Swell Reflex Too: The Minolta SR-T 200

I'm the Quirky Guy with a Camera, and I approve this message:

"In the market for a Pentax K-1000? Do you actually want to use it as a film camera, and do you have no sentimental attachment that makes you specifically want this model?  Do you actually like saving money?  Would you like a camera with nearly identical capabilities to a K-1000 at a fraction of the price?  If so, I present your camera!"

I rarely editorialize in my posts.  I tend to simply lay out my personal observations specific to particular camera model or film, present these observations along with my results, and let you, the reader, make an informed choice from the information I present.  I don't typically get into the heartfelt and often irrational positions that Camera A is "better" than Camera B so you'd better not buy the latter.

But every now and again, I notice something really off about the film world at large to which I feel I need to add a sanity check, and this is very much one of them.

One of the most iconic of 35mm film cameras of the later decades of film's prominence was the Pentax K-1000, a fairly simple 35mm SLR camera offering metered manual shooting and little else in the way of bells and whistles.  For years, it was THE standard camera for photography students and school yearbook offices, largely because it was the cheapest manual control camera available at the time.  It is a ubiquitous piece of film history as classic as a Hershey Chocolate Bar.  And it's also quite overpriced in today's market.

The Peculiar Paradox of the Perplexing Pickwik

To ponder and postulate the perils of my predicament was particularly problematic.  Phooey!

Sure I'm a "camera collector," but not in the most literal sense.  I like to limit myself to working examples of everything I might acquire and I most certainly seek to run at least one roll of film through everything I may have the fortune to pick up.

A few weeks ago, I happened on a bargain of a lot containing 7 cameras that I snagged for just over $20.  While it was just one camera of this batch that really drew me in, I hoped that at least some of the other more basic cameras were in operable condition to be able to use a time or two as well.  Who knows?  Maybe I would discover a new favorite from the motley assortment.  In a marked departure from my usual luck, it turned out that all 7 cameras had fully working shutters and appeared to need just cleaning to be ready to try out. 

One of the more interesting cameras in the batch was an unusual little guy branded as a "Pickwik." It is a true pseudo-TLR complete with two lenses and a small flip up screen designed to frame fixed focus shots in the 3x4 format on 127 film.  Armed with only settings for "Time" and "Inst," it is a particularly simple if interesting little camera.  I gave it a quick look over to get an idea of its operation and put it in the queue for eventual usage.

A unique and certainly oddball among 127 cameras of the era, the Pickwik "TLR" was an interesting pickup for me.

As it turns out, the odd little camera would be the first of this group to be pressed into service.  As I worked my way through my 21 roll assortment of D-i-Y color films, I had some headaches in advancing a roll of 127 film through my Foth Derby.  I realized only later that this turned out to be that I'd used a single ended spool on the take up side of the camera and it was facing the wrong way. Still, I looked forward to the chance to get a few snaps with the Pickwik, and since I had to open the camera in the dark to re-situate the take up spool anyway, I figured I may as well complete the rest of the roll in the Pickwik instead.  I gave it a quick cleaning with cotton swabs, loaded the film and shot the last 6 shots in this unusual little "TLR" camera of sorts.

Only to get results back like this...

Surprisingly Solid Substitute! The Konica C35EF

I stood at the ready, estimated my focus, and fired my first shot with the Konica C35EF.  The needle had indictated an aperture of between f/5.6 and f/8, and the shutter had readily fired at my direction.  Since I was just a few minutes from home, this shot, and the ones to follow, were pretty much snap shots, and by no means critical; yet I still had my hopes they would turn out.  Still, this was a camera that, merely an hour earlier, seemed destined to be sidelined for a while, as my attention focused on more "elegant" members of my collection.

It was this adoration to one of these more revered cameras that actually forced this situation to begin with. I had just received a trio of 12 exposure rolls of expired 100 speed "mystery film" from Ultra Fine. While they surmised it to be Konica film, the labeling strongly suggested it was of Ferrania/Imation origins.  There was no better way to find out than to shoot a roll of it, develop the results, and check the film rebate markings. It seemed a perfect creative diversion to couple with errands on a pleasant October afternoon.

