photo from week 279 - Contaflex 126

This grid with numbers seemed a suitable subject for the square negatives, and the numbers on the film borders provide some added interest.

photo from week 279 - Contaflex 126

The distortion here is nothing to do with the camera, I used a piece of flexible mirror board in order to take the photo in a place with enough daylight.

photo from week 279 - Contaflex 126

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the negatives from this very expired film, which was in a camera from a car boot sale. I overexposed by a couple of stops to allow for loss of sensitivity.

Week 279 - Contaflex 126

The Contaflex 126 has little in common with the Contaflex 35mm series of cameras. It shares the name, and had a superficial resemblance, but is quite a different camera. All the other Contaflex models have leaf shutters and fixed lenses, the 126 has a focal plane shutter and interchangeable lenses, but has a limited range of shutter speeds, and of course crucially takes the long obsolete 126 cartridges. I was prompted to borrow this camera from my dad, having found a partly used 126 cartridge in a Kodak Instamatic camera from a car boot sale. It remains to be seen what life there is left in this 30 year old film.

photo from week 278 - Science Museum Pinhole Camera

This is another means of ascending Lisbon's hills, this is the Elevador da Gloria, a funicular tram. The only suitable surface to hold the camera still was the ground, and framing the shot was a matter of trial and error. I gave this about 10 seconds in the late afternoon shade.

photo from week 278 - Science Museum Pinhole Camera

Indoor self-portraits are always a challenge when using a simple camera. The effective aperture of this pinhole is f250, necessitating a long exposure. The only way to keep the shutter open is to keep your finger on the lever, so the limit of the exposure was how long I could maintain this, I managed about 1 minute, which was enough to form an image on the film.

photo from week 278 - Science Museum Pinhole Camera

Lisbon is a hilly city, there are several lifts and funiculars to help take the strain. This is the Elevador da Santa Justa, which was designed by a pupil of Gustav Eiffel. The camera was braced against a traffic light post, for an exposure of about 2 seconds in bright sunlight.