Posted under Photography
I have been acquiring cameras, box and otherwise, at an alarming rate lately. The problem seems to be that a camera, an old camera, a dusty, neglected, forelorn camera, is, to me, something that is filled with possibility and romance. The thought of running a fresh roll of film through a camera that may not have been used in over 50 years is romantic. And if the camera is currently loaded with a roll of forgotten antique film? Forget it. I’m sold.
I know enough at this point to have a pretty good sense of what is valuable (not much) and what isn’t (pretty much almost any old camera). Cameras that aren’t black seem to be worth more than cameras that are – that’s one reason I got the above camera, the Argus 75 Portrait (the other reason was that it came with an additional close up filter for portrait shots. And, it had a box and accessories for under $10). But I’m not really buying the cameras based on how much they’re worth. I want to use these cameras. I want to run film in them and take them out for a day and let them have some fun.
I originally started the whole camera craziness with the thought of buying some old box cameras and tearing them apart and converting them into pinhole cameras. However, once I brought them home, none seemed like a perfect pinhole candidate. They had personality, and lenses that were fixed in place that I’d have to smash open in order to do a conversion. And even though I could, if I wanted, get an identical camera for probably under $10 anytime on eBay if I wanted to, well… Needless to say, all of my box cameras remained intact.
And, eBay! Talk about temptation! I’m trying to be good, though, and have only bought one camera-related thing so far. It was this auction, a Buy-It-Now auction that seemed like a pretty good deal. It was for two Kodak Brownie folding cameras (from around 1920). One of the cameras even takes 120 film, which is awesome, because then I don’t have to respool onto a 620 spool. Yay! I had been wanting to try shooting with a bellows camera, and since it’s going to be a while before I can experiment with 4 x 5 film in the Polaroid Land Camera, I thought this seemed like a good alternative.
The seller threw in 3 additional cameras besides the Brownies – two box cameras, and a silly little 127 camera (my first!) called a Falcon Miniature. The cameras came today, and man, am I happy I grabbed this lot when I saw it. So, so satisfied with this purchase.
The Brownies are in pretty good condition – the one that takes 120 is in better shape than the one that takes 116 film, but the important thing is that the bellows to both cameras seem to be intact, with very little wear and no holes (that I’ve noticed). The shutters are snappy, and the levers and moving bits seem to work just fine. The camera that takes 116 film needs a little bit of work done to it, but nothing major.
I didn’t expect to be as intrigued with the 116 camera as I am, but I also didn’t expect it to be as beautiful as it is. Not only can you adjust the shutter speeds, but you can also adjust the aperture. It’s a gorgeous piece of work, and of course, I didn’t get any decent pictures of it. The settings on the front of the camera look really easy to understand. The viewfinder, shown above, is fabulously murky. I love it.
After playing with the Brownies, I checked out the the Falcon and found out that it, unlike my box cameras, was held together with a series of easily removable screws. I was able to almost completely deconstruct the camera down to the inside of the lens, which badly needed cleaned. In fact, I had considered transforming the Falcon into a pinhole because of the crappy lens, but after I cleaned it up and realized that I would have to smash the lens to remove it from a piece of crucial camera bits, I changed my mind.
However, the Brownie Hawkeye is a completely different story.
I’m already in love with this camera. It’s got a cute little stout design. It’s heavy like a little square brick, which means that it won’t move around easily during long exposures. Also, the camera has a ‘Bulb’ setting, which means I can do long exposures with it without any problems (about half of the box cameras I have don’t have this setting). A spool of 120 film seems like it’ll work okay (apparently some Hawkeyes will take 120 and some won’t), but even if I have to respool, no big deal.
The best thing, though, is the fact that I could tear this camera completely apart just be removing 4 screws. The lenses didn’t need to be smashed – all that I had to do was just pop them out and I had a lens free camera without any destruction. I can re-assemble this camera in about 2 minutes if I want to.
So, I slapped a pinhole in this puppy, screwed everything back together, and called it done. Piece o’ cake! I’ve got some black and white 120 film that should be arriving any day now, and once that comes in, the first thing I’m doing is shooting a roll and developing it to see how the pinhole works, and if anything needs to be adjusted. And then the second thing I’m going to do is run a roll of 120 film through one of the Brownie bellows cameras to check that out, too. And then I may drill out another tin square to replace in the Hawkeye pinhole to try doing zone plate photography. The world is my oyster.
Oh, and I have to mention, too, that after e-mailing Freestyle about my recent issues with developing film (namely, I couldn’t develop any film), I’m now back and semi-competent with film developing again. Hooray!
Things are good. Hopefully more camera fun will follow shortly.
