Mastodawn

The #FrugalFilmProject, September 2025: The One Where We Tried To Expose Both Sides (Again)

This post has been sitting in my draft folder since the middle of September, and I’ve just realised that I haven’t posted it, and it’s now October. Oops! I had actually submitted one of the images for the World Wide Half Frame Photography Day, and I guess that with all that was going on, this post just slipped through the cracks. A couple of months ago on the Frugal Film Project, I tried something different: EBS photography, or Expose Both Sides. This is exactly what it sounds like, first exposing a film normally in the camera — with the emulsion side facing the subject — and then reversing the film, reloading it back into the camera, and exposing the whole film again — this time with the emulsion side facing away from the subject.

https://flic.kr/p/2rhpwgd

It didn’t go well. Even though I marked the film carefully, somehow I managed to get the alignment completely wrong, so the frames on each side of the film were not lined up. In fact they were almost precisely 50% off, so there was a big band down the centre of the ‘normal’ exposure which was the ‘between frames’ unexposed part of the film of the redscaled exposure. However, this made me all the more determined, and I really wanted to try the technique again. I read somewhere that it’s better to expose the redscaled side first, and then to expose normally for the second exposure. So this time I decanted some Harman Red film into a Rapid canister and loaded this into the Golden Wonder. The pre-production Harman Red I have is actually Harman Phoenix spooled backwards. In fact, within the sprockets it even says Harman Phoenix, so I feel this certainly counts towards the Frugal Film Project.

https://flic.kr/p/2rsYQqN

As before, I marked the position of the film gate, and this time, since I reckon this was one of the reasons the film didn’t line up the first time, I also marked the position on the film of the little tabs that engage the sprockets and push the film into the empty canister. My subject was street art, so with the redscale side I took a close-up of a series of pieces of street art around Aveiro. Once the film was finished, I decanted this into another Rapid canister, with the emulsion side facing the subject, and lined up the film with the markings on the other side (remembering to make sure that the position of the little tabs matched, too). I then retraced my route, taking photographs of the same pieces of street art, but this time at a distance.

https://flic.kr/p/2rt5pYA

When taking the photos for the second series of exposures I held the camera upside down so that the orientation of the images on both sides would be in the same direction, although I did forget this a couple of times. On completion, the film was taken to Forever Blue in Aveiro and scanned at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. This time, the frames on both sides were almost perfectly lined up, which was excellent. Unfortunately, both the ‘redscaled’ exposure and regular exposures were well overexposed. I had tried to underexpose the exposures on each side by 1-stop, but clearly it didn’t work, and I’m thinking that Harman Phoenix, with a box speed of ISO 200, is just too fast for EBS with the Welta Penti II half-frame Rapid camera.

https://flic.kr/p/2rsYQqN

After my initial disappointment with the images, I wasn’t sure what I got, and I was confused and a little deflated with the results, on repeating viewings I became a little happier with what I had achieved. The images took on a really ‘painterly’ effect, almost not a photograph at all, and I really liked that. The colours were all over the place, I wasn’t sure if that was because of the scanning or what, but the overall effect was pleasing. I’m going to try it again, but this time with a slower film, and perhaps not trying to overlap with the same pieces of street art each time.I’ve posted the whole roll in an album (https://www.flickr.com/gp/147583812@N06/QBYW5KMxg8) on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.

https://flic.kr/p/2rsYQp5

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

#AgfaRapid #Art #FrugalFilmProject #Graffiti #HalfFrame #HarmanPhoenix #Mural #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Streetart #Welta #EBS #ExposeBothSides #URBAN #WWHFPD25

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Sep 14

The #FrugalFilmProject, August 2025: The One Where We Took The Golden Wonder On Holiday

We generally spend the month of August on holiday down in Meco, which means that most of the time I don’t have my Frugal Film camera with me. This usually meansI either I miss a month, or find myself rushing around to grab something in the last couple of days after we get back. This year, though, I have the Golden Wonder, and that little beastie is small enough to carry around in a pocket. So I decanted Harman Phoenix into a couple of Rapid canisters and took it with me.

