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Check out these pictures that took like 60 years to get developed. A house, a cat, and a car...

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Using 120 film in 100-year-old folding cameras

I’ve had a number of vintage Kodak folding cameras for a while now, and back in November I added another that I’ve been after for a long time, the massive Kodak 3-A Folding Pocket camera, to the collection. (It still tickles me how a giant heavy camera like the 3-A could ever be considered as a ‘pocket’ camera.)

Soon after receiving the 3-A I finally got my act together and ordered some adapters from camerhack.it so that I could use 120 film with these cameras, since hunting down rolls of 122 or 116 film would be fruitless or expensive (or both). I have three vintage cameras that I would like to use with 120 film, the Kodak 1-A Autographic Jr, which takes 116 film, the Kodak 3-A Folding Pocket camera, which takes 122 film, and a roll film back for the KW Patent Etui, which takes 118 film.

I ordered the three sizes of adapter from camerhack.it and they arrived last week. So this past weekend I’ve had great fun preparing the cameras to use with 120 film. The first thing I needed to do with each folding camera was make a mask to cover the film gate so the films don’t curl. I’ve been studying various options and the best one seems to be to make a rectangular mask that fits over the whole of the film gate.

I measured the dimensions of the film gate and calculated the width of the space needed to overlap the edges of the 120 film by about 5mm each side. To get the dimensions right I used the paper backing from a roll of 120 film. This was probably a little too much, but I wanted to make certain that the film would run smoothly through the camera and be supported all around. The material was thin plastic from a cheap envelope, but quite sturdy. To minimise the chances of the plastic scratching the film I sanded the edges of the frame with sandpaper. I hope this will be enough. 

I checked the fit of the mask and glued it into place in the back of each camera (there’s no going back now). I also added a thin wedge of magic sponge to the space under the wind-on spool, which I hope will ensure there are no ‘fat’ rolls and the 120 film will wrap tightly around the take-up spool. This is a lesson I learned from using the Agfa Clack on the Frugal Film Project a couple of years ago. 

The final step was to calculate the number of turns I need to wind on the film to get nicely separated frames. I know that I’ll get about five frames from the 1-A, and four from the 3-A, but how many turns of the wind-on knob will I need with my cameras? Camerhack.it have a nice guide on their website for each of the adapters, but for my cameras it was a little bit off, so here is what I found. Bear in mind that this was with just the paper roll, no film included so these might be in error, but this is what I will try with the first roll, which will be purely experimental anyway.

After checking the two cameras I turned to the 118 film back. This doesn’t actually need a mask installed, it is fitted with a dark slide, but of course I need to check the number of turns. The 120 roll with adapters fitted snugly in the film back and I wound on the film until I could see the ‘start’ line in the window. I then started turning and marking the paper where I thought each frame would be. I reckon that I’ll get about seven frames out of a single roll of 120 film, but I think this is an overestimate. The first roll will certainly be interesting. 

The weather forecast for the next few days is unsettled, with rain and winds forecast, but next week hopefully I’ll be able to take these cameras out on a test run. I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the results. 

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.

#116Film #118Film #122Film #Adapters #Autographic #Bellows #Camera #CamerHack #Experimental #Film #FrugalFilmProject #Kodak #Retro #Shittycamerachallenge #Vintage

Just lately I’ve become fascinated by really vintage folding cameras, by which I mean cameras from the 1920s, if not earlier. My first entry into the world of folding cameras was my Frankencamera, a broken Ihagee Viktor V that I combined with a 1980s Polaroid back to use with Instax Wide film.

While this was successful, it was still frustrating that I could only load one Instax Wide film at a time, so when I came across a cheap unbranded 1920s generic 9×12 folding camera I took the plunge into the waters of film holders and Instax Wide film. The generic folding camera has been a great experience, but I needed to do some restoration of this camera, including cleaning the lenses. This was really satisfactory, so when I came across a cheap Kodak 1A Autographic Jr folding camera I could not resist it.

Like many (practically all) of the cameras I get from the Kamerastore these are in the ‘Not Passed’ category,  which means that they are, ‘Untested or tested, inspected, and found to have flaws that will affect typical use.’ The faults are often well described and may include faulty shutters, bellows with holes in or just be very dirty, all of which my first Kodak 1A Autographic Jr possessed. It also lacked the little stylus that was used to write on the film between each frame, which was a little disappointing. 

