Week 295 - Split-Cam

This is a novelty camera which I acquired last year and have so far put one film through. The top and bottom halves of the negative can be exposed separately using two masks that slide in front of the lens, this gives a blending effect. I've loaded it with a roll of Agfa Vista ISO200 colour film.

photo from week 294 - Praktica MTL 3

One of my regular subjects, a horse chestnut tree, seen here in its late summer garb.

photo from week 294 - Praktica MTL 3

This week's reflected self-portrait is one of the better exposed frames, I think I probably over exposed the whole roll, rating it at ISO50.

photo from week 294 - Praktica MTL 3

I recently found an old roll of Kodachrome 64 slide film in a charity shop. Kodachrome processing was discontinued at the end of 2010, and is a process which cannot be replicated. There is however the option to process the film in black and white chemicals, and this is what I chose to do with mine. The results are quite grainy and contrasty, but at least I was able to get some kind of image out of this much missed film.
You can see from this picture that the camera's focal plane shutter is not running smoothly, resulting in the left hand portion of the negative being over-exposed.

Week 294 - Praktica MTL 3

The MTL 3 is one of many cameras made in East Germany under the Praktica range. This is one of the later models, and was generally found to be more reliable than some of the earlier examples. Mine came without a lens, and the lens shown here is a "Cassarit" made for the Edixa cameras.

photo from week 293 - Olympus Pen EE-3

I wanted to finish the film off so I could develop it, so for the last few frames I put on a red filter and shot directly at the sun when it was behind passing clouds.

photo from week 293 - Olympus Pen EE-3

The Pen EE-3 is fixed focus, and as I was fairly close for this photo, I wanted to maximise the depth of field by using as small an aperture as possible. The camera is fully automatic, but by using the flash setting, which sets the shutter speed to 1/40th second, you can set the aperture manually. I think this was set at f11.

photo from week 293 - Olympus Pen EE-3

I like using my half-frame cameras for simple in camera panoramas, this one consists of three frames.

Week 293 - Olympus Pen EE-3

The Pen EE-3 is one of the extensive range of half-frame cameras mae by Olympus in the 1960s and 70s. It is a true point and shoot, with no focussing, or any other controls, other than the ability to set the aperture when using a flash. Apart from the negative size, the camera is very similar to the popular Olympus Trip, which was made and sold by the million.
I've loaded the camera with some Rollei Retro 100 black and white film, pending the replacement of my exhausted C41 chemicals.

photo from week 292 - Bencini Korrol-S

This is a double exposure of a brick wall and monkey puzzle tree.

photo from week 292 - Bencini Korrol-S

Although it's a basic camera, the Korrol-S has a tripod bush and a cable release socket, so it was simple to make this exposure of around 12 seconds.

photo from week 292 - Bencini Korrol-S

This is 2 consecutive frames taken with the Korrol-S. The yellow colour cast is quite different from what I usually get with this film/developer combination. I suspected this may be due to the developer becoming exhausted, a suspicion backed up the by the complete failure of the next film I developed in it.

Week 292 - Bencini Korrol-S

I've got a soft spot for the Bencini cameras from the 1950s and 60s, I used to think they were ugly, but they've grown on me. This one, as the "S" in the name suggests, takes square images, 12 on a roll of 120 film. The lens collapses into the body when not in use, making it almost pocketable.

photo from week 291 - Pentax Espio Mini

This one takes advantage of the "panoramic" setting, which is simply a film-plane mask. The highlights are well and truly blown out, but I like the high key feel this gives it.

photo from week 291 - Pentax Espio Mini

I took a photo without the tripod initially, but the shutter speed felt a bit too slow for comfort, as borne out by the camera shake on that negative, so I took it again using a tripod and the self timer setting.

photo from week 291 - Pentax Espio Mini

Everything seems to work OK, and the pictures are quite sharp. The negatives are rather 0ver-exposed, as the non DX default ISO for the camera is 25, and the Agfa Copex Rapid film that I used is rated at ISO50.