeks ago for the first time...this is a nice little folding pocket camera that takes the not so wide available 127 film. 

Very compact and beautifully designed  it was once advertised as the "Soldier's Camera" during WWI.

Note the old "Eastman Kodak Company" logo just below the shutter setting...

The camera comes with a stylus that would allow the photographer to write notes onto to the film's back paper through a window located at the back of the camera, the film was especially developed to use with this camera and it was called "The Autographic System".

I ran a test  respooling some 35mm film onto a 127 spool. The procedure is obvioulsly done in the dark and can be tricky to do but it's achievable, I normally practice before with the lights on and a dummy film. 

As a result you have a kind of panoramic format image covering the full 35mm negative including the sprockets, .

Some of the shots are blurry in the midle and I don't know exactly why... I suspect either the camera wasn't opened to it's fully while shooting or the film pressure plate is not well aligned, interesting effect anyway...

Fuji Across 100 ISO processed with Rodinal 1:100 - 1 hour stand development

Here's an excellent source of information about Kodak Vest Cameras:

http://vpk.staff.shef.ac.uk/index.html

Salex Camera

I found this nice camera on ebay with no much information from the seller regarding the condition, apart from "last used in 1966 and was ok then !" . The pictures posted weren't really good either but it was cheap and in need of some work, I thought it could be fun to get it and maybe spend some time trying to rescue...

The outside body is very worn out as I was already expecting but everything is working perfectly including the F Deckel Compur shutter...

But the real bargain I guess are the optics which after some cleaning it's in prime condition... It reads "Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar"!

I've searched information about the camera on the net but nothing came out, a friend at the Filmwasters then gave me the link to the Early Photography website where I could get some of the details:

"The Salex name comes from the name of the British camera company, City Sale and Exchange which was founded in 1881 and their cameras were

marketed  under their brand name of Salex."

This model takes 120 film and you get 16  6x4.5 exposures, it's very compact for a medium format camera and fits nicely in your hands but it's a bit tricky to change speeds since there's no much space. I also find difficult to locate the shutter release while looking through the viewfinder, but nothing that a small cable release won't solve.

The focusing is in feet and if you're not used to (like me) can be a problem as there's no hot shoe adapter to take a dedicated rangefinder, few shots from this roll came out out of focus.

So here are few pictures from the first test roll...

Fuji Across 100 ISO processed in Rodinal 1 hour stand development.

 

Agfa ISO Rapid Camera

This cool little "brick" camera made by the German company Agfa in the 60's, the model shown here it's almost entirely made of plastic apart from the thin metal plate on the base, top of the camera and lens barrel.

The camera is very simple to operate with only the "sunny" and "flash" settings and falls easily into the "point and shoot" category. It has a tripod mount (even though there's no B setting), a mechanism that prevents double exposures and this particular model has the hotshoe for the flash.

Now, in order to use one of those beauty you'll have to find two empty Rapid cassestes made especificaly for the Agfa cameras and in total darkness load you 35mm film of choice. I say two cassetes because the camera has no rewind feature, it basically runs the film from one cartridge to another.

The nicest thing about this camera in my opinion apart from the design, is the 24X24 square format you'll get on standard 35mm film. 

The results below were taken in a bright sunny day with Fuji Across 100 ISO and processed with Rodinal 1:100 dilution 1 hour stand development.

Smena Camera

I don't know how I ended up with three Smena Cameras... I remember the first one I bought from the guy who fixed my LCA. He had this nice little camera with the old Lomo logo stamped on with all those symbols, and a really well made leatherette case that put shame in so many well branded cameras. That really grab my attention! at that time I just couldn't resist and bought the camera... that was back in 2006. The other two I guess I came across while searching for junk cameras on ebay, just found them by chance and I remember paying almost nothing for them.

Smenas were made by the Lomo factory in the former URSS so you can expect very good lens (hard-coated 3 elements) fitted in smelly plastic body. Some of the camera's features are flash synchronisation in all speeds, cable realease socket, tripod mount and the B mode. It's really hard to believe you have all these features in such a cheap plastic body!

But the great thing about these cameras in my opinion is the ability to make anyone take good photographs with the minimum knoledge. The clever symbol system where everything can be quickly set in order to give the photographer the correct combination of shutter speed and aperture without having to know about photography is what makes the camera even more special. Select the film ISO by rotating the front ring around the lens and you've got yourself already the correct aperture, choose the weather symbol accordingly and the appropriate shutter speed it's set, the focus ring comes with symbols as well to simplify the process, just like the Diana and Holga cameras.

On the downside, the earlier models it's a real pain to rewind the film back to the cartridge once it's finished. Also the life-size one to one ratio viewfinder is hard to get used to which means that what you see it's not always what you get on the frame.

They were produced under different names depending on the market/year it was released (cosmic symbol, cosmic 35, smena 8m, smena symbol...) you may find some with the Cyrillic inscription wich were obvioulsy made to the former soviet market, they look more attractive in my opinion.

Back few weeks ago I tried my last Smena Cosmic 35 acquisition. This is an earlier model from the 60's, the body it's made from bakelite and it's havier the the later plastic body models. There's no weather symbol and the focus scale it's in meters but this model have self-timer delay, it also looks less toy-ish comparing to the later models.

I got this one in almost mint condition including a brand new case, box, instructions, a certificate from the Lomo factory with serial number and a receipt dating from 1967 in French.

And here are the latest results... Taken with Kodak 125 PX and processed with Rodinal 1:100 1 hour stand development.

Hand-Coloured Photographs

Another set of Hand-Coloured Photographs I have made using the Lakeland Fotocol Kit and the Johnson's oil.

Wephota Film

A long time ago I shot this film using my Voigtlander Avus camera with some degree of success. The film had to be "glued" in a piece of board with honey and then inserted in the dark slides to be exposed. This is because the film is smaller and obviously much thinner than the original plates in which the camera was designed to take.

This time I have come up with a better solution, I made some "envelopes" from cardboard  with a window. All I have to do is slide the film in this envelope and then insert the whole envelope inside the dark slides. 

The pictures came out well but with loads of spots and I had to spend quite some time cleaning in Photoshop. I believe the spots are either due to the air bubbles from the stand development or the anti-halation layer that wasn't properly washed away. It can also be specs from inside the dark slides, after all they're nearly 100 years old.

The last picture was processed in Rodinal 1:50 normal development, all other pictures were done using stand development, this time I used the 1:200 ratio/two hours stand development with agitation only for the first minute.

And after some cleaning with photoshop...

The details are quite good for such an old lens ...