Film Fun Folio #21 - Agfa Billy Record and Rollei Retro 80S

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #21:

Camera: ca. 1951 Agfa Billy Record I with Agnar 75mm/f 6.3 lens.

Film: Agfa Rollei Retro 80S 

Locale: Frederick County, Maryland.

Since the day I first used it, the basic Agfa Billy has been all but asking to be taken seriously in spite of its very limited shutter speeds, and its slow and basic lens.  It's a well working and easy camera to use, but in retrospect, it has often been overlooked as a serious image maker for other cameras in my repertoire.  As a result, it has seen decent usage, but its most recent "assignments" have been more for novelty photography, such as with long expired film or as a test bed for cross processing of slide film.  

In these experiments, I had been pleasantly surprised by the quality of the images put forth by the less than revered Agnar lens.  Thus, I elected to approach this roll of my much liked Retro 80S film with a more serious tone.  All shots were exposed at an EI of about 50 and all are taken within an aperture stop of one stop from wide open.  And this marks one of the few times when I actually load one of these old cameras with film that has a common brand with it, as Rollei film carries the same Agfa diamonds as this camera.  

Though sent off with 7 rolls of color 120 slide film of colorful fall scenes for developing, I was extremely eager to see the results from this roll taken on black and white.  My findings are below.

1 - Catoctin Furnace, MD - f/8, 1/50 - I struggled for a good perspective from which to shoot this old iron furnace.  Foliage just didn't seem to fall in the most photogenic places.  The result above is OK, but doesn't quite hit the mark. 

Same Scene - Four Cameras, Four Films

On my (now not too) recent trip westward to Oregon, I made it a point that I would ensure that I would aim to have one scene that I would shoot with every color film camera at my disposal at the time.  As it was, I wound up holding off using my last shot on two of these cameras to ensure that I could perform such an experiment.

Finally, on the afternoon of June 20, at a stop called Corbett's View, overlooking the Columbia River Gorge, I took the opportunity to snap away to get results that I could compare.  The samples, already featured in several of the Film Folio features, are shown below

Zeiss Ikonta A 521, Agfa Rollei Crossbird 200 Film

Agfa Billy Record I, Expired Kodak Ektachrome 200 scanned with Color Restoration. 

Welta/Rodenstock Citonette, Provia 100F.

Balda Lisette, Velvia 50.

Overall, light leaks aside, there is a lot of differences in how this same scene was rendered on four different cameras and films.  I thought I'd have a clear "winner" in the batch, but I can't say that I do.  Nor can I say that one of these completely fails in its rendering.  It is a very interesting example of how the same scene can be given a remarkably differing appearance based largely on the film.  

And as we head into colder weather, I'm certainly glad to have these vestiges of a trip west in warmer temperatures! 

Film Fun Folio #5: Agfa Billy Record and Expired Ektachrome 200

Periodically, I'll be posting scans of some complete rolls of film on here, showing both the good and the bad, and giving some basic information as well a little write up of the shoot as well as the reasons why I selected each camera and film.  Enjoy the trip! 

Feature #5:
Camera: ca. 1951 AGFA Billy Record 120 folding camera
Film: Kodak Ektachrome 200 (expired in 2006)
Locale: Oregon
June of 2015

Even a momentary fit of boredom can be both a good and a bad thing. While perusing that all too well known auction site that has certainly captured the time and money of more than a few of us hobbyists, I elected to see if I could find any 120 Kodak Ektachrome that had only expired in the past year or so.  The good news was that I did indeed find an unused roll of Ektachrome.  The bad news was that it had expired in 2006.  This seemed to be a good choice on which to do a follow up roll of film using cross-processing, since faithful color rendition would not an expected outcome anyway.  I loaded it into the same Agfa camera on which I shot the first cross processed roll, but only a few exposures into the roll, I changed my mind about developing in C-41.  After all, I had never really shot a roll of badly expired film in recent memory, and I was curious what the results might be if I just developed the results in E-6.  Even if there was a fog or cast, I was curious if the images might be salvageable with a little help from Photoshop.  It seemed like a novel experiment for me.

The result is that you will see two images for each exposure below.  The first is one that generally replicates how the actual transparency looks to the eye, while the second uses the "Restore Fading" option in the scanner to try to correct the color shift.  This will definitely be a new way of presenting shots which I myself have taken. 

1 - Portland, OR - f/11 1/200 - Given the very nostalgic subject matter, I'm actually partial to the original image above over the restored image below, though the scanner software did do a very commendable job of restoring color to a scene awash in magenta, while keeping a somewhat muted pastel palette. 

