ANSCO Shur-Shot Jr film selection

Hello- I recently acquired an ANSCO Shur-Shot Jr box camera that my girlfriend brought home from a neighbor. It is really in amazing condition -- no corrosion anywhere and smooth shutter operation. With a little general dusting and polishing the view finder lenses and mirrors, it seems to be in near perfect condition. I've never been into film photography of any kind, other than the once ubiquitous disposable cameras that I would buy for vacations and such. Anyway, this old thing (date stamped Sept '47) awakened an interest in me and I have since gone down the rabbit hole of internet research.

 

After the initial cleaning and basic research about the film format (120 6x9), I ordered a 5-pack of Ilford HP5 plus ISO 400 film. However, after further research, I'm concerned that this film is too fast for this camera in bright daylight. I haven't found consistent values for the (fixed) aperture and shutter speed of the camera in my searches. I'm finding aperture values between f/8 - f/16 (usually f/13) and shutter speeds between 1/40 - 1/60 sec. More reading suggested that the camera was intended to shoot ~100 ISO equivalent.

 

Just looking for some thoughts from more experienced folks. Is the HP5 plus 400 going to get overexposed in sunny conditions? I suppose there will be little lost to try...

spmc said:

Is the HP5 plus 400 going to get overexposed in sunny conditions?

 

Yes, 400 ISO film is really not the most suitable emulsion for this type of camera. At f/13 on a bright, sunny day you probably require a shutter speed of around 1/500th, so the Shur-Shot's shutter speed of around 1/50th will be way too slow. Candidly, with cameras of this type and vintage, I prefer to work under light overcast conditions, as the simple lenses don't cope very well with harsh, contrasty light, and the lower light levels would help you with the higher speed film. 100 ISO film would be my choice for such a camera, but if you pick your day the 400 ISO will be OK.

It should be possible to reduce the exposure using a filter of some kind over the lens. It could just be taped on to the front of the box camera. Neutral density filters would work, or perhaps a polariser which should reduce the exposure by around two stops. Depending on the subject too, coloured filters could be used, for example orange or red to give dramatic skies.

I use these kinds of cameras and its basically Fp4 125 for bright sunny days and 400 iso (like Hp5) for very overcast skies. And like John said use of filters can be another option to reduce exp.

Good gift

 

Yes 400ASA is a bit fast but you might get away with it if you shoot in shadow or use filters in bright light

 

If you acquire a handheld light meter, you can work in reverse to get near exact exposure of the film. With the meter set on 400 ASA walk around till the meter reads 1/60sec at f11 and photograph those scenes. The film has a wide exposure latitude so a little overexposure may not harm the images too much.

Go ahead and use the HP5+ with filters in bright light and enjoy the flexibility this film will allow for shooting on overcast days or deep shade.

Thanks so much for the thoughtful replies! Any thoughts towards pulling in development?

Thanks so much for the thoughtful replies! Any thoughts towards pulling in development?

 

You really need to know how much overexposure you've got before you know a development time. Without knowing the exact shutter speed and f stop the camera has, certain guess work is involved for development.

 

In any case, here is a vid of a Shur Shot showing filters and photos from 6mins 30secs on

 

Link ...

Pulling development isn't an ideal solution. Your best bet if shooting in daylight in a brightly lit sunny scene is a neutral density (ND) filter to reduce the exposure by approximately 2 stops (4x).

Awesome. Thanks all! I ordered a cheap kit of 2, 4, and 8 ND filters to play with.

I ordered a cheap kit of 2, 4, and 8 ND filters to play with.

 

Good for you.

 

As said, you will probably need at least the 8 ND, maybe all stacked. Just hold them in front if you can. It only takes 3 hands. I'm not sure about this particular box camera, but many of them had speeds more like 1/30 sec.

Kodak Tri-X vs. Ilford HP5 - A photo comparison by The Darkroom Photo Lab

 

says up to 3 stops overexposure latitude. That would be true on the sunniest days.

 

(Around 1956 the ASA definition changed by about 1 stop, so it isn't as much over as you

might think.)

 

Last year I had TMax 400 in a Brownie 2F, but the 2F has three aperture settings.

 

According to the official instructions, you should never use the smallest aperture with

I (instantaneous) shutter setting, but then again they didn't have ASA 400 films.

 

Well, my film was 20 years old, so a little more exposure was a good thing.

I think this was taken with the smallest aperture setting, just because I could.

I suspect, though, it could have used more light. It wasn't the brightest sunniest day.

 

 

 

Actually, I think it looks a little worse than the negative, somehow due to scanning.

But the negative looks petty good.

 

But if you have a cloudy day, you are all set.

 

If you do use ND, I wouldn't use more than one stop.

Ok! Yesterday and today I shot my first roll of the HP5 400. I had forgotten to hit "go" on a changing bag order, so I transferred the film to a Patterson reel/tank gizmo in a darkish room after sunset (not a darkroom) with a jury rigged binder-clipped sweatshirt as my dark bag. With some deep breathing and swallowed curses, I managed to get the reel loaded in a reasonable amount of time... I developed the film with the Cinestill DF96 monobath developer/fixer according to the directions and got negatives! Here are some ghetto "prints" that I made while the film was drying . I used one iphone as a backlight and the another to photograph the negative, then used photoshop express on the phone to invert the negative and do basic rotation and cropping -- not other corrections. I am pretty excited about how these are going to look after a proper scan.

 

(snip)

I developed the film with the Cinestill DF96 monobath developer/fixer according to the directions and got negatives!

(snip)

 

Monobaths tend to reduce the EI some, as they start fixing some of the exposed grains before

they can get developed. As above, I think even at 400 it would be fine.

Here's the whole roll with a slightly more sophisticated improvised scanning rig. I double exposed the last frame like a big dumb-dumb, doh... To capture the negatives, I used an iphone as a lightbox, cut out cardboard negative holders, the the cone/film holder from the ANSCO and a 16 MP point and shoot Olympus in close-up mode. These are as developed and photographed the only editing was inverting the negatives, straightening and cropping. Overall I am pretty happy with my first foray into shooting with a 72 year old box and producing real images, all DIY. I've learned a lot and it's awakened a new interest. Thanks again for all of the great advice!

 

I was just reading about the Ansco Clipper from about 1942:

 

http://www.cameramanuals.org/agfa_ansco/ansco_clipper_16.pdf

 

The manual mentions Plenachrome, Supreme, and finally

Superpan Press, the last one described as a high speed film for use

under poor lighting conditions. There are no ASA values, but presumably

not all that slow.

 

Otherwise, thanks for showing them!

One article says that Superpan Press was ASA 125 at the time, but that was before the

ASA change which increased the values by about 2/3 stop, so about ASA 200.

 

But I think it was meant for indoor use with most cameras.

I have a booklet entitled "American Standard Exposure Indexes: Film Values" dated 1952 that lists the following:

 

Ansco Superpan Press - 125 Daylight / 80 Tungsten

 

Ansco Supreme - 50 Daylight / 32 Tungsten

 

Ansco Plenachrome Roll - 50 Daylight / 25 Tungsten