https://flic.kr/p/2rs86bu

What I especially wanted to try this month was diptychs and triptychs, two or more half-frame images presented alongside each other. First of all, I took the Golden Wonder loaded with a canister of redscaled Harman Phoenix into the woods between the village of Meco and the Praia Ria da Prata. These are the pine woods that we have to walk through to get to the beach, and I’ve taken a lot of images of these trees over the years.

https://flic.kr/p/2rscu7a

The afternoon sun falls sideways on the trees, and it’s perfect for redscale. This time I was focusing on isolated trees, and I tried to fill each side of the diptych with one tree. I also found a few telegraph and electricity poles, so of course I had to get a few diptychs of these, too. On the whole, it was a fun exercise, and it got me outside on a day that it was too windy to go on the beach.

https://flic.kr/p/2rscu5X

The second canister was filled with ‘normal’ Harman Phoenix (the roll was not reversed, as for redscale), but this time the results were less satisfactory. I still got some nice results, especially from the tripych and the sunsets, but some of the images were really disappointing. For some reason, with the Golden Wonder I always get better results with redscaled Phoenix. I’ve posted the both rolls in albums on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. You can find the normally exposed Phoenix here, and the redscaled version, here.

https://flic.kr/p/2rscu3h

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #Diptych #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Triptych #Welta

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Jul 19

The #FrugalFilmProject, July 2025: The One Where We Tried To Expose Both Sides

This month I thought it would be fun to try something different with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera). EBS photography, or Expose Both Sides, is exactly what it sounds like. First exposing a film normally in the camera — with the emulsion side facing the subject — but then reversing the film, reloading that into the camera, and exposing the whole film again — this time with the emulsion side facing away from the subject.

There are a few factors that need to be borne in mind when conducting EBS photography, like slightly underexposing each side so that the multiple exposures balance out to give a ‘properly exposed’ film, and deciding whether its important to you if the frames on each side are lined up or not. I loaded the Golden Wonder with a canister of Harman Phoenix, but this time I inserted a little bit of film into the take-up canister and marked the position of the film gate on the film. By doing this I hoped that I could line up the frames when I exposed the other side of the film. I reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to ‘1’.

We took the camera to Barra, where I took photographs around the beach, and later finished the roll in Oliveira do Bairro. When metering the exposures I tried to underexpose the film slightly by taking each image 1-stop under the suggested reading from the Camera Meter app. Once the film was exposed, it was time to turn it over and reload it back into the Golden Wonder. Inside the dark bag I fed the previously exposed film into another Rapid canister, but this time I fed it backwards, as if for redscaling, with the emulsion side facing outwards.

Once loaded into the canister, I pulled a bit of film out of the canister until I could see the gate markings that I made for the first exposure. I marked the emulsion side of the film with the markings in the same position and loaded the canisters into the camera so the film was in the same position. I then reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to number ‘1’. By doing this, I hoped that the frames on each side were lined up.

I took the Golden Wonder on a walk around Águas Boas, a nearby village, and photographed walls, trees and various textures. When taking the photos I held the camera upside down so that the orientation of the images on the both sides would be in the same direction. On completion, the film was taken to Forever Blue in Aveiro and scanned at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.

On return from the lab, looking at the negatives one thing was immediately apparent: the frames weren’t lined up. In fact they were almost precisely 50% off, so there was a big band down the centre of the first exposure which was the ‘between frames’ unexposed part of the film of the second exposure. Also, the ‘redscaled’ second exposure was well overexposed compared to the first exposure, so most of the details of the first exposure were completely lost. I had tried to underexpose the second exposure by going 1-stop unter the exposure, but clearly it didn’t work.

https://flic.kr/p/2rhpwgd

https://flic.kr/p/2rhonBE

A couple of the images came out really well, and I was pleased there was some success, but most of them were an unintelligible mess. At the end of the roll, there were a few more redscale images, and these came out really well. I’m definitely going to try some EBS with Rapid films again, though, but next time I might use a different camera to the Golden Wonder. Still, it’s now challenging me to get the frames lined up.

https://flic.kr/p/2rhpwk1

https://flic.kr/p/2rhj79p

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #EBS #ExposeBothSides #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Jun 27

