Monthly Shooting Assignment - Jan/Feb 2014 - Cheap camera challenge!

Accident Report camera: Scene of the crime?

Hobby table from my wife + build-in flash through a magnifying glass. Found this old Motor Vehicle Accident Report camera onder my spare wheel (for free included the insurance papers) and inside a 200 asa Italian colorfilm. It was there for a loooong time. Film developping in HC110 B&W developper random for 8 minutes 1+25 and printed on old agfa premium color- Black and White paper(old paper bulkroll also a gift) in the dark. I LIKE THIS TOPIC!

Found in a flea market in a local town - a 1950 Geman-made Dacora-Kamerawerk 'Daci Royal'. The woman in charge of the stall where I bought it was sitting in for the guy who ran it and agreed with me it was a pitiful looking specimen of a camera (ahem!). She agreed he had no chance of selling it and let it go for £2.00 after I haggled her down from a fiver. Cheap I know!
The lens is f9 and single sticky shutter at 1/40 sec - but it's a wonderful little thing that unfortunately has no need of duct tape.

Anyway I went to our local seaside town the other day to try it out. Uploaded a photo called 'Cheap Laughs' to the gallery (I know, I'm laboring the 'cheap' angle but hey....!)

Thanks to adelorenzo for a great MSA...

My House Burned Down Today

So, in trying to turn bad into good, I took a shot with my crappy $10 camera lens that I hacked off and put on my 4x5, sorry it's not better, I only had time for one shot with the "crappy" lens and had to invest the rest of my time on my "proven" lenses, but I did enjoy using it, the lens is just a few years older than the house, which was built in 1925... and is now a smoldering heap... then I had to go back to dealing with it... but at least I had an opportunity to take a few images of my now defunct house...

TOYO45a, Kodak 122mm, #2 (probably f/16) @ 6 seconds, TMY-2 in Rodinal 1:50 for 10.5 minutes

Stone!
You really mean your house actually was on fire today and it burned down?? That is terrible!!
It looks bad at the photo. Not too much damage I hope. Is it salvageable and insured I hope?
And I hope that your stuff and equipment isn't damaged too much.

It's too bad you're on the other side of the big ocean, otherwise I would drive over and help you rebuild the place.
I hope you and your family are all save through this fire.
I wish you the best dealing with this mayhap.
Bert from Holland

StoneNYC said:

So, in trying to turn bad into good, I took a shot with my crappy $10 camera lens that I hacked off and put on my 4x5, sorry it's not better, I only had time for one shot with the "crappy" lens and had to invest the rest of my time on my "proven" lenses, but I did enjoy using it, the lens is just a few years older than the house, which was built in 1925... and is now a smoldering heap... then I had to go back to dealing with it... but at least I had an opportunity to take a few images of my now defunct house...

TOYO45a, Kodak 122mm, #2 (probably f/16) @ 6 seconds, TMY-2 in Rodinal 1:50 for 10.5 minutes

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Stone, your lens turned 101 a few days ago. I almost sent it a birthday card.

I too hope you get through this distress quickly and that you did not lose too much.

Ned

Oh really? How do you know the age of my particular lens? This is interesting, tell me more Ned.

I don't have insurance and the house is totally destroyed, but thanks Bert, I appreciate the nice thought. I had moved out of it already and was trying to give it to the bank when someone broke in and started a fire, it was either a junkie trying to get warm, or some trouble maker, a few other houses got hit the same time.

I lost a bunch of clothes, furniture, all my tea, and a bunch of dishes etc. but all in all, nothing important enough to really be upset over, no one was in the house and that's the important thing.

Thank you everyone of course.

I'm sorry to hear you didn't have insurance. Hopefully the land itself is worth more than the house. That's really bad luck and I hope it turns out okay somehow.

About the lens, well it's a bit of a guess, but with the old Kodak 1A and 3A autographics, if you look inside the door, there is always a long list of patent dates... as many as one or two every year. The later cameras from the 1920's had long lists of patent dates. Since they updated those so often, the last one was usually pretty close and often within less than a year of when the camera was manufactured. Your lens has a 7 Jan 1913 patent, so it was probably made not very long after that date. Just a guess but probably pretty close.

For MSA,
I'm sort of off in another world right now. I'm using a homemade foamcore box camera with a lens a lot like the one Stone is using. I've been making paper negatives from commercial paper and contact printing them as salt prints. Tonight I sensitized my first calotype ever, and it will be ready to shoot tomorrow, so I'm very excited about that and all my attention is there. I'll get back to thinking about MSA when this distraction/excitement settles down.... or if it is successful maybe it will be an MSA entry. It sure is fun, I'm having a blast with it.

