Univexed Again! The AF-5, a Jewel of a Camera!

It was a depression era story of the likes of David and Goliath in which a small upstart business with no previous experience in an industry emerges upon the scene to create a surprising splash, selling thousands upon thousands of units and puts forth impressive competition to the industry giant.

And nearly as soon as it ascended, one big logistical decision would lead to its rapid decline.

It is the story of Universal camera, documented in print as well as online.  Had its momentum not been upended by global conflict that cut off its supply line, it is anyone's guess as to how history would have played out for this once popular brand.

The "Univex" AF line was in many ways the bread and butter of the company, debuting in 1935 and bringing low acquisition cost and extreme portability to the masses.  Initially costing under a dollar, successive models that added improvements resulted in modest price increases over the following years, but these value priced cameras were merely a gateway to sell film and developing on Universal's "00" size film, the real cash cow of the operation.  Thousands of these cameras were made and sold, and within a few short years, Eastman Kodak had some serious competition to their value market from Universal folks, whose AF line had sold over a million cameras by the late 1930's.

Add in escalating conflict in Europe and this competition came to an abrupt halt.  Gevaert in Belgium, supplier of the film for the Univex lost their trade lines to the west as World War II began taking shape, resulting in a sharp dip in sales of both cameras and film.  By the time the connection was restored, the damage had been done and the "00" format faded away from view by the early 1950's.

As a result, perhaps more than any other single camera model aside from the 116 format Kodak Vest Pocket 1A, the Univex AF may hold the distinction as the most common camera model seen today for which film in its format can not be reasonably acquired.

Today, the five models of the AF line are coveted by many camera collectors who enjoy their art deco styling and miniature footprint.  But it seems that these sleek little cameras are too often relegated to being display items partially as a result of the film availability issue.  Go ahead and try to "Google" for images taken with a Univex AF camera model.  I have the feeling you'll come away empty-handed.  I know I had no luck at all.  There is no Flicker group for shooters of Univex AF cameras, and no Lomography feature page.

Big camera, small footprint in what the gilded box states as being a "jewel of a camera." Univex AF cameras were all simple and cost effective folding cameras that emphasized portability.  Folded down, a Univex AF model camera carries a very modest footprint, as can be seen when compared to other relational items in scale. 

$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 

Univexed! A Camera Named Iris

I have come to realize that I am a stubborn King of Forgotten Formats.  Either that or I am a Clown Prince of the Arcane.  Either way, I'm happy, so it is what it is.

And just when I thought that my foray to finally delve into the world of 127 film would constitute my final quirky deviation from the safe place of 120 and 135, I find yet another slice of obsolescence to try out my hand in.  This one constitutes not just one but TWO goose eggs: namely, the fabled "00" format. It's entry into my photographic world would oddly prove to be a perfectly timed and profound blessing to move me into new but necessary territory.  Read on!

My super-length roll of 127 that proved to be too much an undertaking for the photo lab, and which proved to be the push I needed to get into the world of black and white film development, was only part of that impetus.  Just as I got the news that this odd roll of film wouldn't load into the reels, I was finishing up my first roll of 00 sized film, an oddly sized film that is about 2-3 millimeters narrower than 35mm stock.  If my lean roll of 127 wasn't fitting the lab's spools, certainly a roll of film that is deliberately narrower than 35/828 was not going to fare any better in a commercial lab. Thus, my entry into the 00 format only validated the need to develop film myself.

The oddest aspect to my entry into the world of "00" film is that I can't even recall the reason WHY I elected to adopt this camera and its flaky format into my cadre of equipment. Perhaps it was a flaky outburst of "GAS" or perhaps I was just enchanted with the retro look of the camera I was picking up.  Either way, the camera was quite cheap, so I had no real regrets about picking it up.

The Univex Iris gleams with a rich elegant black body, a shiny metallic faceplate, and just enough embellishments of art deco striping to present a stylish look indicative of the era.