So when I came across another Kodak 1A Autographic Jr on the Kamerastore website I was thrilled because although this one had, ‘dust, haze, and fungus inside the lens … some wear and corrosion on the shutter blades [and] a lot of haze in the viewfinder’, it also had the stylus. Well, of course, how could I resist? The shutter speeds of the camera were also at fault, the ‘1/25s is the same [speed] as 1/50s (about 16ms [or 1/60s])’. However, this was not too important to me as I always take meter readings and adjust accordingly using neutral density filters. 

Looking at this model I think it dates from around 1921—24. Made in Canada, although the ‘use Kodak film’sticker inside is in German, this is the fixed focus, single lens option, unlike my original Autographic Jr which is is much more versatile camera. A check with my little LED light suggests that the bellows are light tight and it was straightforward to remove and clean the single meniscus lens. 

The most work on restoring this camera was cleaning the viewfinder. Described on the website as having, ‘a lot of haze in the viewfinder’ it was near impossible to see through the glass, and certainly not possible to take a ‘through the viewfinder’ before picture. Taking apart the viewfinder is simple enough, and the design of these viewfinders are common across a range of Kodak and other manufacturers folding cameras. The viewfinder does contain two really tiny screws though, and it is important to keep these safe when disassembling and cleaning the glass.

After a thorough clean with alcohol, and a wipe with a microfibre cloth, the viewfinder is perfectly usable once again. This time, looking through the viewfinder gave a lovely bright image. This completed the cleaning of the camera, and the next step will be modifying the film back so that I can use 120 film in this 116 film format camera.

To confirm that the bellows are light tight I thought a little experiment with Instax Square film might be fun. The dimensions of Instax Square film are perfect to slip in along the film plane of the 116 film format Autographic Jr, so I taped over the red window with electrical tape, loaded a piece of film, and went off to photograph my favourite tree and well. 

From what I can find online, the aperture settings of the Kodak 1A Autographic Jr are roughly f11, f16, f22, and f32 for aperture settings 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. Using the smartphone app ‘meter reading’, an exposure of about f25 at 1/60s was suggested. Setting the aperture to ‘3’, I made the first exposure. In a darkbag I removed the film and loaded it into an empty cassette. In turn I loaded this into an Instax Square SP-3 printer and closed the lid. This was automatically ejected, as if it were the dark slide in a new cassette, and developed. 

The first setting, at ‘3’ was overexposed, so I made a second exposure, this time at ‘4’. This was also overexposed, though slightly less so. I realised that I should be using a neutral density filter so took a meter reading and applied a filter factor for an ND4 filter. This suggested an exposure of f25 at 1/60s, so I set the aperture to ‘3’ (f22) and with the ND4 filter made an exposure. This was still slightly overexposed, but was much better than the previous images. Incidentally, I think the light streaks were me not positioning the ND filter properly against the lens, allowing light to reflect behind the filter.

Now that I have cleaned the camera, and shown that the bellows are light tight and the camera is working properly, the next step will be modifying the film back so that I can use 120 film in this 116 film format camera.

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @[email protected]. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.

https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/2024/04/19/another-folding-camera-a-slightly-better-condition-kodak-1a-autographic-jr-12-april-2024/

#116Film #ArtDeco #Autographic #Bellows #Camera #Experimental #Film #FrugalFilmProject #Kodak #Retro #Shittycamerachallenge #Vintage

Just lately I’ve been crossing off my wish list cameras at an alarming rate. First there was an Agfa Billy-Clack, then I found a Reto 3D on sale, and most recently acquired the oldest camera on my list, the Kodak 1A Autographic Jr. Of course, there are plenty of cameras still to go, the Kodak vest camera and the Polaroid Big Shot, for example, but today I was happy to have the Kodak 1A Autographic Jr.

First launched around 1914, the Kodak 1A Autographic Jr was described in the 1915 Kodak catalogue as, ‘a compact, reliable camera … and so thin as to be pocketed without inconvenience.’ I’m not sure what kind of pockets they used to have back in the day, but the 1A Autographic Jr is a beast. Measuring 20x10x4cm and weighing about 0.8kg, it was anything but pocketable by today’s standards.

