Argus 75

Hello again!

I am starting a new rotation tomorrow so I probably won't be able to update for a little while. Here is my Argus 75, with my zoom groom and Generation X (any Coupland fans? I don't really get the appeal.)

This is a wonderful, beautiful camera, and I absolutely love it. It's also known as the Argoflex 75. Although this has a second lens, like a TLR, it is technically still just a box camera. See here for clarification. It only has two shutter speeds (instant/time) and you can't control the aperture or focus.

Also, the 75 is supposed to take 620 film, but it is very easy to load it with 120 without having to respool it. I just clipped the edges of the plastic spool so that it would fit the camera. It sounds sketchy but it worked fine... the only thing is that you have to be careful when unloading because the paper needs to be extra tightly wound to protect it from the light. It would be wise to store  the exposed film in the foil it came in after unloading until you get it to a lab. You'll see in my photos below that the frame numbers were imprinted on my negatives, but I think this is a symptom of thin lomography backing paper rather than clipping the spool, since this also occurred with my Agfa Clack.

Here is a video showing how to load the camera, although he seems to use an unclipped 120 spool.

One really amazing thing about this camera is the beautiful viewfinder. Because it's not a true TLR the viewfinder is incredibly bright. However, it's also not as accurate as a true TLR, and I think parallax may be an issue. My pictures turned out pretty alright despite that, though. The most difficult thing about using this camera was framing up and keeping the framing consistent while releasing the shutter (which takes a lot of pressure).

just look at how bright this is!

And here are the photos, taken with 100 ISO lomography film.

Brownie Target Six-20

Greetings! I know I'm late today... I'm visiting my family in Edmonton so I've been kind of preoccupied. That being said, this house is a treasure trove of photographic history, so I have lots of fun stuff to share with you all.

This week's camera, the Brownie Target Six-20, was the go-to camera for my grandmother when my dad was a wee one growing up in Millet, Alberta. It was produced from 1946 to 1952 and uses 620 film, which is a format similar to 120.

As you can see, it is a box camera! The Six-20 is very much like the early Brownie box cameras that brought photography to the masses, but with some slight improvements such as a variable aperture (f11 and f16.... I think) and two viewfinders (landscape vs. portrait). It has two shutter speed settings, "I" and "B," "I" being the "instant" setting (around 1/40 sec). This model was manufactured in Canada.

Alright, it's a nice show piece and a neat little piece of history, but once you've seen one box camera, you've seen them all, maybe. However, this particular dusty shutter is more valuable than a website or a collector could evaluate. It cost my grandma probably around five Canadian dollars, but it's left us grandkids with a basement full of treasure.

My grandpa died when my dad was very young, so this box camera saw more of him than my dad did, and I didn't see him at all. But I can still see what kind of man he was, and see my dad in him. Although I've never met him I know he was handsome, he worked the land, and at some point he was naked except for a big rhubarb-looking leaf.

My dad grew up on the farm too, and I've often felt alienated from him by our vast difference in upbringing. When my mom met him, he already had a full-on beard, so there were never any pictures of him without. Now, I know the Brownie saw him grow up, and because of that I can see him in a little wagon with a big, familiar smile. Because the Brownie saw him, I can see that he looked just like my big brother.

And because the camera knew my grandma before age began to eat her history and her memories, I can still be her friend. While she doesn't know who I am, I see some of my sister and myself in her, and I love her just for being.

Caity