Paxton Pavillion
Multiple (8) exposure taken with a Bencini Minicomet camera that I found at a car boot sale on Sunday for £1. I hadn't heard of this model before, and was intrigued to find that it shoots 24 exposures on a roll of 127 film. This is achieved by having a reduced frame size of 2cm x 3cm, and using the 12 exposure backing paper markings twice over (the same idea as the much more common use of 16 exposures made by doubling up the 8 exposure markings).
The camera is very simple, with a single fixed shutter speed, no focus and no aperture control. It was made in Italy in the early 1960s, but there does not seem to be much information available about it online.
There was a film in the camera, though the wind on mechanism was broken, so it was only on the 3rd exposure. The film is Kodacolor II, which was introduced in the 127 format in 1973. The camera seems to have been stored in a damp place, and there is evidence of this on the metal face plate. When I came to load the film into the developing reel, I was alarmed to find that it was completely stuck to the backing paper, I managed to separate the outer layer prior to loading, but the thick black layer remained adhered. I pre-soaked the film in the hope that this would separate the paper then developed it in the Tetenal C41 kit. At the end of the process the black paper was still attached, but peeled off quite easily at this point. There was a lot of background fogging and mottling, but I was surprised to get any image at all out of such an old badly stored film.
2012 is the centenary of the introduction of the 127 film format by Kodak in 1912. To mark this anniversary, I will be using as many 127 cameras as I can this year.
There is also a blog:
Paxton Pavillion
Multiple (8) exposure taken with a Bencini Minicomet camera that I found at a car boot sale on Sunday for £1. I hadn't heard of this model before, and was intrigued to find that it shoots 24 exposures on a roll of 127 film. This is achieved by having a reduced frame size of 2cm x 3cm, and using the 12 exposure backing paper markings twice over (the same idea as the much more common use of 16 exposures made by doubling up the 8 exposure markings).
The camera is very simple, with a single fixed shutter speed, no focus and no aperture control. It was made in Italy in the early 1960s, but there does not seem to be much information available about it online.
There was a film in the camera, though the wind on mechanism was broken, so it was only on the 3rd exposure. The film is Kodacolor II, which was introduced in the 127 format in 1973. The camera seems to have been stored in a damp place, and there is evidence of this on the metal face plate. When I came to load the film into the developing reel, I was alarmed to find that it was completely stuck to the backing paper, I managed to separate the outer layer prior to loading, but the thick black layer remained adhered. I pre-soaked the film in the hope that this would separate the paper then developed it in the Tetenal C41 kit. At the end of the process the black paper was still attached, but peeled off quite easily at this point. There was a lot of background fogging and mottling, but I was surprised to get any image at all out of such an old badly stored film.
2012 is the centenary of the introduction of the 127 film format by Kodak in 1912. To mark this anniversary, I will be using as many 127 cameras as I can this year.
There is also a blog: