Final Round of Found Prints from The Gilded Flea

I've made two posts already of found prints and an internegative that I recovered from my friend's antique shop "The Gilded Flea" in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. (Click Here) to go to their website; they have tons of amazing stuff.

 

Here are some more prints that I picked up on my visit. I selected them just because they interested me.

 

Can anyone guess why I liked this one? The lady with the Polaroid, of course. She's even got her flash bulb pointed to the ceiling for bounced flash. I bet her shot came out great.

And who can argue with "Rockley Music Co.?" Apparently, they also sell Frigidaire appliances.

 

On the back of this print, it says "It's running fine now."

 

And finally, this one. Hey, honey, come sit in this tree so I can take your picture!

 

Thus ends a round of found prints from the past. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did.

 

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Old Polaroids - and a Surprise

I love to look at old photographs. A couple of weeks back, I visited my buddy's unique antique shop, The Gilded Flea, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

(Click Here) to check out The Gilded Flea.

Anyway, as you can guess, I found some interesting old pictures there. Here are two that were close together in the box. I was pretty sure they belonged together, but not sure.

 

 

Two Polaroids

 

That looks like one mighty proud fisherman, and a nice trout, too!

 

Further down in the box, I found a single 4x5 negative - the same two images, together!. This is what it looks like, scanned on my Epson V750:

Scanned 4x5 Image of the Polaroids

 

I suppose it may not have been unusual to use a 4x5 camera to make an internegative of Polaroids, so that you could reprint them and send them to your friends. I thought it was pretty cool to find this along with the originals.

 

Finally, I got to looking at the picture on the left and noticed the calendar. Scanning the Polaroid at high resolution, I was able to see this:

 

I'm pretty sure it indicates that the picture was taken in 1954 (possibly '64?). Certainly in April.

 

It's really fun and thought-provoking to look at old images like this. I can imagine so many alternative stories that led the people to these images.

 

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Found Film! - The Brownie Bullet Yields Six Frames

A while back, I wrote about the Brownie Bullet that I found at an antique store. I converted it to shoot 35mm film, which is kind of cool.

 

(Click Here) to see the camera and some of my recent 35mm results.

 

The Bullet was a little challenging to convert for two reasons: 1) a roll of 35mm film doesn't fit inside the body; it has to be removed from the cassette, and 2) it shoots onto a curved film surface, so I had to build my own insert to get the correct film curvature.

 

But, the real reason I bought the camera was because it had a roll of 127 film still in it. I wanted to see if there were any images that had survived since the Bullet had been put on the shelf at some point in the past.

 

Well, The Darkroom (thedarkroom.com) has finished processing my 127 film, and guess what? Six frames came out!

 

Seems one of its last trips was to the beach.

 

 

 

As far as I can surmise, this little girl is probably about my age (48) or a little older now, assuming all is well and she's still around.

 

There were also a couple of shots of a house:

I haven't post-processed these scans from The Darkroom, other than to increase contrast a bit. If I zoom way in on the closer shot, I am pretty sure I see a Ford Mustang. That means it was at least 1964 when these images were taken.

 

I am always surprised at how well a roll of film can survive sitting for forty years or more in a camera. Getting six of the original eight frames was more than I could have wished for.

 

I have no idea where these were taken. If anyone recognizes the beach or the house, let me know!

 

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Here's a link to a book on Amazon about converting a larger 127 Brownie to 35mm film. I think this one's probably easier than the Bullet:

 

 

 

Low Tech Wonders - Kodak Brownie Bullet Comes Back To Life!

I can already hear the questions: "Why, Reed, why? Why would you mess with a junk store camera that shoots film you can't even buy any more?" Well, maybe I'll be able to convince you that it's because it lies right at this interface of technology and art that I love to be in. Even if the tech is low...

Kodak Brownie Bullet Camera

 

Okay. I bought this little Bakelite Kodak camera at an antique store. I paid too much (anything over $2 is too much). But, I'm still happy I did. Read to the end to see the special (hopeful) feature that really convinced me to buy it.

 

The Brownie Bullet was made from 1957-1964. It's final year of production was my birth year. It was designated as a "premium" model, which meant that you had to save up Campbell's soup labels to get one (no joke). It features a plastic Dakon lens, fixed aperture, fixed shutter speed.

 

(Click Here) to read a little more about the Bullet.

 

The Bullet is designed to shoot 127 roll film, which is essentially no longer available. Efke was making it until recently, but they've shut down. You can still buy Efke (iso 100) at Freestyle (Click Here), but it's just running down their stock. There is another company that still advertises 127 film, but they're out of stock.

 

Well, I just couldn't stand to let the Bullet sit without shooting something in it. After an hour or two of turning it different ways and thinking, I found a way to load 35mm film into it. The 35mm film cassette won't fit in the back. I had to unroll the film in the dark, roll it back up more tightly, and insert it into a modified film canister, cut down to fit inside. It worked!

 

But, there was one problem. The Bullet is designed with a curved film plane, which means that the 127 film doesn't lay flat in the camera; it's curved to match the curvature of the image produced by the Dakon lens. So, while I got images from the first roll (which pulled the film flat), they were unfocused in the center. A bonus, though, is that because the 127 film is wider than 35mm, the images were panoramic, and the sprocket holes were exposed. Cool.