Time to break out the XA2

Dug these cameras from the "stuff-to-go-to-the-thrift-store" box. One belonged to my father-in-law, the other to my husband before we met. The Fuji shutter still works. The Konica is not functioning, but I'll try new batteries.

The two rolls of film have been languishing in the freezer for years - and were certainly cheap. They were door prizes, or included in grab bags, back before digital took over the world of photo clubs. I'm sorry now that I shot my roll of "Japan Camera" film last summer. That store hasn't existed for about 15 years.

Hope to get out in the next couple of days and give one of these cameras some excercise.

Well scrap that plan. Neither camera worked - it's the automatic winder thing that is non-functional in both......
Time to move on to plan B.......when I come up with a plan B.

Problem is, I have no more cheap film, save one, and it's special to me and I have plans for it,I had a bunch if Tri-X that would have been perfect but I sold it.

Hmm, not sure, oh!!! I have a plan now!

Sooooo, a panoramic pinhole Holga. That counts, right?
Loaded with Delta 100 (gift from someone no longer shooting film, age unknown) for a test run. I advanced the film improperly, and my cable release didn't hold the shutter fully open, so the first roll is, er, imperfect. Printed the middle of the roll on Ilfospeed MG1M. It seems this paper must be at least 20 years old - another donation from a darkside deserter. Never refrigerated. I had planned to fix it out as a substrate for carbon, but this assignment was a good chance to give it a try. I'm surprised at the lack of fog.

sly said:

Sooooo, a panoramic pinhole Holga. That counts, right?
Loaded with Delta 100 (gift from someone no longer shooting film, age unknown) for a test run. I advanced the film improperly, and my cable release didn't hold the shutter fully open, so the first roll is, er, imperfect. Printed the middle of the roll on Ilfospeed MG1M. It seems this paper must be at least 20 years old - another donation from a darkside deserter. Never refrigerated. I had planned to fix it out as a substrate for carbon, but this assignment was a good chance to give it a try. I'm surprised at the lack of fog.

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Neat

sly said:

Sooooo, a panoramic pinhole Holga. That counts, right? ...

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I don't even know what MG1M is! But I like the panoramic pinholes!

Nice series of images. Did you use the Dead Link Removed? It a very nice pinhole camera, I have one myself. I take it always with me on holidays. Light to carry and easy to use with a very small bendable tripod.
I (almost) only use very-old-and-not-properly-stored films for my pinhole photography. I had good results with Fuji NPC, Fuji NPH and Konica 400PRO films. Old Kodak Gold film is often useless, since it turns into a muddy brown. The Fuji films however give beautiful almost pastel colours (blue sky, green grass). I'm an almost only B&W photographer, but with pinhole I seem to use mostly colour film. Maybe because the colours are (nicely) off due to old film and the pinhole lens?? See for instance my entry in the previous MSA: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
Bert from Holland

sly said:

Sooooo, a panoramic pinhole Holga. That counts, right?
Loaded with Delta 100 (gift from someone no longer shooting film, age unknown) for a test run. I advanced the film improperly, and my cable release didn't hold the shutter fully open, so the first roll is, er, imperfect. Printed the middle of the roll on Ilfospeed MG1M. It seems this paper must be at least 20 years old - another donation from a darkside deserter. Never refrigerated. I had planned to fix it out as a substrate for carbon, but this assignment was a good chance to give it a try. I'm surprised at the lack of fog.

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Yes the Holga WPC 120. I 've been considering buying it for awhile. NedL and you, during the last MSA, gave me a nudge; this MSA nudged me again, and our upcoming tropical holiday was the final nudge. I haven't got anymore gifted film, but have bought colour for our trip.
I ran some HP5+ through the developer last night. Will post a print or 2 later today, I hope.

My first camera I ever bought was/is a 1953 Argus C3. I shot with it for 7 years solely.

I'll post a photo later

Took the Holga WPC down to the harbour.









I never thought I'd enjoy using a cheapy, very plastic camera. My new addiction to pinhole images has changed my mind. I'll run some colour through, too.

These have been uploaded to the gallery too.

I went out yesterday and made 3 pictures for MSA along the Russian River. My idea is for each picture I will also take a ( d!9!tal ) picture of the homemade camera, in the act of making the photo.

