photo from week 182 - Bencini Koroll II

Piazza Duomo in the rain, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

There was something of a heat wave in Milan, with the temperature up to 35 degrees at time, there was a brief rain shower on the last evening, hence the wet paving in this photo.

photo from week 182 - Bencini Koroll II

reflected self-portrait with Bencini Koroll II camera and pilot's hat, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

It was fortunate that I had some ISO 400 film, as even at maximum aperture (f8) and slowest shutter speed (1/30th) this was slightly under-exposed. The camera focuses down to 1.2m, so I estimated 60cm in front of the mirror in order to be in focus.

photo from week 182 - Bencini Koroll II

Galleria Vittorio Emanuel II, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

This is one of the photos I took shortly after buying the camera in Milan. I've scanned the whole width of the film to show how 24 exposures are fitted onto a roll, this is achieved by "wasting" a strip of film, seen here below the image.

Week 182 - Bencini Koroll II

Bencini Koroll II, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

This week's camera is something of a record. I was in Milan last week, where the Bencini cameras were made, and spotted one on a flea market I stumbled across, the vendor wanted 5 euros for it, and was keen to explain to me that it was impossible to use as it only took film. I have several Bencine cameras, but not this one, so I bought it, and as our hotel was only a 3 minute walk away, I popped back and loaded it with a roll of Ilford Delta 400 that I'd brought with me along with another Italian camera (the Ferrania Astor from week 176). Less than 15 minutes after acquiring it, I was out on the streets and shooting, so it became camera of the week, jumping the various models ahead of it in the queue!

photo from week 181 - Sirius Action Tracker

glass dome, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

If the subject isn't moving, you can always move the camera to get a slightly different image on each of the four frames. This is the huge glass dome over the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milan's 150 year old shopping centre, a design copied the world over in some of our worst contemporary shoppings malls, Meadowhell in Sheffield comes to mind...

photo from week 181 - Sirius Action Tracker

reflected self-portrait with Sirius Actiontracker camera and pilot's hat, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

It's always a challenge taking mirror self portraits with a camera that only has a single shutter speed intended for bright outdoor conditions. There was a shaft of light entering the bathroom here, but even it is probably rather under-exposed.

photo from week 181 - Sirius Action Tracker

tight rope, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

I took the Actionsampler with me to Milan, this is someone walking a tightrope of the Naviglio Grande canal, the temperature was well in excess of 30 degrees, so it was no hardship to fall into the water!

Week 181 - Sirius Action Tracker

Sirius Action Tracker, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

This is one of the various clones available of a simple "toy" camera which takes a sequence four images on one full frame of 35mm film, they are taken in quick succession in less than 2 seconds. There was a version called the PopCam, a reference to Andy Warhol's pop art portraits, I'me made a DIY version of this by taping coloured gels over the lens.

photo from week 180 - Kodak Instamatic 233

birthday balloons, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

This timeless subject of balloons signposting a child's birthday party could easily have been taken when this camera was current, over 40 years ago.

photo from week 180 - Kodak Instamatic 233

reflected self-portrait with Kodak Instamatic 233 camera and narrow yellow hat, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Inevitably under-exposed, here is this week's reflected self-portrait, with the aperture set to maximum.

photo from week 180 - Kodak Instamatic 233

horse chestnut in a field of buttercups, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

With 126 film be scarce, and 126 cameras being common, it made sense to me to move the cartridge between three different cameras, taking 8 exposures on each. The Instamatic 233 has a small range of apertures, and this one, in good sunlight, was taken on the second smallest aperture.

Week 180 - Kodak Instamatic 233

Kodak Instamatic 233, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Last week I used two 126 cameras, the film is very scarce and considerably expired, so I was keen to use it in more than one camera. With eight exposures left, I transferred it into this Kodak Instamatic model, Kodak made a big range of 126 cameras, this is one of the less basic versions which has four different aperture settings.

photos from week 179 - Petri 607

trees, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

Frames 2 and 3, taken in bright sunshine, with the lens stuck on full aperture, but the expired film hasn't been too badly over-exposed.

photo from week 179 - Petri 607

reflected self-portrait with Petri 607 camera and swimming cap, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

The inevitable low light indoors has resulted in a predictably under-exposed image, even with the lens at full aperture, there wasn't quite enough light, but I've rescued it to some extent after scanning.

photo from week 179 - Petri 607

chair shadows, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

The Petri 607 has an automatic exposure system in which the aperutre is stopped down according to how bright the light is. It all seemed to be working, but as soon as I put the cartridge in it stopped, leaving the aperture at f2.8 all the time. This risked causing significant over-exposure, though the very old film could probably do with some extra light. I decided to take a few shots and then transfer the cartridge to another 126 camera. This is the first frame, luckily this camera has a focussing lens, so I was able to overcome the lack of depth of field associated with using full aperture.

Week 179 - Petri 607

Petri 607, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

It's some time since I used a 126 cartridge camera, and I thought this was a good week to get one out. The format is long obsolete, and only expired film is available, and even that is a matter of what turns up in charity shops and boot sales, storage conditions are unknown, and the results quite unpredictable.
I'm using one of the few assorted films I have, this is a Fuji colour negative film which expired a mere 18 years ago!

photo from week 178 - Lancaster Instantograph

Mop passport photos, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

I realised my mistake regarding the frame numbers when the count continued onto 9, where there should only have been 8 exposures. This left me two frames, and I was keen to get on and develop the film, so I took both photos of "Mop", at different apertures and exposure times, from memory f16 and f32 with times of 4 and 20 seconds.

photo from week 178 - Lancaster Instantograph

reflected self-portrait with Lancaster Instantograph camera and bowler crown, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

The camera's tripod bush was recessed quite deeply into the baseboard, so I was unable to mount it on any of my tripods. I improvised a stand from a projector stand and some cable ties, this was probably more stable than a tripod anyway.
The aperture goes down to f128, but I used f64 for this one, requiring an exposure of about 90 seconds, this explains the motion blur on me, but the steadiness of the rest of the scene.

photo from week 178 - Lancaster Instantograph

the camera's owner, a photo by pho-Tony on Flickr.

This is the owner of the camera, who kindly lent it to me to use in my project. I made a silly error in using the wrong red windows to count the frame numbers, and as a result most of the photos are overlapping to some extent. This is a crop from what should have been a vertical waist up portrait.