 

So, a little more modification was in order. I got some thin plastic material, and through trial and error cut it to the perfect size to fit inside the camera back, under where the film plane should be. It was important that it support the film from under the film plane, to put the film in the right place. Then, I cut a window into the plastic to serve as the image space. Finally, I covered the plastic in black electrical tape, both to reduce light bounce, and to smooth out the rough cut plastic surface.

 

Here's what the mod looks like:

35mm Mask for the Bullet, by Reed A. George

 

This time, I loaded up some iso 800 print film (I noticed that 400 was underexposed, even in daylight outdoors), and tried again.

 

Success! Here are the results. All are shot with the Bullet, all the same (only) aperture and shutter speed.

 

 

Here are some vertical orientation shots:

 

As you can see, I wasn't completely successful in eliminating scratches on the film. But, I'm pretty impressed by what this cheap old camera can do.

 

The hardest part? After finishing a roll, I have to once again open it in the dark, remove the 127 spool that it's now wrapped around, tape it to a leader sticking out of the original 35mm film cassette and wind it back in. Then I just take it to Walgreens, and remember to ask them to not cut the negatives.

 

So, I got my money's worth out of this experience. But, I still don't have an answer for a friend of mine who says "Hey, Reed, if you paid $20 more, could you get a camera that already works?" Yeah, yeah, I could.

 

I don't really understand the exposure. How can it take iso 800 to shoot in the daylight with this camera? 800 speed film sure wasn't there when this camera was made. It has no way to trigger a flash. And I doubt the shutter is faster now than when it was new.

 

I did order some iso 100 film in 127 size from Freestyle, but I honestly don't know how I'll use it. It will be too slow, even in broad daylight.

So, here's a true piece of history that still works.

 

Brownie Bullet

 

Oh, yeah. That hopeful secret? There was still a roll of 127 film in the camera when I opened it up. It was near the end. So, I'm hoping to get a glimpse into the last pictures this camera took before it got stuffed away into a closet or attic. Who knows how long ago that was? Fingers crossed - I'll be sending that roll off to The Darkroom for processing soon.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

Skeletons From The Closet - March's Camera - The Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 With "Eagle Eye" Tessar

 

Zeiss Ikonta 521/16 With Tessar 75mm f3.5 Lens, by Reed A. George

 

My original plan for March's Skeletons From The Closet (SFTC) pick was a 35mm folding camera. Since I'm taking probably my most exciting trip of the year (to Japan) in March this year, instead of April when I normally go, I decided that I really wanted to carry a medium format camera this month. So, I decided to take my Zeiss 521/16.

 

This is a beautiful old camera, produced between 1948 and 1953. It uses 120 film, and produces 6x6 (2 2 1/4" square) images.

 

You may have seen my post back on November 19 of last year, sharing some found film images from this camera. It was used to shoot a presidential speech by John F. Kennedy in the early 1960s.

 

(Click Here) to see that post of old images from this camera.

 

I also wrote a tongue-in-cheek nod to Edgar Allan Poe's Telltale Heart about this camera. You can read that on JPG Magazine's site if you (Click Here).

 

I want to shoot some color images with this camera while I'm in Japan, so I've already purchased a five roll box of Portra 400. With a maximum shutter speed of 1/200 sec., that may be a little fast if the weather is nice. I'll also take along a roll or two of Fuji Reala that is waiting in my refrigerator.

 

Oh, and don't worry, that 35mm folder will be out in a later month as the SFTC pick.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

 

 

Found Film - How Cool It Can Be

A couple of years back, I took a chance and bought a largely-undescribed Zeiss medium format folding camera from a seller on ebay. The seller did not normally deal in camera equipment (I checked), so I thought

"Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky."

Well, I did. Not only did the camera turn out to be equipped with a downright gorgeous Tessar f2.8 f3.5 lens (YES!), it had a roll of film still in it. I could hardly breathe as I processed that roll. Here are a couple of the results:

Found Film, Recovered by Reed A. George

Zeiss 521/16 Folder, 120 Film

Man, I Wish I Knew the Exposure (and other) Details!

I quickly posted the results to my favorite online neighborhood of friendly photographers.
(Click Here) to see what people had to say, and the rest of the pictures from this camera. Consensus says it's likely from a JFK speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the early 1960s, probably right before I was born.

(Click Here) to read a tongue-in-cheek story I wrote about it for JPG Magazine.

And here's what the camera can still do:

Waterford News, by Reed A. George

Not Bad for Guess Focus and f2.8 3.5, Huh?

Zeiss 521/16, f2.8 3.5

What got me thinking about this? A very cool post by New Zealand blogger Jason about purchasing some Leica equipment from a deceased photographer's family and discovering a treasure trove of slides.

(Click Here) to see the post on aperturepriority.co.nz

I have to get that old Zeiss folder out soon. It's been a while. You just can't beat using an old camera that gives these kind of results.

DMC-365.blogspot.com