Film Rewind - A second take on some Film Cameras

If a look through the chronology of my posts is to be believed, I'm a "camera whore."  I get a camera, shoot a roll or two through it, and then stow it away as my fascination turns to the next novel project or acquisition in my repertoire.  

I am very proud to say that is not the case.

The story and interest in the machines does not end with the publishing of the article.  In fact, the article often sets about to be the springboard for even more new and novel fun with the camera once I have gotten a taste of its strengths and limitations.  As such, I thought it would be a nice idea to publish this follow up as a sort of "where are they now" feature. Enjoy! 

Seagull 4A-103

It's the very camera that got me interested in film photography once again, and after a little bit of trial and error, I got it working once again.  Since discovering the portability and fun of the folding cameras, I've used the Seagull less, but it is still a wonderful camera to use, though often maligned by "serious" photographers. Ironically, it is the medium format camera I've had the longest, and yet it is the newest in my collection, as every other 120 camera I own was somewhere in the world on the day I was born.  Below is a Provia 100F image taken with the Seagull.  I had to secure the camera on the rear of my car, causing the light bleed in the lower corner. 

An X-Pro Project - Four Experiments in One

"So, um, how do you like that restaurant down the street?"

"I don't care for it?"

"Really?!? How many times have you been there?"

"I never have."

"Um.... Alrighty then!"

Such could very well be akin to the narrative defining my feelings on cross processing of slide film using C-41 chemistry.  I'd never tried it, and never really intended to do so either, as the idea seemed little "hipster gimmicky" to me, and I'd considered myself a photographic purist. In an almost defiant move to the notion of the idea, I'd even happily developed two rolls of Agfa Crossbird, a film that readily promotes use as a cross processing medium, in conventional E-6 chemistry.

In early April, while reading one of my favorite photo blogs, the Casual Photophile, I happened upon a post detailing the basics of X-Pro. In short, by the time I finished reading the article, the engaging Photophile managed to break it all down to the point where the idea of shooting a roll of film and then cross processing it actually sounded like FUN.  That is, after all, a big part of why I like to shoot film.  After posting my comments on the excellent article, he encouraged me to give it a try, hence the post that you are reading now.  

I had a few rolls of recently expired Velvia 100F 120 slide film lying about whose color rendition (when processed in E6) about which I wasn't exactly over the moon, so this seemed the obvious choice for a film medium.  I also certainly had a few dormant medium format cameras sitting about waiting for their next assignment.  I elected to choose the most "Lo-Fi" of them all, the humble Agfa Billy Record I, one of the very first folding cameras that I ever picked up.  With a slow and modest f/6.3 lens and only 3 shutter speeds, it seemed to be the ideal conduit for this part of the experiment.

Since this was a project centered on experimentation, it seemed like this would be a nice opportunity to broaden my experimental horizons in the process.  Since my Olympus PEN E-PM2 offered a "Cross Process" creative filter, I figured I would shoot comparable images on it using this mode to compare to the film results.  Finally, since I was going "Lo-Fi" with my look on the analog side, it seemed only natural to use an adapted manual focus lens on the digital body instead of an AF lens.  To closely match the composition of the focal length of the film shots, my most suitable choice was the widest of these in my possession, a 24mm f/2.8 Promaster lens that I've rarely used.  

Therefore, this one experiment actually wound up consisting of four experiments rolled into one! 

1. Cross Processing Slide film, which I've never done before.
2. Using the previously unused Cross Processing filter on my Olympus Pen.
3. Shooting with the under-utilized Agfa Billy 
4. Shooting with the under-utilized Pro Master 24mm lens.  

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A Camera named Billy

There is a very strong likelihood that at some point, someone took a picture of a streetcar named "Desire" with a camera named "Billy."

And while the now-discontinued New Orleans Desire streetcar line is pretty much well known as a result of the famous Tennessee Williams play, Billy has fallen into relative obscurity.

And yes, there really is a camera named Billy, and he comes in many variations.

I myself learned about Billy through some very roundabout means, starting with a Saturday afternoon browsing a store named Pink Cabbage in Ellicott City.  Here, I spotted a folding Kodak rollfilm camera in very good condition with a working shutter for the modest price of $34.  I was instantly intrigued, but upon opening it, discovered it took 616 film.  I did a few hasty Google searches to see how 120 film could be repurposed in a 616 camera, but the results seemed to be more trouble than it was worth.