My chosen vessel for this bit of photographic sleuthing was an elegantly designed and well loved folding compact camera of German origin.  I had been waiting for a suitable chance to test out this camera, and this seemed ideal. I threaded the mystery film into the take up spool, and needed to only take up the slack and advance the film to the first frame to get this show on the road. However, no amount of winding or other manipulation would make the take up spool spin on the German mini. My little project suddenly needed an alternative device upon which to expose frames. Sure I could go with any number of other tried and tested members of the collection, but the thought of shooting this guess-focused camera had me looking forward to a new shooting experience that I was now deprived of.  With my time limited, I recalled the Konica C35EF, which I brought up from the basement, loaded up with the film, and set out to shoot.

The late 70's/early 80's look of the Konica C35 EF (known as the "Pikkari" in Japan) looks right at home in an office setting of the same era.  All we need to complete the picture is a dot matrix printer!

The Zenith of Quirk - The Comet Camera

Beginning in the late 1940's, Bencini of Milan Italy produced a number of uniquely designed 127 cameras under the "Comet" name, culminating with the very distinctive vertically situated Comet III of 1953 that remains today as a highly distinctive and desirable camera among collectors, fetching prices of over $100 on the collector market.

This review is however not of the Bencini Comet.  I may be a quirky guy with a camera but I am also a frugal guy with a family, so my likelihood of picking up a Bencini Comet are pretty slim.

However, I was fortunate enough to pick up a very distinctive 127 camera from the same era, also vertically oriented, and also bearing the Comet name, but made half a world away in the United States by Zenith Camera Corporation.

While a significant amount of American 127 cameras sold in the post war era tend to be of a nearly identical design consisting of using the "half-frame" 127 format and a fixed focus lens, the design of the Zenith Comet is completely distinct from these cameras, and features:

• Near full frame 127 images ranging between 55 and 60mm long.
• An adjustable aperture.
• Instantaneous and time exposure settings.
• A curved film plane.
• Adjustable focus from 4 feet to infinity.
• A uniquely inset viewfinder.

How Low Can You Go? Mr Brown Low ISO 6 Speed Film from the Film Photography Project

Reading some of my postings, it doesn't take too long to realize that I'm a fan of slow speed films.  I rarely shoot 400 speed film, and actually like to stick below 100 if at all possible.  

Still, there are times when even Rollei RPX 25 is too fast for me: when I'd like to open up the lens fully on a sunlit day and get some fun shots with limited depth of field.  I've managed to try a few super slow speed films with speeds near 1 and 3, but there are times when these are admittedly just a bit too slow.  I lamented that there was nothing in that middle ground between 6 and 12 speed.  Sure I could shoot 25 speed film with a polarizer to slow it down, but shooting with a quaint old camera that would require hand-holding an SLR-designed polarizer in front of the lens is admittedly something of a hassle.

So when I saw the Film Photography Project offering an affordable limited edition film with a speed of ISO 6, I just HAD to snap some up to try!  

Mr. Brown Low ISO film comes in a 24 exposure roll for just under $3.00 a roll.  It is listed as being a thin based, high contrast film that develops well in most typical developers.  I had no idea just what to expect from this film, but elected to put it to work in one of my favorite "adapted" cameras: my Kodak Bantam RF with the 24mm square mask.  

I took the camera along with me on a couple of errands, stopping for photos at the Rose Hill Manor in Frederick, as well as a few other locations around town.  I kept my expectations minimal, and they were exceeded.  GREATLY exceeded! 

Fun with Film: Portra 160 Slowed Down

Sometimes a limit of choices is a good thing. 

I've never been terribly good with making quick purchasing decisions when confronted with something unpredictable, particularly that I hate going out to spend money for something only to not find it and having to settle for an alternative. 

Such was the case a few weeks ago, when, as I made my way up to the counter of my favorite Brick and Mortar photo store to buy a couple of rolls of Ektar 100 in 120, one of which I'd hoped to cut down to 127 to shoot through my Bell and Howell Electric Eye camera.  Turns out, they were out of Ektar.  