From it’s launch in 1914 to when Kodak stopped production in 1927, about 800,000 units of the Kodak 1A Autographic Jr were produced. During that time it went through several variations of frontispiece — the lens, aperture and shutter assembly — but the overall body remained the same, with its bellows, removable back and the unique ‘Autographic’ feature that gives the 1A its name.

On the back of the camera is a little flap, and if this is lifted, below you can see the film plane. The Autographic cameras were equipped with a small stylus (mine has been lost over the years) and on the back of the film was a carbon paper layer that if you wrote on with the stylus (press down heavily it says in the manual) would imprint details onto the film, generally in the space between the frames. Thus you could annotate you films with a ‘date stamp’, or description.

Regarding the films used in the cameras, the 1A Autographic uses 116 film, which of course is no longer available. First introduced by Kodak in 1899, 116 film is 70mm wide, roughly 1 cm wider than 120 film, and produces 6.5×11cm negatives. On the flap on the back of my camera is embossed, ‘use Autographic film no. A-116’, which gave the same size pictures as 116 film but instead of paper the film was wound with a sheet of carbon paper and thinner red backing paper which allowed the user to write information on the back with the stylus. The A-116 film used in the 1A Autographic camera gave twelve exposures compared to eight exposures in the 1 series.

From what I can tell, my Autographic 1A is one of the later models in the series. It is fitted with a Diomatic shutter N°0, which was introduced to the Autographic 1A in 1925, and features shutter speeds of 1/10, 1/25, 1/50 and 1/100s plus B (bulb) and T (time). When you set a shutter speed, exposure is determined by the dial on the front underneath the lens. In the 1925 description of the camera it says, ‘the correct speed … for dull, gray, clear or brilliant light is indicated by a sliding scale which controls the diaphragm.’ These criteria would have been set for Kodak orthochromatic film, which from what I can tell had a film speed of ISO 30-40. I’m hoping that modern films have enough latitude that sometime I can use this awesome little ‘exposure meter’.

When I first saw Kodak 1A Autographic Jr on the Kamerastore website it was priced at an amazing 15€ and was in the ‘Not passed’ category, which was a sure sign that there was something wrong with it. From the image on the website you could see that some of the leather was peeling, and it was described as being in ‘generally bad condition’. However, that has never put me off before, and it didn’t deter me this time.

When the camera arrived, it certainly lived up to the description on the website. The leather was badly scuffed and was peeling in several places, the red window in the back of the camera was missing, which was highlighted on the website entry, and the back was firmly jammed onto the camera, which was not mentioned, but was normal for an ‘untested, sold as-is’ camera. Solving the issue of the jammed film back was quite straightforward. A small screwdriver was inserted into a gap between the back and the camera body and gentle pressure applied. The back moved slightly, then came apart from the body. Clipping it back on, the back now fits snugly in place. While the back was off, I took a quick look inside. Of course it was quite dirty, but apart from that, and the missing red window, it was in reasonably good condition.

When the front door was opened, the bellows came out quite easily. A quick check suggested they were in pretty good condition, but when I performed the lamp test later — shining a light through the bellows from inside the camera in the dark — they were anything but light tight, with a little Christmas tree of pinholes visible in the dark. However, what was more pressing was that the shutter was sticking. On the left (looking from the back) is a cocking lever and to the right is the shutter lever. The shutter cocks fine, but when I fire the shutter it hesitates half open for a second or so before firing. I’m hoping that this sticky shutter is just some 100-year-old gunk that’s making it stick and a bit of lighter fluid will get it firing again.

I had been thinking about what camera I’d like to use in the next #ShittyCameraChallenge, which is starting in December. Originally it was probably going to be the Agfa Billy-Clack, which of course I can still use in the Challenge, but now I hoping that I can get the Kodak 1A Autographic Jr, with its sticky shutter, no red window and pinhole-filled bellows, working again. If I can get it going it’ll be awesome.

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @[email protected]. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.

https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/2023/11/19/the-kodak-1a-autographic-jr-bringing-a-nearly-100-year-old-medium-format-camera-back-to-life-17-november-2023/

#116Film #ArtDeco #Autographic #Bellows #Camera #Experimental #Film #FrugalFilmProject #Kodak #Retro #Shittycamerachallenge #Vintage