Hello! This time we have another submission from Elisa Bastianello aka Tagliatele La Testa, who had previously submitted a beautiful set shot with her vintage Beier Beirette.

This series was shot with the Fujichrome Sensia 100 on my Beirette on the 25th April when we celebrate our National Day. That day was also known as the Liberation Day, which we celebrate to commemorate the day Italy was liberated from the World War 2.

Me and my friends had a trip on the Vignole Island in Venice, it’s a very wild island in the lagoon, and we had a rich lunch and a great day…

Lomography Xpro Chrome 100 on Beier Beirette

You gotta love the many photographic relics of the past. Here’s an interesting photo set by our reader hailing all  the way from Italy,Elisa Bastianello aka tagliatelelatesta on Flickr using the Beier Beirette. Here’s what she had to say:

This camera had a great story, my boyfriend chanced upon it in an old drawer and  after some digging, we found out that it belonged to my grandmother-in-law’s late uncle. He was a Catholic priest and bought the Beirette maybe in the 70s or 80s.

I shot these photos in January when me and my boyfriend took a walk at the World War 1 territories somewhere near the north of Italy. We had to cross the wild woods to reach the Tagliamento river and once there, I told him to jump up and down…and he did! It was so funny, lol.

For more info on the Beirette check out this link here.

Well, you know the drill…don’t forget to visit Elisa’s Flickr stream and say hi!

Kodacolor Gold 200 GB (expired 1989) on Savoy 620

I got my Savoy camera for about US$20 from etsy, not exactly a super buy, but it was advertised as being in very excellent condition so I thought why not as I had a bunch of expired 620 film in my fridge waiting to be used and no 620 camera in possession (at that time, now I own about 5 of them ;P ). The plastic lens on this camera really gives your images a nice luminous layer to tone down the sharpness, really rocketing you back into time.

Sure you have the Holga or the Diana that also sport plastic lenses, but the lo-fi effect those lenses give your images I feel is a modern kind of vintage. What you get with cameras like the Savoy, Ansco Panda, or the Kodak Brownie for example is retro in its purity!

Just look at the images above, I have made a modern day Kuala Lumpur in 2012 appear to look like what it would have 40 years ago. The expired film definitely helped here with the grain and the brown and golden tone very prominent of Kodak Gold films even today. I’m very happy with my results here and can’t wait to try to force some 120mm rolls into the Savoy.

Box cameras usually come with fairly small apertures of f/11 or smaller, and a shutter speed of about 1/125, so it is somewhat difficult to shoot in lowlight, especially if there is no bulb mode, like with the Savoy. An easy way to still shoot in low light is to shoot multiple exposures of the same scene but just make sure you have your camera either locked on a tripod or on a very stable surface to avoid image shifts.

I still have a bunch of box cameras to test out, it’s going to be quite a ride, I am sure.

-eleanorrigby236

The Savoy is a cheap plastic camera famous in the 1960s for its futuristic look (spot the outer space orbit logo!) and shiny front. It was available in multiple colors from mint green,  which is seemingly the most common, grey, red, and navy blue from what I have seen online. All in all it’s a very smart looking, easy to use box camera.

TinType Photography | Bob Shimmin from Kalamazoo Valley Museum 

Agfa RSX II 200 on Ensign Ful-Vue

Bored with your photos? Running out of places to shoot? 

The solution is simple, really. Go for double/multiple exposures and if you’re feeling adventurous, intentionally make yourself a fat roll to get some delicious light leaks on your shots!

The first two photos were taken in the heart of KL near the Central Market / Masjid Jamek and I assure you that I’ve gone for a photowalk there for no less than four times in 2011 alone! 

These were also shot on the same roll, the last 3 frames in fact and due to some fat roll action, I’m left with these light leaks! They definitely weren’t intentional but they sure made my otherwise repetitive images all the more interesting.

And you guessed it, it’s the same old abandoned house in Bangsar as featured in my Lensbaby post earlier.

Oh, btw, I was told by a fellow photographer who frequented the place that about 4 weeks ago during an outing (at 2am!!) they actually saw not one but TWO entities floating around the compound! Have you heard of Pontianaks before?

Sickkk!!

-delusiana

On Facebook we share our surprising finds and our latest buys ;) Look what I just found in an Ansco Panda box camera I got a few months back. I am hoping that the previous owner forgot about the roll and left it in there some few decades ago. Stay tuned to find out what’s on the roll.

To be sure you get the latest updates from us LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!! We also love talking and discussing with you so drop in and say hello!

-eleanorrigby236

Kodak T-Max 400 on Diana 151

(self-developed: Ilford Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 6 mins)

Even Sora wants you to know that our beloved Kodak is here to stay and that FILM IS NOT DEAD! 

