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.

Agfa Clack

Why, hello! This post is about the Agfa Clack, which I saw once on Craigslist, missed out, and then hunted down on ebay because it is just too cute.

Camerapedia has a lot of good info on this camera. To paraphrase, it was cleverly designed with a curved back to get sharper photos despite its simple lens, so it was an inexpensive but good quality camera.

This was the first medium format camera I ever tried! It's a lot of fun and I want to do more... Maybe one day I'll get a big kid 120 camera and get the most out of the larger frame size. However, it has its complications like anything else.

Being cheap and lazy, I decided to buy lomography 120 film from Urban Outfitters instead of ordering some big kid film off the internet. That was a mistake. You'll see in my examples that the frame numbers got imprinted on the negatives. Since this didn't happen with my efke 127 film and I've read that it's a lomography-specific problem I think it's safe to assume that it's because the backing paper on the film is too thin. I've read that lomography 120 film is just rebranded film from other producers but they must put different backing paper on it, so let that be a lesson.

As for the camera's performance, I am really quite pleased with it. When you take the picture, just like with other box cameras, there's no fanfare or hurrah when you release the shutter. So when I got the pictures back I was pleasantly surprised that the photos were pretty sharp, pretty interesting, and maybe there was a little hurrah, just a little quiet one I couldn't hear. And NO I am not on drugs. It's really too bad about the backing paper though.

The Clack has a shutter speed of around 1/30 so 50 ISO film is best. Use a tripod! I took these with 100 ISO lomography film. Not sure what producer makes the film; sorry.

holy lens flare!

Ansco Clipper

What? Two posts in one day? Making up for lost time, kiddies.

So this weekend was the epic and wonderful Vancouver Camera Swap Meet and Trade Show down at the Cameron Community Centre in Burnaby. As usual it was very busy and very dangerous for your wallet. I bought three cameras in about 15 minutes, but don't worry I called it quits soon after. I also picked up an original lensbaby for $35, and then got the heck outta there! It was a good haul, though! Besides the Ansco Clipper, which I will be writing about here, I picked up a Zorki-4 and a little half-frame Yashica rangefinder. Both were good deals and great items for any collection... Gotta love the camera show!

However, a word of warning to anyone who wants to check it out next year... You will find so many amazing deals, and a lot of beautiful, rare cameras, but you will also find a lot of potentially terrible purchases. Always double or triple check everything on the camera before you buy, and even then, try to talk down the price if you can. I've almost bought things a few times, and then looked inside the camera to see the film transport is all dirty, or there's batteries melting the inside of the camera, or something. Be careful!

Here's a little example, though not as big a concern:
I bought this Ansco Clipper from an extremely friendly and talkative guy, and he said he researched the camera and that it takes 620 film, and it even had a sticker on it that said "620." However, it is a 616 camera! If you look at it for two seconds you can see that it takes much wider film than 620, and I didn't really notice while I was there. If I was really set on getting a 620 camera, which are fairly simple to get film for, I would have been devastated, since 616 film is virtually impossible to find, let alone process. So... caveat emptor. I don't blame the guy at all, this is an honest mistake, but there are dealers at that show who will sell you crap with an innocent smile.

All that being said-- apparently you can easily rig this baby up to take 120 film... One day I'll give it a shot and post the results.

Anyhow, this is all well and good, but let's talk about my new little friend.

It's a cheap little metal box, with retractable "bellows." It has a glass lens and two shutter speeds: B and around 1/50. Fixed focus, fixed aperture. The man who sold it to me called it a point and shoot but it's basically a box camera. Nuffin special! I'll have to take er for a test run and see what the lens looks like!

It's a very cute little art piece, though. The shutter release lever has a little red bead around it, and the name plate is super cute.

Marcy at Junkstore Cameras has experimented with the Clipper using 120 film. Check it out!

Moral of the story: be innovative, be creative and never spend too much of your hard earned money!!

xoxo
CWB

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