"I've got Portra 160" stated the shop owner.  Hmm, I figured this trip was a total bust since I try to shoot brighly colored landscapes instead of portraits with restrained saturation, but since time was ticking for me to do my photo run, and since I always like to support my local stores, I elected to pick up a couple of rolls to give it a try anyway.

However, the Bell and Howell is not geared for the speed of 160 and tips the scales at about ISO 80. I knew this going in, but hoped that the one stop speed increase wouldn't present too much of an issue. Upon reading a bit of reviews of Portra, I surprised to see that more than a few people said they had their best results with color saturation with the stuff at speeds between 50 and 100. As it turned out, my gamble might actually pay off.

I cut down the roll of 127 film, loaded up the Bell and Howell and went out shooting during lunch on a photo perfect day of lightly cloudy blue skies.  I didn't spend a great deal of time composing, but rather sought out colorful scenes to put this "saturated Portra" idea to the test.  Upon developing and scanning, I was delighted to see that Portra is indeed a great and colorful film when given a stop of extra exposure.

Under blue skies but shadows, Portra delivered a nice palette of colors, but its real saturated strengths emerged...

$20, 21 Rolls. A Color Celebration!

The term "do-it-yourselfer" is pretty much a common part of conversational parlance these days, fueled to a large degree by the abundance of home improvement stores complemented by television networks devoted to featuring all of some of their programming to the "DIY" concepts.  Since moving a year ago, my weekend life has involved a oft-frustratingly expanding "Honeydo" list that only seems to grow as each project is finally completed. 

Given this, the thought of processing my own film had never quite appealed to me.  That was until I began to look at what professional developing was costing me.  Despite being a quirky guy with a camera, I'm also a frugal guy with a family, and thus, I began to develop my own black and white film, which proved to be a particularly simple enough exercise once I adapted my methods to something that works pretty readily around my sometimes involved home life. I'd figured that self-processing of black and white film would be as far as I'd venture, and that was fine, given that I'd expected color to be far less forgiving to my methods.

And then, as luck would have it, this all changed.

While perusing the Film Photography Project store, I stumbled upon an offer so good, I simply couldn't resist considering it.  For the measly sum of $19.99, I could get a Unicolor type color processing kit, in addition to 2 rolls of Vision 50T film.  I had just been considering picking up a couple of rolls of the film as it was, but it seemed the Rem Jet backing made it a tough film for which to find processing.  Not only would this address the need to find processing for such film, but it also tossed in the film I would have bought anyway as a bonus!

After a modest amount of online investigation into home processing with such a kit, in which pretty much every review stated that color processing with this kit was actually far easier than initially expected, and also reading that the stated yield of "8 rolls" from this kit had a great deal of elasticity if rolls were processed within two weeks of mixing, I figured that this small investment was certainly worth a try.  And I also figured that if I planned out my batches smartly. I could do as others had testified, and process at least 16 rolls of film from this 8 roll kit.

Without going into great detail of the process (there are already many resources that very capably detail the procedure far better than I could), I can unquestionably say that this was one of the best investments I've ever made.  Processing the first batch was both exciting and terrifying, but once I saw results from this, I managed to calm down to make slight revisions on future batches to make the process a bit more controlled and predictable.  

The ability to process so much color film so cheaply will enable me to really pick up the pace on postings, and has already enabled me to do things that I'd have been hesitant to do otherwise.  I've managed to test several "new" cameras, do a wider variety of things with many of my existing favorite cameras, try different film brands in a variety of ways, and of course do a quirky thing or two that I'd have likely passed up otherwise if it wasn't so affordable and accessible to process color film.  You'll begin to see some of the results of this vast experiment in the coming week.  

And in the meantime, it is only fitting that I provide some sample images from each roll so that you can see just a small fraction of what is to come!  For now, I'm keeping the film and camera of each a thinly veiled secret until I post the accompanying posts of content. 

Roll 1