The #FrugalFilmProject, June 2025: Oh, I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (Part II)

After last month’s mixed results from the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera), I loaded the it with a canister of Harman Phoenix and we went to Costa Nova. It was the perfect opportunity to have a fabulous lunch at the Marisqueira Costa Nove, and to play tourist with the unique buildings that form the ‘seafront’ along the estuary of the river in Costa Nova.

https://flic.kr/p/2rbGjXX

The typical buildings here, some over 100 years old, are painted with different coloured stripes on a white background. But there are plenty of other styles of building in the ‘terrace’ that forms the row of houses. Some typically art deco, some which look like from the 1950s, and some of quite indeterminate ages

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHW7g

Nowadays, the modern buildings in Costa Nova are covered in tiles marking the stripes, but these are kept away from the original row of houses and I believe planning permission or renovation needs to follow strict rules. This makes the houses quite expensive, and if you’re looking for one of these houses you need deep pockets.

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHWcr

As I had not completed the film, I used the rest of the frames on a trip to Barra. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 100, because on a test with the Pentacon Electra 2 I got some really nice results with Harman Phoenix at ISO 100. This wasn’t too successful, though, the images were still a dullish brown and with quite high contrast.

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHmxb

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Jun 12

The #FrugalFilmProject, May 2025: WTF?

I’ve been a bit tardy with posting my May entry for the Frugal Film Project. The weather in our region was unpredictable for the best part of the month, and the forecast was unsettled. But the last week of May the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and we had a few days of really nice weather.

https://flic.kr/p/2r93rbo

This also coincided with a need for a trip to Coimbra, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera) along with me. I loaded the Penti II with a fresh canister of Harman Phoenix, and we took it through the back streets of the old town of Coimbra, and also down the main street. At the end of the trip I still had a few frames left, so a few days later I took the Golden Wonder on a trip around Costa Nova and Vagueira.

https://flic.kr/p/2r8WPbb

As usual, to measure the exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. I dropped the film off at the lab a few days later, and within a couple of hours the images dropped into my inbox. I opened them for a first look. WTF? What. The. Actual. F? The subjects came out great, I’ll say that for the Golden Wonder, what you point it at, the cameras sees perfectly, but the light leaks? I do love my light leaks, I always think that they give character to the images, but in this case it was a bit much.

https://flic.kr/p/2r8WPae

I originally thought that the lab might have scanned the roll with the wrong colour profile, and asked them about it. In reply the lab sent a snap of the film with the comment that it was ‘burned’, and looking at the film I was amazed that they got anything from it at all! Further along the roll the images looked like the film had light leaks, but the first few frames were almost solarised.

https://flic.kr/p/2r92hYB

For those not aware, solarisation is where the exposed film is exposed to light so that certain tones are reversed. It is also referred to as the Sabbatier Effect (although this is a slightly different phenomenon). Often the edges of objects on film show the most pronounced effect, and this can clearly be seen on some of the early images from Coimbra. The later images, near the tail end of the film, show more normal looking light leaks.

https://flic.kr/p/2r93YGb

I was a little frustrated with the results, it’s not often that we go to Coimbra, but on reflection I really like how some of these came out. I’m sure I’ll never be able to produce this effect again, of course. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.

https://flic.kr/p/2r93YF9

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #HarmanPhoenix #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Apr 27

The #FrugalFilmProject, April 2025: A Morning Out in Aveiro

This month with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera) we had a morning in Aveiro. The actual plan was to test out a new (to me) Horizon 202 panoramic camera, but of course I had to bring along with me the Golden Wonder and a roll of Harman Phoenix. No redscaling this month, just a leisurely walk around the city.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZo6je

I was dropped off near the hospital in Aveiro, which is close to my favourite footbridge, the wonderful metal structure in the Parque Infante Dom Pedro. I sat on a bench near the footbridge and loaded the Golden Wonder with a fresh canister of film. Actually, I was lucky. On the spur of the moment, when selecting the canister of film from my little box I had added an empty canister to the camera bag ‘just in case’. That was a good idea, as when I opened the back of the Penti II it was empty!

