Fancy Boxes

 

I have never developed a good working relationship with my Box Tengor cameras.  Zeiss Ikon gave them features which are seldom matched by other box cameras, and they are certainly stylish.  While the aim was to give users enhanced capabilities in a relatively simple and inexpensive camera, that objective cannot be realized without applying a rather rigorous technical discipline in use.

The camera's weak point is the slow shutter (at best, a 30th of a second), combined with a rather awkward shutter release. What that means is that it is unlikely you will realize the resolution advantage of the two-element Frontar lens unless you use a cable release with the camera mounted on a tripod.  The reflex viewfinders are a bit bigger and brighter than those of many pre-war box cameras, but provide nowhere near the compositional help of the brilliant finders of the post-war era.

Well, I knew all of the above when I took my Box Tengor 56/2 for a couple of walks recently, but I ignored my own advice and shot handheld in sometimes challenging light.  Getting the depth of field right for the subject requires an exact pairing of discrete focal and exposure settings which often escaped me.  Still, I thought some of the pictures from the roll of Acros showed a hint of the camera's capabilities.  I'll take another stab at using one of the Box Tengors soon, though I've now shot my last roll of Acros, and that will introduce another variable into the test regime.

Six from the Duaflex

I have the first model of the Kodak Duaflex.  It lacks some of the features of later models, but it is still a reliable and capable performer.

A Road to the Volcanoes

Zia

Adobe Wall

Crane

El Sol

Parked

Kodak Duaflex

Walking the Panda

 

Cat Interrupted

 The modular construction of the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash makes it easy to disassemble for cleaning or modification.  The easiest and most common mod is to reverse the lens front-to-back.  With the lens unmodified, the minimum distance for sharp focus is about eight feet. Flipping the lens brings the minimum for sharp focus down to about 3.5 feet.  However, only the center of the image will be seen to be sharply rendered, while the periphery becomes progressively blurred.

I loaded a roll of slightly expired Tri-X into my Brownie Hawkeye Flash and made twelve exposures in the house in about five minutes.  Because of the low light I set the camera to use the shutter's time mode to permit an exposure of an estimated one second; the camera was braced solidly on the floor to avoid camera movement.  The first shot caught Ruthie, my cat, unawares at her water bowl.  She was a bit irritated with that intrusion and threatened to leave the room.  I apologized, convincing her to stay, and she composed herself and assumed a more dignified pose.

In addition to the peripheral defocusing the flipped lens also seems to have an increased tendency to flare with back lighting.  

I took the camera into the living room and made a couple shots of Roxie with the camera braced on a chair .  Her skepticism about the process seems emphasized by the sharpness of the eye closest to the center of the image compared to the slight blur of eye closer to the edge. 

Walking the Dog

 I have made thousands of pictures with well over a hundred cameras, so no real need to make more.  However, I enjoy the process as much as the end product. I took along a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash box camera yesterday while walking the dog.

The film was a roll of slightly expired Tri-X, developed in HC-110b.