ralf_j.

You may be right - I have a picture of my grandmother from mid 30s and the girls seemed more "conservatively" dressed at the time.

Sun bathers and beach walkway

I was disappointed to get light leaks on most of the frames on the Holga film, this camera only allows about 6 frames per roll, so I ended up with about 3 keepers. Results below. Saxophone man

I wrote about first impressions with this camera here. As mentioned, it was produced by Blair Camera Company, originally from Boston. This copy it seems, at the time of production, was produced in Rochester, which indicates that the company was already acquired by Eastman Kodak. Hence this would place this camera production date no later than about 1915. It's called Hawk-Eye Weno No. 5, with Hawkeye name continuing to live on in many lower cost Kodak cameras to come. For a box camera, it's impressive, with light polished wood furniture inside and good manufacturing tolerances. The lens is some sort of cemented doublet, which as I had mentioned in the previous post had been flipped with convex side pointing out, potentially for portraiture work. I did my usual steps, cleaned and polished both finders, removed lens barrel and cleaned the accumulated dirt - reversed for landscape work, and put it all together. The camera had come with a roll of exposed #118 film inside which was tempting. I removed the film from its backing paper and put it in, in a light tight box. The backing paper and the spool was used to sandwich a roll of Holga 400 film so I could take advantage of the frame numbers for a shoot at the local beach. After some research on the type of film - I found out that this is Kodak Orthochromatic film was produced no later than about 1931. Attempts to rig some sort of a reel for it failed. Since this film is safe to handle in safelight, I took advantage of doing a manual "dip and dunk method" in a plastic bucket I got from the dollar store. I used HC110 A at 65F for about 6 minutes. I was pretty excited to get two images, which I will share below. I am guessing the photo of the young girl is from mid to late 1920s. The second photo is more obscure with the shadow of the photographer taking center stage. Negatives were scanned on and Epson 4870 with piece of frame glass to hold them flat. Camera and results below.

I have a couple of H2s somewhere but last I checked they were not working.

Great story JDM. Plump German SLR- a leaf shutter mirror reflex perhaps? What were you using at the time?

Yeah, he disappeared unfortunately

I tried to thread it through existing reels after kind of space them correctly but it was impossible as the film has a very stiff curl. Will attempt safelight processing in a aluminum tray and see what happens in hc 110a at 4-/5 mins at 65F

Size reference

So managed to clean it up and get it ready to shoot. The lens is a doublet cemented together, one element thinner than the other. I had a ball trying to s figure out why the image was not sharp at film plane - I was not expecting anything pin sharp - but no fuzzy either. Then I flipped the lens in its barrel with the concave part outward and the convex toward film plane, and voila and image is sharp enough one can expect from this type of camera. Perhaps someone had flipped years ago for close-up? I have sandwiched a roll of Holga 400 (Arista.edu 400) in the original backing paper from 118 roll. Will see what comes out.

Picked up a camera lot from Goodwill for a few box, mostly odds and ends, a Pony 135, an Imperial 127 in Blue, an Olympus Digicam as part of their "Tough" series line, and one of Ricoh's '60s attempt at a windup camera. My interest though turned to an early 20th century large Box Camera, made byBlair Camera of Rochester. It uses the massive Kodak 118 roll film that seems to have been exposed and rolled inside the camera in its spool. I am not sure what emulsion it is but it states on the seal tape that it would print best on Kodak Velox paper. (Frame appears to be 3.25x4.25") I am not sure I have a reel that fits this but will check an older FR Daylight system I have somewhere. The camera inside is near mint, the wood in perfect shape, while the outside does have some wear. Should be a fun project to restore.

OrWo used to be a good standard for eastern Europe at the time. I think they may still be around.

Hi Rick, thanks for the link, I saw that video before posting as well, and it is a good reference before using the film, i think the presenter did a good job. Weather permitting I may try it this Sunday.

Yikes, looks like it was not stored well and paper fouled it up?

Rick - do you folks have a source for it in NZ?

Thank you for the Suggestion. Regards

I found this film at Freestyle - and was curious to check it out. It's called Svema "Foto" made in Shohatsk factory in Ukraine which has been in operation since 1931. Initial impression from inspecting is underwhelming, cheap cassette and felt, film coating looks weird for B&W film, and the base is super thin - i worry that cameras that exert pressure on the film may tear this altogether. I also saw a video review that suggests rating this film at 125 ISO - which is way slower than the advertised box speed. I will try at various sensitivity and see what the outcome is.

Quite a find Rick, the Diacord L is a phenomenal camera and value and they are usually in good working condition. The quality IMO, rivals the Rolleicords and the Yashica-12 of the same time period. The 4 element is more than up to the task. Your series as usual hit the mark and beyond, really enjoyed the composition of the opposite angled chairs and the shadow detail in the Porch shots at what seems to be some sort of an Art Exhibit? The shot of the park bench in mist equally phenomenal and moody worthy of wall display. Thank you for sharing as always.

A smart looking French Foca for me, no rangefinder, good old guesstimating will be key.

A revived super ratty Fujica st605

Just fished this one: Yashica Full Automatic Auto Focas 38mm Camera

From same auction site: One of the greatest lens balaincing the performance and affordability.... ...You can get a professional grade lens with very realonable price... Have seen a few instruction manuals from the 60s loaded with grammatical errors. I am not immune to those myself :-D

This killed me LOL

Cheeky LOL