https://flic.kr/p/2qZoTQ6

I loaded the fresh canister, and the empty canister, into the Penti II and closed it up. As an aside, the Golden Wonder is really tough to open and close. I’m not sure if the back plate is becoming twisted. I hope that it lasts the year. I took a walk around the bridge and photographed it from various angles, Also in the park is the bandstand that is a regular fixture of my walks around Aveiro and for the first time I went to the water tower to one side of the park.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZn52D

From the Parque I took a walk down to the canals near the centre of Aveiro, and then down to the Yacht Club. From there I walked to the circular footbridge, known in Aveiro as the Ponte do Laço, before heading for the railway station and the journey home. On the way I finished off the film in the Horizon 202, before unloading the camera and dropping the film at the lab. I still had a few frames left in the Golden Wonder, though, so I brought the camera home and used the last few frames in a walk around the nearby village of Águas Boas.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZo6na

For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 125. I normally rate Harman Phoenix at ISO 160, but this time I used 125 as it is the box speed of Harman Red, which I had loaded into the Horizon 202, and I was feeding a little lazy with the metering. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZorhQ

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

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Flickr

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Mar 30

The #FrugalFilmProject, March 2025: Some Redscale Around Oliveira do Bairro

This month with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera), we’ve something a little different. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed doing is making my own redscale film. If you’re unfamiliar, with redscale photography instead of taking photographs with the emulsion side of the film facing the subject, the film is reversed in the camera so that the image is taken through the backing layer.

Colour film is made up of three layers, each light-sensitive to a particular wavelength of colour: red, green and blue. The red layer is usually exposed to light after the blue and green layers, but with redscale film, where the light passes backwards through the film, what this means is that before it reaches the sensitive emulsion layers, light passes through the support layer and the red-sensitive layer first, leading to images with a strong red cast.

I had already prepared some Rapid canisters with Harman Phoenix for redscale exposure, which is simply feeding the film backwards into the canister (in a dark bag, of course). For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at 50. For a change, just lately, the skies cleared and the sun came out, and I had a great couple of hours wandering around Oliveira. The only thing I did find, though, was that the film was a short offcut from the end of a roll of Harman Phoenix, so there was only about 8 exposures on the roll.

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Feb 21

The #FrugalFilmProject, February 2025: Oh, I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

I’m getting more familiar with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera), so this month, when we went to Vagueira for lunch, it was the perfect opportunity to try some half-frame Rapid film on my favourite buildings. I already have some Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix, and I’m getting much better at loading the Golden Wonder, so before lunch was the perfect opportunity for a walk around the sea front. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. This day was a bit overcast, though. The weather has not been good for those lovely high contrast images and blue skies that just ‘pop’, but I wanted to see how Phoenix behaved on a dull day.

Before heading for the sea front I wandered around the market square, taking photos of the stunted wind-blown trees and the famous (in the local area, anyhow) sculpture of the sardine on a fork. I should add that as before, the crappy 35mm cassettes I use to transfer the Rapid films to before taking to the lab have horrible light leaks. Mind you, I do find these appealing.

I wandered along the sea front then walked back to the restaurant around the ‘block’ (like many US towns and cities, Vagueira is made up of square blocks of buildings). At tge corner of one empty block was a wonderful little metal kiosk. Long abandoned, the rusty white kiosk probably sold ice cream, or the popular Portuguese fried delicacy of Tripas. The front and back windows were covered by venetian blinds, so old they were sagging. There were still a few frames left on the roll, so I used the rest of the frames up around Aveiro.

I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. Next month will be more of the same, but hopefully I’m going to try some half-frame redscale with Harman Phoenix.

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

Frugal Film Project, February 2025

Explore this photo album by Keith Devereux on Flickr!

Flickr

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Jan 19

The #FrugalFilmProject: Out in Aveiro with the Golden Wonder

A couple of weeks ago I introduced my camera and film choice for the Frugal Film Project, the Golden Wonder, a.k.a the Welta Penti II, and Harman Phoenix 35mm film. Last weekend I managed to decant several strips of Phoenix into Rapid canisters, and so it was time to load a canister into the Golden Wonder and make a trip to Aveiro.

