Film Fun Folio #18 - Balda Pontina and Provia 100F

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 #18:

Camera: ca. 1951 Unbadged Franka Solida with Schneider 75mm f/2.9 lens.

Film: Fuji Velvia 100F

Locale: Central Maryland.

There have been times when I thought that this camera and my Zeiss Ikonta 521 were the only 6x9 folders that I would ever need, but some light leaks in recent rolls cast some concerns about my beloved Balda Pontina's ability to be completely trusted to deliver a competent image free of defects.  The summer was spent with the Balda sitting with a roll of Provia loaded, but unused.  Finally, with Fall upon me, and some time to explore, the loaded Balda got the call for 8 more images to see what I could muster from it.  I did a nice range of images, including some landscapes in bright light and some time exposures taken in the wee hours of the morning.  

1 - Thurmont, MD - f/5.6, 1/50 - Nice pictoral representation of colors, but a light leak is again evident in this shot.

Film Fun Folio #17 - Zeiss Ikonta 521 and Provia 100F

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 #17:

Camera: ca. 1946 Unbadged Franka Solida with Schneider 75mm f/2.9 lens.

Film: Fuji Provia 100F

Locale: Frederick County, Maryland.

Very few of my 6x9 folders lack some sort of issue.  Some are just less than stellar performers, while others have an issue or two that make completely care free operation an impossibility.  The Zeiss 521 along with the Agfa Billy Record are in fact the only two 6x9s that I have which function just as they should, and of these, the Zeiss is the far more capable of the two.  Given this, you would think that the 521 would constantly have an active roll of film going through it, but in fact, it had been sitting idle and empty since March for little good reason.  

Finally, with Fall in bloom, I rekindled my affection for this reliable and venerable folder by feeding it a roll of Provia, to see what would result in my rambles through Frederick County, Maryland.  Enjoy!                                                       

1 - Lewistown, MD - f/11, 1/100 - I made the error of not really checking out the shutter a few times before loading film into the Ikonta, and when I shot this image, I heard a bit of drag.  I thought I had overexposed it, but it wasn't so bad.  Since I shot the image again, I didn't bother cleaning up the dust after the scan.

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 #6: Rodenstock Citonette and Provia 100F

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 #6:
Camera: ca. 1936 Rodenstock Citonette 645 120 folding camera
Film: Fuji Provia 100
Locale: Oregon

I don't usually feel I have a good idea of a camera's worthiness until I have shot a roll of color slide film through its chambers.  After all, reversal film (as it is also called) leaves little margin for exposure error in the way that Color Negative and even Black and White films do. Every film camera that I've shot has seen at least one roll of slide film come its way while in my possession. Except the Rodenstock/Welta.  Since acquiring this camera from a sale on Analog Photography Users Group, I had started it off with a roll of Ektar 100, followed by Ilford and Fomapan offerings in Black and White.  With a westward trip on the horizon and a desire to get as many images as possible, it was the perfect time to finally give this camera a chance to show what it could really do when given a film that allows little room for error.  

1 - Portland, OR - f/8 1/50 - My first color transparency shot with this mid-1930's folder looks pretty flippin' awesome! The Twin Coach parcel truck interestingly dates from the same era as the camera! 

Deja Vu: A Prewar Photographic Pair of Balda Folders

They say fortune comes in three's, but it seems to really come in two's for me, at least photographically.

This trend started in February when I got an Olympus PEN E-PL2 off of Craigslist, and not too long afterwards realized that the the Line Art mode offered on the E-PM2 would be much easier for the focusing of old adapted manual focus adapted lenses, so I took the hit to add a companion.  As I've gotten into film however, this has gotten much worse, as my reactivation of my Seagull 4A-103 prompted me to add a second TLR to my repository with the Yashica 12.  When I first got into folding cameras, I bid on two different Agfa Billy cameras, and wound up winning both.  And when I snagged a good deal on a Zeiss Ikonta 521/2, I couldn't help but to be tempted to pick up an attractively priced 645 version as well just days later.  Yikes. 

And that was supposed to be it, as I now had at my disposal a collection of medium format film cameras that could shoot 6x9, 6x6, and 6x4.5.  I had both folders and TLR's, cameras that had coated lenses and non, cameras with triplets lenses and sharper 4 element lenses opening up as far as f/3.5, as well as cameras capable of shutter speeds as short as 1/500 of a second.  I now had six film cameras that I could load simultaneously with films ranging from slow to fast, color and black and white, and both positive and negative films.  I really had no reason in the world to be looking about.

And then I was bitten with a little bit of capriciousness.

Still, ever eager to learn more about the cameras made decades ago, and using the dangerous tool of ebay as my learning tool, I spotted a terribly attractive deal.  Unlike my last two Zeiss acquisitions, whose "Ikonta" names sound surprisingly "attractive" for German, this camera sported a name that was not nearly as appealing: "The Balda Hapo 10."

Ikonography: The World of Zeiss Folders

After decades of shooting with cameras like Minolta and Canon, I have finally taken some photos with a certain well regarded camera whose name ends in "ikon" and thus far, it has been a really wonderful experience.

From the shooting ergonomics to the actual looks of the camera, I am definitely liking this new acquisition of mine.  Have a look!

Okay, maybe you were thinking of a different camera line with a name ending in "ikon." While I certainly have not a thing against the certain highly regarded manufacturer of 35mm and digital cameras, my esoteric tastes as of late have been to that of medium format film, and of the durable beasts of decades past that are still very capable in capturing images on that film stock.  And this is definitely one of them.

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.  

Return to Film: The Perfect *12*

They say "Looks aren't everything" but one has to admit that they're a start.

Photographers can often tend to admire beauty, given that a photographer works strictly in a visual medium.  This thought is hardly universal in that many have the more logical thought of placing form over function, and some of the most productive of professional photographers work with rigs that are weather beaten and anything but aesthetic.

While I hardly consider myself a "photographer," I've generally tended to favor photographic devices that were easy to use while giving good results, allowing a sufficient level of control that was easy to access and utilize.  I'd rarely considered the elegance of the overall device to be a factor in my decisions about equipment. 

Fresh from my frustrations from my first round of disappointments from the reactivation of my old Seagull camera, and prior to my ability to remedy that problem, I started looking at alternatives that included picking up a "new" TLR.  I was hardly ready to outlay the money for a Rollei or Mayima, and had read good things about older models made by Ricoh, Minolta, and Yashica.  

Ricoh cameras were not too readily found, while Minolta Autocord cameras had a pretty established following that led to them fetching prices in the $200-300 range on auction, a bit more than I really wanted to pay for a hobbyist camera.  Yashica cameras were pretty plentiful, but came in a very wide range of models over the decades, and took some time to figure out.  There was the "A," the "D," the "Yashicamat," the "44," the "635," and a number of variations of the "124."  Looking at auction results for "Yashica TLR," it was nearly impossible to tell what the distinguishing aspects of these particular cameras were.

And then I spotted it, the prettiest of all the Yashica TLR's, sporting the most simple of model numbers: 12!