Time To Soup Some Film

I've been shooting film off and on since I was about 15 years old.  That means I've been shooting film a LONG time.  Although, 95% of all my photographic work is now digital, I still shoot film. I have over 100 film camera of all types from TLR's, medium format, SLR's, point & shoots, toy cameras, etc.  I always have one in my bag.

What does that mean.  Yep, that means $$$.  The dark underbelly of my love of film is the cost (and of course the longer workflow).  I would normally turn in 2-5 rolls at a time and end up with $20-$50+ expense depending on the film type.  

Well, lets change that a bit.  I'm actually increasing the length of my workflow, but I'm lowering the unit cost.  That's right, I'm going to start developing my own film.  I bought a C-41 & an E-6 chemistry set from The Film Photography Podcast store.  I normally, shoot C-41 but was given about 50 rolls of E-6 recently.  I'll see how it goes, and then reassess my decision to soup my own film.  At minimum it will be interesting.  I'll keep you updated.

Imperial Debonair

I picked up this fancy looking camera, an Imperial Debonair, online in a camera lot purchase.  Very 60's looking.  As a matter of fact it's the produced in the 60's by the Herbert Jones Company.  Before I had purchased this camera, I had never heard of the Herbert Jones Company.  

This beauty is an all plastic, Bakelite, camera which falls squarely in the "toy camera" range today.  Looks somewhat like a Kodak Brownie, and I suspect they were made as a competitor.  This is a 620 film camera.  This camera is all manual, and as a matter of fact there are no features to put your manual camera skills to test.  You just load a roll of 620 film, point and shoot.  

This is a rangefinder which makes it simple to use.  My camera had cracks in the case, but nothing a bit of gaffers tape couldn't fils.  I loaded a roll of 120 film rerolled onto a 620 spool that I purchased from The Film Photography Project store and got going.  After about 6 shots however the film must have slipped off the sprocket and jammed.  I was able to "slap" it back in place, but when I advanced the film it tore, and locked up.  I simply rerolled the film.  No reason to open the camera up in the dark and try to get it going again.

This is a fun little camera with a cool 60's vibe.  Very hipster.  Dig it.

Pretty distinct vignetting

Doing some use camera shopping

Oops

Imperial Debonair with Rerolled 620 Film

I bought this Imperial Debonair as part of a film camera lot on Ebay.  I don't recall how much it cost but doubt it was more than a couple of dollars.  An unusual looking camera somewhat similar to a Kodak Brownie.  The difference is there is a look through viewfinder.  This is a medium format camera that uses 620 film.  

I knew nothing about the camera, or the company that sold them, Herbert George Co.  It looks cool however.  A very 50's, 60's look.  When purchased it was in rough shape.  Looks like it was either heavily used or just thrown around.  I cleaned it up as much as possible, and put it in my "to be used in the future" box.  

The challenge is unlike my Brownie, I couldn't fit a 120 roll in it.  There was a 620 spool already in the camera, but I didn't want to roll my own, and 620 film is either hard to find or expensive.  About a month ago, I placed an order with The Film Photography Project store and decided to buy a roll or 620 film.  This is rerolled Kodak 400TX 120 film. 

I loaded the camera up which is straight forward and easy to do.  Because of the cracks on the seams I sealed it up with black electrical tape.  After about 4 shots the winding knob was becoming very stiff and ultimately wouldn't turn.  Hmmm, I took it in a dark room and opened the camera up.  The spool had popped off the winder.  I snapped the spool back on and closed it up.  I took 2 more shots and the same thing happened again.  I repeated the open / close routine.  One more shot and the camera was toast.  I couldn't get it back on the winder, so I took the film out and rolled it up.  I think there were at least 2 more photos remaining.

So end result I took at least 5-6 shots that I think will come out.  The film tore slightly at that point (I noticed this when I rewound the film), so I doubt The Darkroom can process the film.  I'll send it in for processing soon and will report back.

Film Is Alive - Film Ferrania

The Italian film production company FILM Ferrania has been "resurrected".  Under the tag line of "100 More Years of Film" they kicked off a Kickstarter crowd funding to get the production up again (the production had been mothballed for several years).  

As you can tell by this blog I still shoot film, and have been aware that film has become niche to the more mainstream digital photography world.  Why, even I use film as a niche, since my main photography life is spent in digital.  However, I still work with film.  Unfortunately, while film is still fairly easy to get the number of types & brands are shrinking and the cost up.  We need more film producers, and FILM Ferrania had a plan to do just that.

I listened to a recent podcast by The Film Photography Project that discussed FILM Ferrania & their Kickstarter project.  The goal was to start production of several film types.  When the podcast was over I quickly pledged to the project.  I was uncertain if the project would get fully funded, but I was hopeful.  Today, I got an email that my credit card had been debited and then saw in my email that it had been MORE than funded.  Outstanding.

So there you go.  First it's The Impossible Project and now FILM Ferrania.  Even though film may be a niche, it's a fun niche and #Filmisalive

Congrats to FILM Ferrania & to the contributors to their campaign.  All film enthusiast are winners.