It was the first time loading the Welta Penti II, and definitely the first time using Rapid canisters, so I was a little apprehensive. What I did was to insert a little bit of film into an empty Rapid canister so the empty and full canisters were joined by a thin strip of film. I then loaded these into the back of the Penti II (making sure the little wind-on tab poked through the sprockets) and gently pushed the plunger to make sure everything was engaged.

Of course, at this point I realised that I had the canisters in backwards. The empty canister should be in the right side, where the little tab is, and the full canister on the left. I flipped them around, closed the metal pressure plate, and remembered to dial the frame counter back to zero. Then I closed the back, fired off two blank shots to push the film leader into the empty canister, and I was good to go.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67ur

Out in Aveiro I wandered around some of my favourite haunts snapping away as I went. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. I had used this rating previously with the Lomo Smena 8M, and it gave lovely high contrast colour photographs with a vivid blue sky, and on this cloudless day I hoped the sky would ‘pop’.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PZm

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PYK

The Golden Wonder is a great little camera. It makes a subtle ‘click’ as you fire the shutter and a solid ‘clunk’ as the plunger is ejected ready to wind on the film. I only took about half of the roll in Aveiro, so to finish the film I took a walk in the woods behind our house to document the new electricity poles that gave been erected.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG66vM

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67ss

Actually, to say ‘woods’ is incorrect now. Swathes of the majestic trees that once formed the woods have been cut down to make way for the new pylons, and the lane that once threaded through the woodland is now a forlorn tarmac strip that winds across a desolate landscape. Even the electricity poles are bright, and new, and quite soulless. It’ll be a while before I feel happy in these woods again.

When I originally decanted the Harman Phoenix film into the Rapid canisters I added a few cm extra film for the film leader. However, it turns out that the 60cm length of Rapid film might actually include the film leader. When I was wandering around the woods, I noticed that the film counter had reached 24 exposures and I still got a few more frames from the camera. Next time I will stick firmly to the 60cm length, and see what happens.

https://flic.kr/p/2qFZjwc

Rather than taking the Rapid canister to the lab, which are quite expensive, I have a collection of reusable 35mm cassettes, so it was quite easy to transfer the film from the Rapid canister to a 35mm cassette (in a dark bag, of course). When the images came back from the lab there were light leaks on some frames but not others. I reckon this was from the poor like seals on the reusable cassettes.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PUS

Most of the images were great. I managed to nail the focus, always the thing I fear most, and the colours of Harman Phoenix just popped. It is a high contrast film, though, and sometimes I didn’t account for the contrasty conditions when taking the photos. I’m thinking here of the boats on the canal especially.

https://flic.kr/p/2qFZjtb

Also, the emulsion can give a reddish brown cast, and where the original image was reddish brown the whole image becomes just one confused mess. I’m thinking here of the photo of the trunks in the demolished woodland. But if I start thinking about the subject and the shadows, I might get better results from this fabulous colour film. Actually, next time I might try exposing it at box speed (ISO 200) on a dull or cloudy days. There’s certainly a lot of them just lately.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67g5

I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. I had great fun with the Golden Wonder, and playing with Rapid canisters was a wise choice. Next month will be more of the same, hopefully by the seaside, but in March I’m going to try some half-frame redscale with Harman Phoenix.

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

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Flickr

/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/Jan 9

#FrugalFilmProject, an introduction to the Golden Wonder: The Welta Penti II half frame camera

After a week or so fiddling with the Welta Penti II I’ve selected it as this year’s camera for the Frugal Film Project. I’m going to experiment with half-frame. Not just any half-frame, of course, but half-frame with Rapid cassettes. It’s an odd little camera, and not a purchase I’d originally planned to make. On the Kamerastore website I came across a Lomography 75mm glass lens for the Diana F+, which I had been after for a while but was always too stingy to order from Lomography.

To make the shipping cost more palatable I took a look at the ‘Not Passed’ items, and right near the top was this little golden beauty. Intrigued, I clicked on the entry and discovered that it was a Penti II, a half-frame camera introduced by Welta in the 1960s. Although it uses 35mm film, the Penti II uses Agfa Karat rapid film canisters. Well, that was enough for me, and I pressed ‘Buy’ straight away. Of course, being in the ‘Not Passed’ category it has, ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, in this case, ‘fungus inside the lens and viewfinder [and] the exposure meter does not work.’ I wasn’t too worried about the exposure meter, this is also a manual camera, though the 3-element lens might be a challenge to get into and clean.

When it arrived it was really ‘love at first sight’, the Penti II is just so cute. This is an all metal camera, and it shows. From its gold stippled facade and lens to the black trim, it’s all metal, cold to the touch and heavy. When you’re used to lightweight plastic cameras, to turn the Penti II over in your hands is an experience. It also has a really unique method of winding on the film. Sticking out of the side of the camera is a metal rod (gold, of course). When you push the shutter button the metal rod pops out, and when you push the rod back in this winds on the film and cocks the shutter. The only thing to remember is to hold the camera in a way that when you fire the shutter the rod doesn’t hit your hand.

The Welta Penti II was a successor to the Welta Penti launched in the late 1950s. It is a 35mm half-frame camera that uses Rapid film cassettes, not normal 35mm cassettes. Released in the early 1960s until about 1967, the Penti II featured selenium cell metering and was equipped with a Meyer-Optik 30mm f3.5 Domiplan lens. With apertures between f3.5 and f22, and shutter speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, and 1/125s, the user would dial in the combination of aperture and shutter speed that would move a mark visible in the viewfinder. When the settings mark matched the position of the selenium cell mark your exposure was correct. Of course, the selenium cell in my Penti II doesn’t work, but fortunately I can use the camera manually with a meter.

On the top of the camera is the film counter, which needs to be dialled in manually when loading the film, and a cold shoe which holds the flash. On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw. And that’s it. There are no wind-on or rewind knobs, just the metal ‘plunger’ protruding from the side, because when the film is wound on it’s just fed from the full Rapid cassette to the empty one by the action of pushing the plunger, which also cocks the shutter for the next exposure.

Normally, Agfa Rapid film came in 12 exposure cassettes, which means that a typical Rapid cassette would give 24 half-frame images in the Welta Penti II. Originally VEB, the manufacturer of the Penti II, made Agfa Rapid cassettes, so it was natural, when producing their own cameras, to use the Rapid system, which they called the ‘Schnelladekassette’, Speed Loading, or SL cassette. Nowadays these cassettes are no longer available, although you can pick up expired films and empty Rapid cassettes from eBay or vintage camera retailers. Expect to pay a premium, though.

I managed to source some dirt cheap Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras from Kamerastore (we’re talking 8€ here), and fortunately between them these contained four cassettes, so I’m up and running. Filling a Rapid cassette from a roll of 35mm film is quite straightforward, though of course you’ll need a darkroom or a dark bag. A 12-exposure roll of film is about 60cm long, so I place a 30cm ruler in the dark bag and cut the end from a roll of film to make it fit into the slit of the Rapid cassette. I’ll slide the end of the film into the Rapid cassette, then in the dark bag use the ruler to pull a length of 30 cm of film from the 35mm cassette and feed this into the Rapid cassette. Once the first 30cm is inserted, I’ll repeat the process then add a few more cm and snip the film. Back in the daylight I’ll cut the end of the film in the Rapid cassette so that it’ll slide nicely into the empty cassette in the camera.

To load the film in the Penti II, I take the empty cassette and slide a bit of film from the full cassette into it. Just a little bit, one cm or so. Then I’ll insert the cassettes into the back of the camera and make sure that the sprockets are catching on the wind-on tab before closing the pressure plate. Oh, before you close the back remember to reset the frame counter to 0 using the little knurled knob. Then close up the camera, wind on the film until the counter reads ‘1’ by pushing the plunger and firing the shutter a couple of times, and you’re good to go.

The weather is a little unsettled at the moment, with heavy wind and rain much of the time. But next week promises to be better, so hopefully I’ll be able to get out with the Golden Wonder and put it through its paces.

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