-delusiana

Ilford HP5+ 400ISO on Ensign Ful-Vue Box Camera

(Self-developed: Ilford Ilfotec DD-X, 1:4, 9 minutes)

So here’s the test roll for my cute frog-like vintage 1950s box camera, the Ensign Ful-Vue. This is actually the 2nd incarnation of the Ful-Vue, made in Great Britain during the post war era - its large and bright viewfinder making it one of the best cameras at it’s time. Despite its pseudo TLR looks, the Ful-Vue is actually a very simple box camera with a pull-out lens for close up shots, as seen in the last 2 pictures of this set. 

Composing pictures with the viewfinder needs a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy. I bought this camera from Charlie Wray, who’d  written that wonderful piece on the Leica M6 last month. 

There is a noticeable stain in the first 2 shots which I think is probably due to the dust on the lens but I’m not complaining, I think it made my shots look super retro. :D 

I didn’t actually research on this camera until after I’ve developed this roll, I thought that you had to pull out the lens to shoot, which resulted in the soft focus in the first 4 shots and the sharper images in the last 2. But I’m not complaining, not a bit!

A little bit on the location of the shoot, this was taken at an old abandoned colonial bungalow in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur - a favorite haunt of local film photographers, so much so that the lady who lived next door actually asked why so many of us are fascinated with the place, lol.

-delusiana

These photographs of ‘spirits’ are taken from an album of photographs unearthed in a Lancashire second-hand and antiquarian bookshop by one of the Museum’s curators. They were taken by a controversial medium called William Hope (1863-1933). Later in his career as a “spirit photographer”  he was exposed as being a fraud, using a technique of superimposing images onto his subjects to create these bone-chilling, ghastly images.

Fake or not, I think he did a pretty good job, and all done in the era where Photoshop and computers were not at his disposal. I think this ought to be included in our Inspiration section for those who dabble in alternative photography or print their own images. Head over to the National Media Museum Flickr for more of Mr. Hope’s sinister spine-tingling photos. 

As we’re on the subject of ghost photos, here is also an interesting article on New Scientist discussing Ghouls on Film : Ghost or Glitch.  Have a pleasant ghost-free day, my friends!

-eleanorrigby236

Dana Geraths - Wet Plate Photographer from Kia Anne Geraths 

Shanghai GP3 Negative 100 on Kodak Duaflex II

The Kodak Duaflex II is a recent addition to my growing 620 box camera collection. As with the others, I love this camera for its simplicity and vintage charm.

Produced between 1950 and 1954, the Duaflex II was a very popular camera, constructed of aluminum and plastic with a fixed single element 75mm f/15 Kodet lens. (There is another version with a focusing lens)

Small, but with a bit of weight, the Duaflex is easy to carry around and a lot of fun to use. A bright bubble viewfinder, winding knob, and shutter button is all there is to it!  And, it takes double exposures. :)

The Duaflex II takes twelve 6x6 images.  For my test roll, I chose Shanghai GP3 100. For this camera, I re-spooled the 120 film onto a 620 spool. (Its easy! See my note about re-spooling below).

 I’ve only used Shanghai in old box cameras, so can’t really speak to this film other than I do like the results I’ve gotten in these cameras, and the Duaflex is no different. You’ll see in some of the images there is black speckling; this is an occasional issue with Shanghai, not the processing. I like the texture the speckling adds in landscape shots.

I love taking double exposure images, and if a camera can take them, I’ll shoot ‘em…I can’t help myself.  On my next roll I’m going to try taking more “regular” shots, if I can…just to get a better idea of what this camera does.

About Respooling:

With a little practice, re-spooling 120 film onto a 620 spool is easy! There are a number of online tutorials.

I have a couple of 620 cameras that will easily accept a trimmed-down 120 spool in the feed, but for the rest I’ve found re-spooling to be easier than the additional grinding and sanding needed to make a 120 spool work. I practiced with a dummy roll in the light before graduating to a changing bag. Now I have the hang of it, each roll takes me around 10 minutes, and I know it can be done in less. If a 620 camera I’m interested in has a spool, I’m more likely to get it, and I’ve accumulated extras from eBay. Just remember to ask for your spool back when you take it for developing!

-Stephanie

Scotch Colour 100 on Bierette V

This little 1964 German viewfinder camera with its E. Ludwig Meritar 45mm f/2.9 lens is a real cutie!

It gives a lovely dreamy look to the images and the relatively wide aperture is nice to use this effect in available light shots, like the abandoned market and the inside of the bus. Mine is a little tetchy as you can see from the split frame with the car and the flowers, which is actually one of my favourite shots from the set as the subjects are so different.

The film is Expired 2000 Scotch Colour 100 which I picked up when I bought my Zenit E. This is reputedly (from what I have found on forums) re-packaged Ferrania Solaris; the colour casts from the old film and this old camera have made some lovely images!

-Christian Bodden

edit: To those curious, here’s a picture of the Bierette V that I googled up, heh.

-delusiana