Tuesday 30 October 2012

Week 148 - Petri 7s

Petri 7s by pho-Tony
Petri 7s, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
The Petri 7s dates from the early 1960s, I picked it up in a boot sale for £4 a couple of years ago. This is the version with the f1.8 lens, it has a couple rangefinder and a coupled manual selenium light meter, which appears to work OK. I've loaded it with Agfa Vista ISO200 colour negative film from Poundland.

Monday 29 October 2012

Photo from week 147 - DX-1000

big top flare by pho-Tony
big top flare, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
Roll up! Roll up! Come and see the impressive flare from the toy plastic lens!

Photo from week 147 - DX-1000

With no "B" setting, I was forced to find an outdoor reflective surface for my self-portrait this week.

Photo from week 147 - DX-1000

circus glitch by pho-Tony
circus glitch, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
Perhaps not surprisingly, I was able to demonstrate a number of desirable but unpredictable effects from this toy camera. In this example there is partial overlapping of two frames.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Week 147 - DX-1000

DX-1000 by pho-Tony
DX-1000, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
There are many manifestations of this toy camera, most commonly it is called the "TIME" cameras as it was once given away as a gift to subscribers of Time Life Magazine.
It boasts an "optical lens" which has adjustable apertures down to f16. October 20th has been designated "World Toy Camera Day" so this seemed a good time to load it up. I've put some very expired Ektachrome 1600 slide film in it, which I will cross-process.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Photo from week 146 - La Belle Pal

Taken at full aperture and with the shutter set to 1/25th sec, I was lucky to get the focus just about right, as the depth of field is quite small.

Photo from week 146 - La Belle Pal

kerb enthusiasm by pho-Tony
kerb enthusiasm, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
Looking for subjects in town, I thought the newly surfaced and painted road might look interesting alongside the film's edge markings. This is three consecutive frames.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Week 146 - La Belle Pal

La Belle Pal by pho-Tony
La Belle Pal, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This dumpy little camera was made in the early 1950s in the USA. It is also sols as the "Bolsey A". There is a 3 speed shutter, and a 44mm f4.5 lens.
I've loaded it with a 24 exposure roll of Agfa Vista from Poundland.

Saturday 13 October 2012

Photo from week 145 - Olympus µ II

Through the red ring by pho-Tony
Through the red ring, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
The mju focusses down to 35cm, and there is a setting to allow for spot focussing, so I used this to ensure that the ring in the foreground was in focus.

Photo from week 145 - Olympus µ II

This camera is auto-everything, there was no way I could think of to prevent it focussing on the mirror surface rather than my reflection, but I quite like the dreamy effect.

Photo from week 145 - Olympus µ II

twenty toilets by pho-Tony
twenty toilets, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
I used slide film this week and cross-processed it in colour negative chemicals, so there is a green colour cast and increased grain and contrast. I spotted these toilets stacked up ouside a plumbing supplier.

Thursday 11 October 2012

Week 145 - Olympus µ II

The Olympus mju II is also known as the "Stylus Epic". It's probably the smallest of the Olympus compacts, but is fully featured with shutter speeds down to several seconds, and a facility for spot focus/exposure.
I bought it for £1 at a car boot sale, and have loaded it with a roll of Lomography xpro (cross processing) film.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

photo from week 144 - Bencini Comet-S

The bright Mallorcan sunshine was almost too much for this ISO200 film, used in a camera made when colour film was at least a couple of stops slower. I like the bird at the top right, but I can't pretend I planned it.

photo from week 144 - Bencini Comet-S

With a shortage of outdoor mirrors, I once again took my self portrait indoors, knowing that it would be severely under-exposed!

photo from week 144 - Bencini Comet-S

I took the Comet with me on holiday to Mallorca, I didn't have a case for it, and the back catch slipped a little bit when I took it out of my bag, a couple of the frames have some quite noticeable light leaks.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Week 144 - Bencini Comet-S

Bencini Comet-S by pho-Tony
Bencini Comet-S, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This is one of the ubiquitous Italian Bencini cameras that were made in the 1950s an 60s. They are very basic, but so simple that there is little to go wrong and they are usually working. I've used this camera once before with black and white film, but this time I've loaded it with Macocolor C41 film.

photo from week 143 - Purma Special

the third tree by pho-Tony
the third tree, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This was a bright day, so used the fast shutter speed. This scan covers the whole width of the film, showing the unusual 32mm x 32mm image (the standard size for 16 exposures on 127 fim is 40mm x40mm)

photo from week 143 - Purma Special

As is often the case with the mirror self-portraits taken with simple cameras, this one was very under-exposed.

photo from week 143 - Purma Special

Sir Isaac Newton by pho-Tony
Sir Isaac Newton, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This was taken inside, albeit in a brightly lit chapel on a sunny day, I used the slow shutter speed, which is supposed to be 1/25th second.

Week 143 - Purma Special

Purma Special by pho-Tony
Purma Special, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.
This is something of a design classic, with its art deco lines and bakelite construction. It also has an unusual shutter, which has three speeds depending on which way the camera is held. The format is square (but not the standard 12 on a roll 4cm x 4cm, this takes sixteen 32mm x 32mm photos) so the orientation of the camera doesn't matter. There is no focusing, and a fixed aperture of f6.3. I've loaded it with Efke 100 film.