photo from week 347 - Novelty Dog Camera

The regular grid in this subject makes the pincushion distortion from the lens very apparent.

photo from week 347 - Novelty Dog Camera

Despite being indoors, there was sun shining in through the window and I just about got away without too much underexposure.

photo from week 347 - Novelty Dog Camera

On a couple of occasions the shutter fired while the film was being wound on, as seen here.

Week 347 - Novelty Dog Camera

This is a generic ultra basic point and shoot camera with added dog themed decoration.

photo from week 346 - Praktina IIA

Another demonstration of shallow depth of field at wide aperture. This is the Women of Steel statue in Sheffield city centre.

photos from week 346 - Praktina IIA

These two shots were taken with the direct viewfinder (left) and pentaprism (right).

photo from week 346 - Praktina IIA

This was taken in heavy shade at a local summer fete. The wide aperture was needed to allow a fast enough shutter speed to hand hold, and as a result there is a very shallow depth of field.

Week 346 - Praktina IIA

The Praktina dates from the mid 1950s, it was made in East Germany by the KW factory in Dresden. It was a system camera, and used its own proprietory lens mount. An unusual feature is that as well as the SLR pentaprism viewfinder, it also has a direct viewfinder, which can be useful in low light.

photo from week 345 - Kodak Instamatic 177X

This helter-skelter is a regular visitor to Sheffield in the summer, seen here spread over two frames.

photo from week 345 - Kodak Instamatic 177X

Sheffield is currently hosting the "Herd of Sheffield", dozens of painted elephants all over the city.

photo from week 345 - Kodak Instamatic 177X

Two consecutive frames, taken in the Kelham Island area of Sheffield.

Week 345 - Kodak Instamatic 177X

Given the scarcity of 126 film, I removed the half used cartridge from last week's camera, and transferred it to this weeks. The camera came from a car boot sale, it was £3 in its original box with an unopened 126 cartridge. The camera has virtually no financial value, but the film was worth £3 (though I haven't used it yet, so don't know how degraded it will be).

photo from week 344 - Ilford Ilfomatic Super 100

This is a pedestrian bridge over the River Don, with a new riverside development behind it.

photos from week 344 - Ilford Ilfomatic Super 100

Considering that the film expired 25 years ago, the results could have been worse. This is three consecutive frames taken in Sheffield City Centre.

photo from week 344 - Ilford Ilfomatic Super 100

One of the "Herd of Sheffield" elephants currently gracing our streets.

Week 344 - Ilford Ilfomatic Super 100

This is a bit of a brick, somewhat larger than the average 126 cartridge camera, it has no controls, so all you do is point and shoot.
126 film is no longer made, and I only have a couple of cartridges left, so I will shoot half the film in this camera, and then transfer ot to another 126 camera for week 345. The film is Klick brand XD100 colour negative, it expired in 1990.

photo from week 343 - Voigtlander Bessa 46

I took this at full aperture and minimum focus distance to see what the effect would be.

photo from week 343 - Voigtlander Bessa 46

The Bessa has a full range of shutter speeds, so there was no problem coing with the indoor conditions for this self-portrait.

photo from week 343 - Voigtlander Bessa 46

I used expired Fujicolor Superia X-TRA ISO 400 colour negative film. This is the Sheffield Samba Band.

Week 343 - Voigtlander Bessa 46

Voigtlander, like Zeiss Ikon, made a large range of folding camera with various formats and specifications. This one is pre-war, it takes 16 exposures per roll. Although fully functioning, it has, like many examples, lost the ring on the front of the lens giving the lens names and details, originally there would have been a swing in yellow filter attached to this, and these filters are probably the reason that this ring is often missing, as it is quite easy to catch the filter and pull it and the retaining ring off.

photo from week 342 - Supasnaps Snappit

True to the cheap novelty aesthetic of this camera, I managed to get my thumb in several shots, I'm particularity proud of this one showing St Mark's Basilica. I don't suppose I am the first tourist to have included a thumb in this view!

photo from week 342 - Supasnaps Snappit

It wasn't all plain sailing, with some overlapping frames near the beginning of the film, but once it settled down all was well.

photo from week 342 - Supasnaps Snappit

Week 343 began while I was still in Venice, and this lightweight camera was an obvious choice to take with me, perfect for old fashioned snap shots.

Week 342 - Supasnaps Snappit

This little novelty camera was given away by Supasnaps whenever you had a film processed. It uses a 126 cartridge, which is partly outside the body of the camera. They came in a range of colours, I have several of them, at one time they were near ubiquitous in car boot sales.
126 film is no longer made, so the only option is to used old stock, I loaded it with a Boots brand cartridege which expired in 1994.