Kodak No.2 Folding Autographic Brownie

There are several cameras in my collection that I like very much, but none have taught me more about the art and craft of photography than this modest little Kodak No.2 Folding Autographic Brownie. I acquired two of them some years ago. Up until that time, I had very little interest in the old Kodak folders that seemed rather awkward looking and unpromising in terms of capacities. The first one I got was a gift from a friend who had lost his home, most of his cameras and his life's work in photography in a fire. The Brownie survived the fire in a shed, but only barely; when I got it, the outer case was falling apart, and the insides were covered with rust.

Oddly enough, the Brownie's lens, shutter and bellows seemed fine. I cleaned up the thing as best I could and put a roll of 120 film through it. I had little expectation of getting interesting photos from it, but I thought my friend might like to see something come from one of the few surviving cameras. To my surprise, the images were quite sharp and had a great depth of tonality. A close examination of the outer rim of the lens showed it to be a Rapid Rectilinear. That was a lens popular early in the Twentieth Century with the f64 Group, and used by people like Adams and Weston. While the uncoated lens does impart a particular character to the tonal quality of images, I decided that the large 6x9 negatives were probably the main influence on the richness of the tonality that came from the camera. I had seen something approaching that from some of my previous box camera images, but the combination of tonal range and sharpness from the Brownie was a real eye opener.

One thing that took me a while to understand was that the aperture values on the shutter were not what they seemed. It is a rather odd progression: "U.S. 4 8 16 32 64". It turns out that is the Uniform System used on some of the early Kodaks. The present-day standard for aperture stops expresses them as a ratio of aperture to focal length; so we get something like 8, 11, 16, 22, 32 with each increment indicating half or twice the exposure. In the Uniform System, the "16" expresses the same exposure value as the "16" in the current f-stop system, but the numerals above and below are simply doubled or halved to indicate the corresponding exposure change, rather than the proportional or ratio expression of the current system. The relationship between the two systems is perhaps most easily understood by looking at a comparison table like the one available on the Kodak Classics site.

Another oddity of the exposure values on the shutter's face is the wording attached to the numeric values, terms like "Clear", "Brilliant", "Distant View", "Marine", "Clouds". This was Kodak's Autotime Scale, an exposure system intended to assist the amateur photographer in choosing the proper time and aperture settings based on lighting conditions and subject matter. The system depended on the fact that film speed choices were very limited in those days, and it seems now to be more quaint than practical. In any case, once you understand the relationship of the Uniform System exposure values to present-day usage, it is possible to ignore the wordy jumble and proceed as you might with any camera.

Since the top shutter speed on the Brownie is 1/50th of a second, a tripod is good insurance, though not absolutely necessary if you are careful not to jiggle the camera during the exposure. Even when hand-holding the camera, I have found it useful to use a cable release in order to avoid the need to manipulate the release lever out on the end of the long bellows. Given the large negative format, there is no real penalty in terms of grain in using 400-speed film which permits small f-stops and good depth of field, along with superior tonal rendition.

My friend's Brownie wasn't really a very practical shooter because of the damage it had sustained, but I decided I needed to do something to to further explore its capabilities. I therefore purchased a nearly identical camera on line for about five bucks that had a simple meniscus lens. It was no great feat to transplant the Rapid Rectilinear and its ballbearing shutter to the newly acquired camera body. It took me a few rolls to sort out the best ways of using the Brownie, but in the end I got photos from it which I think are among the very best I have made over the years.

I have since acquired a fair number of Kodak and other folders with more advanced capabilities and more complex lenses than that on the Brownie, but I don't honestly think they have made better pictures for me.

Some sample images from the Kodak No.2 Folding Autographic Brownie:

Kodak Monitor Six-20

I don't know if the Kodak designers had the old iron-clad fighting ship in mind when they named their camera The Monitor. There does seem to be something of a family resemblance in the boxy lines and metal top deck. Still, it is a handsome camera and somewhat better built than its predecessors. Like most of the other Kodak mid-century cameras, my Monitor was made to take 620 film, and it yields a 6cm by 9cm image.

The lens on my Monitor is the 101mm f/4.5 Anastigmat Special; it is front-focusing, with four elements in three groups. The shutter is the No. 1 Supermatic with speeds from 1 sec. to 1/400 sec. and B. I have the same lens and shutter combination on my Vigilant, so much of these notes also apply to that camera. The main difference from the Vigilant is the metal top plate which houses a film advance and double-exposure prevention mechanism. There is also a pretty little dial-type Depth of Focus scale similar to those found on the Retina I. My Monitor arrived with a new-looking and light-tight bellows, but I think that is rather unusual.

