More from the Felica

 

The Felica is compact and easy to carry.  The focusing and exposure adjustments are limited, but adequate for dealing with a pretty good range of circumstances.  I haven't yet made much use of the built-in yellow filter, so I'll try to look for opportunities for using it with my next roll through the camera.

Back to Basics

 I have been wanting to get back to shooting some of my simple cameras, so I thought to start with my Vredeborch Felica.  Though hardly bigger than my Ansco Panda, it sports adjustments for distance, speed and aperture.  The lens looks to be a simple meniscus type, but the curved film plane helps with sharpness out to the edges.

I got out into our yard before getting caught up in my usual morning routine at the computer and shot up all twelve frames on the roll of Fomapan 100 in about twenty minutes. 

The thing that makes taking pictures fun with these simple cameras is that they always produce images that exceed expectations if some care is taken in choosing subjects that are a good match for film speed and the camera's capabilities.  In addition to which, in this case, it is fun to say "Vredeborch Felica". *

* From Ask Oracle:

Felica is a name with a rich history and diverse origins, primarily associated with the Latin word "felix" meaning "happy" or "lucky." It has been used as a given name for both girls and boys throughout history, though it is more common for girls today. The name holds a sense of joy, prosperity, and good fortune, making it a popular choice for parents seeking a name with positive connotations.

Felica is easy to write and pronounce, with a pleasant sound and a timeless feel. It has a few common nicknames like Fely, Fee, and Lica, adding a touch of familiarity and endearment. While not as common as some other names, it still holds a unique charm and a connection to historical figures and literary characters.

and

From Camera-wiki.org:

Vredeborch was a camera maker based in Nordenham, a town on the German North Sea coast. The name of the company come from the Vredeborch castle (Friedeburg in standard German; Peace Castle in English) established at the beginning of the city's history, circa 1407. The company Vredeborch GmbH was founded in 1945. Several of its cameras were sold under names given by other distributors. It stopped camera-making in 1970. 

(They made a lot of medium format camera models in twenty-five years.  I wonder if anyone has collected all of them. )

The Mamiya 6

 The Mamiya 6 meduim-format folding rangefinder camera was made over a period of fifty years with many model variations.  In spite of that long history, high quality construction and unique features it is curiously rare on web sites devoted to vintage cameras.

From the front the Mamiya 6 resembles other popular medium-format rangefinders of the same era such as the Zeiss Ikonta and the Soviet Iskra.  A top/rear view shows what sets the Mamiya apart from all others in its class.  The thumb wheel to the right adjusts focus by moving the film plane rather than the front lens standard. Also visible in the same view is the switch to the left which permits either 6x6 or 6x4.5 formats.  The flip-open ruby window only needs to be used to position the first frame; frame spacing from there on is automatic.

 The format switch changes the aspect ratio in the viewfinder and also releases the double exposure lock.  To actually ready the camera for either format, one opens the back, slides out the removable pressure plate and flips a couple barn doors to the appropriate position.  The 120 roll film can than be threaded through the exposed rails and the pressure plate slid back into taking position.

I have so far only shot one test roll with the camera in Albuquerque's Old Town.  Everything seems to be working perfectly.  The film was Fomapan 100 which I developed in Rodinal 1:50.  The  Olympus D. Zuiko 3.5/75mm lens performed well as expected.

 

An overview of the Mamiya 6 history and features can be found at the Camera-Wiki site.

Piedras Marcadas

Albuquerque had a fine sunny Wednesday, so I decided to take a hike through the Piedras Marcadas section of the Petroglyph National Monument.  Access to much of the site is limited by rope barriers, so photography is best undertaken with the help of a telephoto lens.  With my camera of the day, a No.1-A Folding Pocket Kodak Special, I had to limit most of my photo making to panels close to the trail.

The film was Fomapan 100, processed in HC-110b.  In the camera, FPP 120 to 116 spool adapters were used to hold the roll film firmly in place.  Eight rotations of the winder takes the film to the first frame.  Two-and-one-half rotations separates succeeding frames.

I also made quite a few shots of the rock art with my little digital Canon A1000 IS and I'll post some of those on my other blog.

Friday Morning

 Ate breakfast.  Walked the dog.  Margaret went off to have breakfast with a friend.  Nothing left to do but to head for Old Town with a roll of Fomapan 100 in my Voigtländer Brilliant.

I asked if I might take a picture of this fine looking Scottish Deerhound.  The owner agreed, but insisted the picture be made in the shade as she said he would  not stand still on the sun drenched sidewalk.  I would have preferred to picture him in motion as his gait was incredibly buoyant; it seemed he might suddenly float off the pavement.

El Vado, pinholed

 Some blue sky and bright sun prompted me to load some Fomapan 100 in my pinhole camera.  I then headed down Central to the motels near where Route 66 crosses the Rio Grande.  The area is undergoing rapid development and the few remaining motels are being surrounded by multi-story apartments and shops.  The El Vado, closest to the river, was built in 1937 and restored in 2018 with the help of a 2 million dollar grant from the city.

The Fomapan 100 negatives had good density with two second exposures and I was pleased with the film's grain and tonalities.  This was the last roll of Fomapan I had in the refrigerator and I probably won't buy any more even though I was satisfied with its performance.  It is $6.49 at both Freestyle and B&H, while Ilford's new Kentmere 120 is still just $4.99 from the Film Photography Project.  

