Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or
« 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.
For a third visit, I decided to go especially to the « Cabornes Girard » starting from the village of Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or and using some local hiking trails. I brought along with me my brave French TLR 6x6 SEMFLEX Standard 3.5 camera (see below for details) loaded with a film Svema FOTO 100. My SEMFLEX was equipped with the original Semflex squared shade hood with, or wiyhout,a SEMFLEX yellow filter x2. The film was exposed for 100 ISO (no filter) or 64 ISO to compensate the light absorption of the yellow filter. Metering was done using a Minolta Autometer III equipped with a 10° finder for selective measures privileging the shadow areas or an opale dome for incident light integration. .
Documentary smartphone picture.
Les Cabornes Girard, August 28, 2025
69270 Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or
France
After the view #12 exposed, the film was fully rolled to the taking spool and was developed in a Paterson tank with a spiral adapted to the 120-format film. 500 mL of Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developer were prepared at the dilution 1+25 and the film processed for 7 min at 20°C.
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) held on a Minolta vertical macro stative device and adapted to a Minolta MD Macro lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The light source was a LED panel (approx. 4x5') CineStill Cine-lite fitted with film holder "Lobster" to maintain flat the 70mm films. The RAW files obtained were inverted witin Adobe LightRoom Classic (14.5 August 2025) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printed files with frame or the full size JPEG together with some documentary smartphone pictures.
About the camera and lenses :
My French Semflex TLR year 1959-1960 is equipped with triplet 1/3.5 f=75mm SOM Berthiot lenses as descripted bellow.
The SEM company ("Société des Etablissements Modernes de Mécanique") was founded in France by Paul Royet in 1946, in the small city of Aurec near Saint-Etienne (Loire). The SEM camera's was known essentially for the TLR Semflex that were a great commercial success in France until the 70's. The camera's are constructed around an injected aluminum alloy chassis, very resistant and rigid permitting precise optical alignments. The focusing mechanism is made of a cam system like the Rolleiflex giving an accurate and smooth focusing. SEM constructed their own shutters called Orec with 5 leaves capable of the 1/400s to 1s with B.
Semflex received in majority French optics Berthiot with 3 or 4 lenses (Tessar type). Some camera's were also mounted with Angénieux lenses.
Semflex were trusted TLR camera's used by amateurs and for professional purposes. From 1949 to 1976, 171.000 Semflex were produced in many different types and versions.
My Semflex in a middle grade version Standard 3.5 type-10 (1959-1960). It was the last version mounted with the 3-lens SOM Berthiot 1:3.5 f=75mm. I got the camera with set of accessories and several documents including the user manual of the Semflex Standard 4.5 versions. The accessories include a leather SEM ever-ready bag, a Semflex push-on shade hood, a Semflex push-on yellow filter x2 in its original box, and close-focusing lenses. The 1D one is constructed with a prism for the finder lens that compensates the parallax in the zone 1m to 0.5m.
The decorative ring around each lenses can also receive push-on accessories in 36mm diameter as the FOCA or Leitz 36mm filter series. I adapted two protective lens caps from Kodak film canister snapped covers.
Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or
« 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.
For a third visit, I decided to go especially to the « Cabornes Girard » starting from the village of Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or and using some local hiking trails. I brought along with me my brave French TLR 6x6 SEMFLEX Standard 3.5 camera (see below for details) loaded with a film Svema FOTO 100. My SEMFLEX was equipped with the original Semflex squared shade hood with, or wiyhout,a SEMFLEX yellow filter x2. The film was exposed for 100 ISO (no filter) or 64 ISO to compensate the light absorption of the yellow filter. Metering was done using a Minolta Autometer III equipped with a 10° finder for selective measures privileging the shadow areas or an opale dome for incident light integration. .
Documentary smartphone picture.
Les Cabornes Girard, August 28, 2025
69270 Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d’Or
France
After the view #12 exposed, the film was fully rolled to the taking spool and was developed in a Paterson tank with a spiral adapted to the 120-format film. 500 mL of Adox Adonal (Agfa Rodinal) developer were prepared at the dilution 1+25 and the film processed for 7 min at 20°C.
Digitizing was made using a Sony A7 camera (ILCE-7, 24MP) held on a Minolta vertical macro stative device and adapted to a Minolta MD Macro lens 1:3.5 f=50mm. The light source was a LED panel (approx. 4x5') CineStill Cine-lite fitted with film holder "Lobster" to maintain flat the 70mm films. The RAW files obtained were inverted witin Adobe LightRoom Classic (14.5 August 2025) and edited to the final jpeg pictures without intermediate file. They are presented either as printed files with frame or the full size JPEG together with some documentary smartphone pictures.
About the camera and lenses :
My French Semflex TLR year 1959-1960 is equipped with triplet 1/3.5 f=75mm SOM Berthiot lenses as descripted bellow.
The SEM company ("Société des Etablissements Modernes de Mécanique") was founded in France by Paul Royet in 1946, in the small city of Aurec near Saint-Etienne (Loire). The SEM camera's was known essentially for the TLR Semflex that were a great commercial success in France until the 70's. The camera's are constructed around an injected aluminum alloy chassis, very resistant and rigid permitting precise optical alignments. The focusing mechanism is made of a cam system like the Rolleiflex giving an accurate and smooth focusing. SEM constructed their own shutters called Orec with 5 leaves capable of the 1/400s to 1s with B.
Semflex received in majority French optics Berthiot with 3 or 4 lenses (Tessar type). Some camera's were also mounted with Angénieux lenses.
Semflex were trusted TLR camera's used by amateurs and for professional purposes. From 1949 to 1976, 171.000 Semflex were produced in many different types and versions.
My Semflex in a middle grade version Standard 3.5 type-10 (1959-1960). It was the last version mounted with the 3-lens SOM Berthiot 1:3.5 f=75mm. I got the camera with set of accessories and several documents including the user manual of the Semflex Standard 4.5 versions. The accessories include a leather SEM ever-ready bag, a Semflex push-on shade hood, a Semflex push-on yellow filter x2 in its original box, and close-focusing lenses. The 1D one is constructed with a prism for the finder lens that compensates the parallax in the zone 1m to 0.5m.
The decorative ring around each lenses can also receive push-on accessories in 36mm diameter as the FOCA or Leitz 36mm filter series. I adapted two protective lens caps from Kodak film canister snapped covers.