Saturday 31 December 2016

The end of year seven!

25 cameras, 25 hats
Well, another year has gone by, this is a selection of some of the hat/camera combinations from year seven.
I'm pressing on with another year, with plenty of cameras still to try out.
Happy New Year!

Friday 30 December 2016

Week 366 - Konica Auto S3

Konica Auto S3
The Auto S3 is a very compact 35mm rangefinder camera, I also have the S2, which is much larger. This one came from a charity shop for £5, I've loaded it with Agfa Vista film from Poundland.

Wednesday 28 December 2016

photo from week 365 - Thornton Pickard Junior Special

sheep skull
The lighting were was very simple, a miniature LED torch placed underneath this sheep's skull. The film is Rollei Retro 80S, and the exposure here was around 20 seconds.

photo from week 365 - Thornton Pickard Junior Special

four manequins (panoramic crop)
These manequins were quite happy to keep still for the 30 second exposure needed, I've cropped the image slightly after scanning.

photo from week 365 - Thornton Pickard Junior Special

reflected self-portrait with Thornton Pickard Junior Special camera and dragon headress
First up, my mirror self-portrait, the exposure was around 20 seconds and the aperture f8.

Friday 23 December 2016

Week 365 - Thornton Pickard Junior Special

Thornton Pickard Junior Special Reflex
This is the last week of the seventh year of the 52 cameras in 52 weeks project. Seven times fifty-two makes 365, so this is something of a special week.
To mark it, I decided to wring some images out of a functionally dead camera, the cloth focal plane shutter on the ancient single lens reflex is broken, but I reckoned that if I stuck to table top photography in artificial light, I could use long enough exposures to bypass the shutter and use a lens cap instead.

Tuesday 20 December 2016

photo from week 364 - Agfa Billy Compur

King of the River
I was disappointed with this week's results, the weak winter daylight meant that I had to use a large aperture, so the focusing was not very forgiving. I suspect the lens is capable of better results than my attempts suggest.

photo from week 364 - Agfa Billy Compur

reflected self-portrait with Agfa Billy Compur camera and marine's hat (square crop)
The obligatory, but grossly out of focus self portrait...

Friday 16 December 2016

Week 364 - Agfa Billy Compur

Agfa Billy Compur
Agfa used the "Billy" name for cameras over a nmber of years. This is a folding model that takes 120 film, it is named after the Compur shutter, which, as is usually the case, works perfectly even after many years of inactivity. I loaded it with some expired Kodak Portra colour negative film.

Wednesday 14 December 2016

photo from week 363 - Praktica GP100

carousel and fountain
With hindsight it was a bad idea to use this camera in December, the forecast sun didn't materialise, and it was a struggle to get enough light onto the film, as seen in this grainy underexposed shot of a carousel.

Saturday 10 December 2016

Week 363 - Praktica GP100

Praktica GP100
This is one of many ultra simple faux-panoramic cameras that are found regularly in charity shops. They need good light, and the weather forecast suggested it would be sunny, so I took the risk of loading it up at the darkest time of the year.

Tuesday 6 December 2016

photo from week 362 - Contax D

reflected self-portrait with Contax D camera and coloured headdress
The cloth focal plane shutter has a tendency to stick, but performed OK here, at a speed of 1/25th sec.

photo from week 362 - Contax D

festive balloonery
Elaborate balloon figures in the Christmas Market in York.

Thursday 1 December 2016

Week 362 - Contax D

Contax D
Although the Contax D uses the Contax name, it bears little resemblance to the classic Zeiss Ikon Contax cameras, after world war 2, Zeiss Ikon was split between East and West Germany, initially both companies used the Contax name, but after legal battles, the right to use it was given to the West German branch. The East German part became Pentacon (said to come from "Pentaprism" and "Contax"). These SLRs were the first to use the pentaprism for viewing the focusing screen.