Unfortunately, all three are disappointing. But there is still plenty of time and I had fun trying.

1) Calotype in lensed camera, the calotype fogged. It would have been a good photo though, so that's progress! My first try at a calotype was out of focus. This was my 2nd try ever.

2) 8x10 pinhole paper neg, I thought the paper had been pre-flashed but obviously it wasn't. Too underexposed to use. It too would have been nice if exposed properly.

3) Late afternoon instant film color pinhole... nice colors and mood but no real subject or feature to attract the eye.

These failures give me a good excuse to go out and spend another day wandering around along the river, which was a lot of fun and exercise. Also I'm thinking about pulling out the big gun. That's a Hello Kitty pink popcorn tin that holds a sheet of 11x14 paper... Also thinking about making a camera just for this MSA.... we'll see.

If I finish the roll of Tri-X in my nikon, I will consider the idea of putting some c-41 in it, to make the "photos of cameras making photos", since this is APUG. But I'm not sure about that.

Edit: here's an inverted scan of the calotype I made. It's so badly fogged that I'm not sure if you can tell by looking why I think it is promising!

NedL said:

Edit: here's an inverted scan of the calotype I made. It's so badly fogged that I'm not sure if you can tell by looking why I think it is promising!

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FWIW, I think your calotype looks great. The interplay of grain/texture and subject detail is beautiful.

Thank you Matt! I love paper negatives.

Here's a $%^& picture of the camera in the act of making that photograph.



The camera is just a foamcore box. The filmholder is a picture frame from the dollar store, with the glass removed and a window mat to make a format of 5.3 x 9 inches on a 7 x 11 calotype ( 1/2 sheet of 11x14 canson marker paper ) You can see I put my hat on top of the camera with the bill sticking out a little to shade the lens.

The lens is like the one Stone has... from a 1914 Kodak 3A camera, with the front element removed it will cover 8x10, but needs to be stopped down far to be sharp all over. But I think it has an interesting look when it is opened up more. I got the camera on the Goodwill website for about $15. The camera was a wreck but the lens was fine.

To give you an idea of how slow a calotype is. This exposure was 14 minutes at f/16. A normal paper negative from commercial developing paper would make a good exposure of this scene in about 5 seconds at f/64!

But it sure is fun!

PS: I'm probably the only person in the world who has a "take off the lens!" sticker on their camera. When I first started using this camera, I kept forgetting to take the front lens element off before making the exposure. With the front element on, the camera is focused at about 2 feet! Since my wife made that sticker for me, I haven't forgotten

"Take off the lens!"

I really like your calotype too. My pick for best, so far, in this MSA.

Here's my entry for kicks. Kodak Signet 35 camera, cost $25.

OK I'm already SERIOUSLY regretting winning the last challenge as I have no idea how I'm going to pick a 'winner' here...

Hatchetman -- Love the picture and cool camera!
Ned -- In camera Calotype? That's just awesome. Also I think the camera is a thing of beauty, esp. the use of bungee cords.
Sly -- Love the pinholes, the first low angle shot with the yacht is my favorite
Stone -- Sorry about your house!
ajmiller -- Another awesome camera and I think the choice of subject really fits this challenge.
Bertus -- A disposable camera found in the boot of a car? Love it. I like both images, and I have to say shooting through a magnifying glass is a very creative touch.

NedL said:

Unfortunately, all three are disappointing. But there is still plenty of time and I had fun trying.
1) Calotype in lensed camera, the calotype fogged. It would have been a good photo though, so that's progress! My first try at a calotype was out of focus. This was my 2nd try ever.
Edit: here's an inverted scan of the calotype I made. It's so badly fogged that I'm not sure if you can tell by looking why I think it is promising!

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Hi Ned,
I can understand you are not satisfied because it didn't turn out as you planned. But that aside, and since I didn't have any precognition about this image, I can sincerely say that I like this image. It has a very nice effect to it. So please don't throw it away (in that case send it to me, please) but put it aside and look at it again in a week or two. Sometimes our "mistakes" will deliver us great images, you know that, using pinhole cameras. Being able to recreate the "mistake" is a whole other story.
This image brings some post-medieval drawings (I've seen a long time ago) to my mind. It has a nice dreamy effect (Pictorialism, but different?). I don't know how to explain it, but I would like to hang it on my wall and look at it for quite some time to find out what it is that attracts me and what it reminds me of ...
Well, it's just a great image in my book, period!
Bert from Holland