My friends, Rosann and Bill, surprised me with this little beauty. A change of their home decor caused them to pass it on. The side struts are crazily elegant. I was just about to head out on another WORLD PEACE THROUGH JUNK STORE CAMERAS trip across the northern plains so I decided to take it along. Throwing caution to the wind, I loaded the camera with some Perutz 21 120 film. The film says it’s 100 ASA and it expires in … well… I don’t know when it expires. It doesn’t say. Perutz was taken over by Agfa in 1964, so this film is probably expired. [Understatement.]
The little foil wrapper the film comes in – I feel like I’m opening an individually wrapped chocolate. Anyway, I shot that and I shot some C41, which I’ll post later. The shutter speeds range from 1/25 thru 1/125 and include “B” and “T”. ƒ-stops range from ƒ4.5 – ƒ32. I went with Sunny 16 for my exposures, adding on a bit of time (and a bit more for good measure) considering the age of the film. Processed in Kodak D-76, my exposures were pretty muddy, but viewable.
This particular camera has a plaque on the back that reads, “Beckmann y Co. Sucs. MARACAIBO”. Cool, huh?
Click on any image for a larger view:
Architecture in Fenton, Michigan.
Architecture in Fenton, Michigan.
Fast fiberglass Mold Graveyard. Sparta, Wisconsin.
Fast fiberglass Mold Graveyard. Sparta, Wisconsin.
Along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Indiana.
Along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Indiana.There’s a little metal window that slides over the ruby window.
Sweet.
I didn’t take the advice.
Depress the black struts to slide the bellows and lens assembly back into the body. This takes a little bit of dexterity on the part of the user. My camera fights it just a bit. Every time I do this, I imagine the camera not wanting to go to bed. I say in [what I feel is a ] funny voice, “No No! Help me! I’m melting!” Seriously. Every time I do that.As I traveled across the plains, I’d set up my cameras at campsites, hoping to start a camera conversation. That happened a few times, but mostly folks just wanted to talk about my pop-up camper.
I ended up in Michigan where I dusted and documented stuff in my parent’s basement using vintage cameras. I documented with the vintage cameras. I dusted with a duster.
The C41 I promised you:
Fuji NHG 390. Not too shabby considering I used the sunny 16 rule and guessed on the focus.
Zeiss Ikon Nettar 515/2 folding camera:
