Macro Mondays: Photographic equipment
Kodak Brownie Autographic no.2 folding. This camera was in a lot at the local auction house, in a box full of other items. I had expected the bellows would be stuck and brittle. It felt as though it hadn't been opened in a long time, so a pulled the bellows out with great care and had to slide them back and forth a few times to loosen everything up. There was quite a lot of dust and dirt to remove, but everything seemed to function. So... I put a roll of 120 film in it and it is ready to have a go and yep that's a camera around 100 years old.
These machines have a clever arrangement on the back of the camera. There is a metal flap which lifts to expose the back of the film at the edge of the frame so you can write on it to show details on the developed print. A kind of very early data back. They came with a little scribe to use in a stowage, but that is missing as I suspect most are. If you are wondering why there is no glass lens visible, it is inside behind the aperture and shutter and this one looked pretty clean for it's age.
What about shooting flexibility? Well, you have 1/50th, 1/25th, Bulb and T (a second press closes the shutter again). There are no f numbers shown for the aperture settings. Just 1,2,3 and 4. There are suggested uses for the settings, but the text is so small, you may need a magnifying glass to read it well. The viewfinder is not what many would recognise. You are looking down at a small curved glass screen only about a half inch square. You can't put your eye close to it, you just see a sharp but very tiny version of the scene... you might as well guess.
If I can ever get away from work on anything other than a wet day, I am really looking forward to trying this thing. If it turns out not to be light tight, well never mind, it'll still be fun.
The scene is under 2 inches across. HMM.
Macro Mondays: Photographic equipment
Kodak Brownie Autographic no.2 folding. This camera was in a lot at the local auction house, in a box full of other items. I had expected the bellows would be stuck and brittle. It felt as though it hadn't been opened in a long time, so a pulled the bellows out with great care and had to slide them back and forth a few times to loosen everything up. There was quite a lot of dust and dirt to remove, but everything seemed to function. So... I put a roll of 120 film in it and it is ready to have a go and yep that's a camera around 100 years old.
These machines have a clever arrangement on the back of the camera. There is a metal flap which lifts to expose the back of the film at the edge of the frame so you can write on it to show details on the developed print. A kind of very early data back. They came with a little scribe to use in a stowage, but that is missing as I suspect most are. If you are wondering why there is no glass lens visible, it is inside behind the aperture and shutter and this one looked pretty clean for it's age.
What about shooting flexibility? Well, you have 1/50th, 1/25th, Bulb and T (a second press closes the shutter again). There are no f numbers shown for the aperture settings. Just 1,2,3 and 4. There are suggested uses for the settings, but the text is so small, you may need a magnifying glass to read it well. The viewfinder is not what many would recognise. You are looking down at a small curved glass screen only about a half inch square. You can't put your eye close to it, you just see a sharp but very tiny version of the scene... you might as well guess.
If I can ever get away from work on anything other than a wet day, I am really looking forward to trying this thing. If it turns out not to be light tight, well never mind, it'll still be fun.
The scene is under 2 inches across. HMM.