Brilliant

 I ran another roll of Fomapan 100 through the little Voigtländer Brilliant.  I just about have the light leaks eliminated.  Electrician's tape does the job, but a better solution would be to replace the light seals on the back which look pretty petrified.  

Back to the Brilliant

I took a nice morning walk through my neighborhood down to Tiguex Park, something I haven't done in some time. The camera was one of my favorites, the little Voigtländer Brilliant.  In describing the use and qualities of the finder the manual says:

"If you now look down vertically at this lens from a distance of about 10", you will see the finder picture (fig.3) the limits of which coincide exatly with those of the picture thrown on the film.  It is the right way up, is very brilliant and measures 1-9/16" square, i.e. two thirds the size of the picture."

The manual then goes on to describe a method for estimating focal distance using the image of a standing man in relation to pointers in the finder.  The man imaged in the finder is stated to be 5' feet 5", an interesting specification related to the average height of European and American males in 1932. 

There were no 5'5" men in the pictures I shot on the street and in the park, but I am pretty good at estimating distances and since it was a sunny day permitting the use of the f22 aperture setting, the resulting depth of field provided a good cushion for distance guesses.

I shot Fomapan 100 and developed it in the last of my bottle of Ilford DD-X.  I thought the tones and grain of the resulting images were pretty good.  I'm going to shoot another roll of Fomapan 100 in the camera and I'm thinking I'll try it in Rodinal next, which has given me good results in the past.

I remembered that a previous use of the Brilliant showed a light leak on one side of the images.  I put some black electrician's tape over what I thought was the right place on the back, but still had a bit of a leak this time.  So I'll be more generous with tape on the next use.  I have also added a bootlace neck strap as a aid to holding the camera steady at the 1/50 available on the shutter.  

The 7.7/75mm lens on the Brilliant is uncoated, but well corrected and capable of yielding good sharpness if one is careful to brace the camera solidly.

I have a couple fancy twin-lens cameras with a wide range of apertures and speeds as well as focusing through coupled taking and viewing lenses, but for me that brilliant view provided by the modest little Voigtländer along with its light weight and diminutive size make it a contender.

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

Using 120 Film in 116 Cameras

I have made quite a few pictures with my 116 cameras using 120 film with only minimal adaptations.  I loaded the 120 film roll into the cameras and rolled it onto the 116 reel, advancing 8 and one half turns to get to the first frame with the ruby window covered.  Two and a half turns between frames gets you five pictures from the 120 roll.  The process is particularly easy with the No. 1A Pocket Kodak because the boxy internal structure holds the feed reel in place with no need to directly engage the end disks of the reel.  Rolling the film onto the big 116 reel leaves the film edges exposed, so it is necessary to use a dark bag to open the camera, remove the reel and load the film onto the processing reel to go into the film developing tank.

While this simplest procedure mostly works, a few glitches can degrade the results.  The film rolls onto the take-up reel rather loosely and it can drift sideways, causing some misalignment of the image on the film.  An easy fix for that problem is to acquire some 120 to 116 film adapters like the ones sold by the Film Photography Project.

The adapters allow a tight fit of the 120 roll of film into the camera as well as the use of a standard 120 take-up reel.  That solves the problem of film misalignment, and the spacers also produce sufficient tautness on the film to help keep the film flat at the film plane.  The red adapter disks from the kit can be used alone to hold the film reels, but I found it helpful to insert them into the white holders to facilitate positioning the reels in the camera.  The tabs on adapters are a loose fit in the reel slots, so I put a small bit of tape over the tabs to keep them on while inserting them into the camera.

I found the small bubble level on ebay for just a few dollars.  Since the old folders have no accessory holders I just attached the level to the top deck of the camera with a piece of double-sided tape.

I have not seen any problem with film flatness even without a 120 mask for the film plane.  It would be helpful to accurate composition though to make a mask for the viewfinder.

Scanning the long negatives can be a bit of a challenge.  My old Epson Perfection 2450 flatbed scanner has a film holder with a 4x5 frame, so I make use of that to hold the  negatives in place by placing them directly on the scanner's glass and laying the film holder on top of the film.  With the emulsion side of the film toward the glass, the upward curve of the film helps to avoid Newton rings on the scanned images.

I shot Fomapan 100 in my last outing with the 1A Pocket Kodak using a tripod and cable release to ensure steadiness.  Most exposures were at 1/25, with apertures of f22 or f32.  I developed the film semi-stand in Rodinal 1:100 for one hour.

Fomapan

 I spent an hour at the Botanical Garden with my Kodak Reflex II.  I shot a roll of Fomapan 400 with the continuing hope that one of my usual developers would yield results that I can live with.  I processed this roll in PMK Pyro.

The negatives were very thin, looking like they could have used a couple more stops exposure or quite a bit more time in the developer.  

Meanwhile, Adorama had a half-price sale on Across II, so I picked up five rolls.  I also still have a few rolls of expired Tri-X that I like.  I'll play around with my few remaining rolls of Fomapan, but I'm not real optimistic about the prospects of getting what I want in regard to grain and tonal values.