Cabornes
Cabornes
« Caborne » is the vernacular word used in the Lyon city region, France, to name ancient dry-stones huts that could found in the neighboring massif of the Monts d’Or. Dry-stones huts developed in France a lot at the 18th-19th centuries and are no as old as we could first think. This flourishing age is due to the encouragement of the French Kingdom to clear some forestal domains and later to the development of small vineyard and access to the private property for little farming. Those « cabornes » were constructed following empirical rules and know-how of « caborniers », masons and quarrymen. Quarries of limestone in the Monts d’Or are still visible and gave the materials of most of the buildings erected in Lyon in the past.
Today the « cabornes » attract visitors with their ingenuity and rustic charm, often integrated into hiking trails. They evoke a sense of nostalgia and connection to nature, reinforcing regional and cultural identity. Associations of volunteers are organizing initiatives to inventory, restore and rediscovered the ancestral technics of dry-stone construction.
Dry-stone huts are also found in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Finland as temporary shelter for shepherds and their animals, permanent habitations for monks or agricultural workers, storage and cheese making, etc.
Intrigued by these « cabornes », I decided to visit two diffferents trails in the Monts d’Or on August 23 and 25, 2025 where « cabornes » are visible. I was equipped of my French range-finder FOCA PF3 camera (year 1954, see the details about the camera and the lens below) loaded with an Adox Scala 50 film. The Oplar 1/2.8 f=5cm standard lens was equipped for most of the views with a FOCA Orange x4 filter and a cylindrical generic shade hood (Genaco).
Expositions were determined for 25 ISO to compensate the absorption of the Orange filter (not the x4 coefficient due to the enhanced sensitivity of the film in the red). Metering was achieved using a Minolta Autometer III lightmeter fitted with a 10° finder for selective metering privileging the shadow areas, but too much to avoid high-lights saturation, or also in the incident-light mode with the integrating opal dome of the Autometer.
Documentary smartphone picture
Chemin du Chêne, August 25, 2025
69250 Poleymieux-au-Mont-d'Or
France
After completion at view Nr. 38, the film was rewound normally and processed using 400 mL of stock solution of Adox Atomal 49 developer for 8min30 at 20°C.
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.5 of August 2025) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with documentary smartphone color pictures taken during my walks.
About the camera and the lens:
This French FOCA camera type « PF3 » or ***, was made in Châteaudun, Eure, France, year 1954.
I got the set from a French dealer on eBay , including the camera and its normal lens OPLAR 1:2.8 f=5cm, a rare ever-ready bag Ref 120-503 « Luxe » with a upper compartment for three 42mm push-on filters. The bag is made of a pork leather and was in 1950 three times more expensive than a normal ever-ready bag. The set also included a FOCA view finder covering the field of a 3,5cm focal lens in its original grey and rd small FOCA box, a soft neoprene FOCA hood, three 42mm FOCA filters yellow x2.5, green x3.5, and orange x4. The kit also included a (used?) roll of Kodachrome-64 (DX-coded canister).
According to the serial number in 401.xxx, this PF3 should be a model-1 (version 5 or 6).
The camera was used very carefully and has been probably well serviced in the past. The OPLAR normal lens 1:2.8 f=5cm is a model-3 version-3 from 1954 too with the "ECD/9" diaphragm graduation 2.8...3.5...9....18.
The camera was originally sold to its first owner by « Photo-Plait » in Paris, France, one of the most important photo store, founded in 1910 and editing a well-know catalog of camera's for mail-order selling in France and overseas. Then the camera could have been sold either in the Photo-Plait store, 35-39, rue Lafayette, Paris 9ème or by mail-order selling.
Cabornes
Cabornes
« Caborne » is the vernacular word used in the Lyon city region, France, to name ancient dry-stones huts that could found in the neighboring massif of the Monts d’Or. Dry-stones huts developed in France a lot at the 18th-19th centuries and are no as old as we could first think. This flourishing age is due to the encouragement of the French Kingdom to clear some forestal domains and later to the development of small vineyard and access to the private property for little farming. Those « cabornes » were constructed following empirical rules and know-how of « caborniers », masons and quarrymen. Quarries of limestone in the Monts d’Or are still visible and gave the materials of most of the buildings erected in Lyon in the past.
Today the « cabornes » attract visitors with their ingenuity and rustic charm, often integrated into hiking trails. They evoke a sense of nostalgia and connection to nature, reinforcing regional and cultural identity. Associations of volunteers are organizing initiatives to inventory, restore and rediscovered the ancestral technics of dry-stone construction.
Dry-stone huts are also found in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Finland as temporary shelter for shepherds and their animals, permanent habitations for monks or agricultural workers, storage and cheese making, etc.
Intrigued by these « cabornes », I decided to visit two diffferents trails in the Monts d’Or on August 23 and 25, 2025 where « cabornes » are visible. I was equipped of my French range-finder FOCA PF3 camera (year 1954, see the details about the camera and the lens below) loaded with an Adox Scala 50 film. The Oplar 1/2.8 f=5cm standard lens was equipped for most of the views with a FOCA Orange x4 filter and a cylindrical generic shade hood (Genaco).
Expositions were determined for 25 ISO to compensate the absorption of the Orange filter (not the x4 coefficient due to the enhanced sensitivity of the film in the red). Metering was achieved using a Minolta Autometer III lightmeter fitted with a 10° finder for selective metering privileging the shadow areas, but too much to avoid high-lights saturation, or also in the incident-light mode with the integrating opal dome of the Autometer.
Documentary smartphone picture
Chemin du Chêne, August 25, 2025
69250 Poleymieux-au-Mont-d'Or
France
After completion at view Nr. 38, the film was rewound normally and processed using 400 mL of stock solution of Adox Atomal 49 developer for 8min30 at 20°C.
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) fitted to a Minolta Auto Bellows III with the Minolta slide duplication accessory and Minolta Macro Bellow lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The diffuse light source was a LED panel CineStill Cine-lite.
The RAW files obtained were inverted within the latest version available of Adobe Lightroom Classic (version 14.5 of August 2025) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printer files with a frame or the full size JPEG's together with documentary smartphone color pictures taken during my walks.
About the camera and the lens:
This French FOCA camera type « PF3 » or ***, was made in Châteaudun, Eure, France, year 1954.
I got the set from a French dealer on eBay , including the camera and its normal lens OPLAR 1:2.8 f=5cm, a rare ever-ready bag Ref 120-503 « Luxe » with a upper compartment for three 42mm push-on filters. The bag is made of a pork leather and was in 1950 three times more expensive than a normal ever-ready bag. The set also included a FOCA view finder covering the field of a 3,5cm focal lens in its original grey and rd small FOCA box, a soft neoprene FOCA hood, three 42mm FOCA filters yellow x2.5, green x3.5, and orange x4. The kit also included a (used?) roll of Kodachrome-64 (DX-coded canister).
According to the serial number in 401.xxx, this PF3 should be a model-1 (version 5 or 6).
The camera was used very carefully and has been probably well serviced in the past. The OPLAR normal lens 1:2.8 f=5cm is a model-3 version-3 from 1954 too with the "ECD/9" diaphragm graduation 2.8...3.5...9....18.
The camera was originally sold to its first owner by « Photo-Plait » in Paris, France, one of the most important photo store, founded in 1910 and editing a well-know catalog of camera's for mail-order selling in France and overseas. Then the camera could have been sold either in the Photo-Plait store, 35-39, rue Lafayette, Paris 9ème or by mail-order selling.