Servicing the lens and shutter is relatively easy on the Monitor. Removing the front lens requires that the little post that stops the focus travel be screwed out. Then, you just unscrew the lens and focus scale; be sure to note the point at which it comes loose so you can get it started right when you go to put it back in.
    The next step is a little trickier. The rim of the central lens group projects only a small lip above the surface. This kind of thin-walled brass housing is easily deformed, so it is important to keep pliers and other dangerous tools well away from it. A good tool for getting a grip on the rim of the center lens mount is one of the Flexiclamp wrenches sold by Micro-Tools. I used a 1 3/16" size. Before you start unscrewing the center group, it is a good idea to make a mark crossing the rim to the body so that you can put it back without over-tightening. Also, you will want to note that the group housing comes loose in about one full turn. A friction tool made from a dowel and a piece of rubber will also work.
    Once the center lens is out, you can lift off the face of the shutter and get easy access to the internal levers and gears for cleaning with something like Ronsonol lighter fluid. I also removed the back lens group with a lens spanner so as to not get debris on the lens. The whole thing should go back together pretty easily.

With the lens and shutter clean and reassembled, you are ready to shoot pictures, as long as you are comfortable with re-spooling 120 film onto a 620 metal reel. The Kodak engineers went to some trouble to design a camera that will not permit the use of film on a modern 120 spool.  I experimented with using trimmed 120 reels in a film carrier from an old Agfa folder, but am happier just re-rolling 120 to 620.  There is also a version of the camera which was built for 616 film.

The Monitor user manual advises that the film initially be advanced until the number "1" is just visible in the red window. You are then supposed to move the little lever from "wind" to "1-8" and slightly turn the advance knob which activates the double exposure prevention and moves the "1" into the center of the film frame window. From there you can just crank the knob until it stops without opening the red window for positioning each frame. I initially had some problems with frame spacing but taking off the top, cleaning the mechanism and adding a little lubricant got things straightened out.

The Monitor's sleekly modern design and the nice eye-level finder will propel the user toward camera technique appropriate to a more compact camera. However, that is probably a mistake as the long 101mm lens really demands a thoughtful approach suitable for any of the older medium-format folders. A tripod and a cable release will enhance the chances of success with this camera. It is also important to ignore that pretty depth-of-field dial on the top deck as it is completely inaccurate; hard to imagine what Kodak's engineers were thinking with that feature. Luckily, there are a number of good depth-of-field table gnerators available on the web including a particularly nice one at johnhendry.com.

Below are some images from the Monitor Six-20 shot at The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque:

And one from the War Eagles Air Museum at Santa Teresa:

A manual for the Monitor Six-20 and Six-16 models is available on line at the Butkus site.

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta A 520

I have some nice old cameras in my collection, but none combine form and function more elegantly than the little Ikonta A.

This is an unusual example of the Ikonta A, probably made just before the outbreak of war in 1939 or 1940. Earlier models had simpler shutters. The post-war models featured a double-exposure prevention module and a different shutter-lens mount.

The camera's features can all be found on earlier Zeiss products, but in this case everthing has been scaled and optimized to fit the purpose of producing images in the 6x4.5 centimeter format. The result is a light-weight, ultra-compact medium format camera that can slip easily into a pocket. The sturdy Compur-Rapid shutter has a full range of speeds including T,B and 1-500. The f3.5, 7cm Tessar lens is uncoated, but produces sharp and contrasty images provided it is not brought too close to the sun. The rather short focal length of the lens makes the need to estimate focus less of problem than is the case with most other medium format cameras. The camera is a self-erecting folder design, so pressing the door release on the top deck pops out the lens to shooting position very smartly, and the viewfinder also automatically flips upright.

Most of the paint on the Ikonta's metal trim is worn off, speaking of a history of long use. However, the bellows looks near new, and it only took a little cleaning and lubrication to make the camera work like new. It did take me several tries to get the lens reinstalled so that the infinity focus was perfect. The three little set screws on Zeiss cameras usually seem like they should fit into some pre-drilled holes in the mount, but often don't.

The camera was made at a time when the numbering on the paper backing of 120 film was not completely standardized, and not all of it came with the properly numbered spacing for the half-frame format. The solution was to put two red windows on the back of the camera so that the 6x9 numbering could be used. To start, the film is wound until the numeral "1" is seen in the first window. After the exposure, the same numeral is advanced to the second window for the second exposure. Some care has to be exercised in not winding past the mark as the film is traveling a very short lateral distance. Once you are used to that, it is very nice to get sixteen frames on a 120 roll.

The only common problem with this camera and its close relatives is a light leak through the red windows in the back. The cure for that has been sorted out very effectively by Cliff Manley in a photo.net posting.

Some pictures from the Ikonta A 520:

 

Housekeeping

I have spent over a decade now exploring the question:

Can you have too many cameras?

I have my favorites displayed in and on the glass-front cabinet.  The rest of the shooters are mostly located in a four-drawer plastic chest, and there are some bits and pieces in cardboard boxes under my desk.  So, I feel I am getting close to an answer to my question.

Of course, the answer to the "how many is too many" question will be different for others depending on circumstances.

I have put together the following questionnaire which should be helpful.

1. Have you taken an early retirement?
2. Does the government send you a check each month?
3. Do you live in a small bungalow built early in the past century?
4. In the past year, has your wife acquired a piano?
5. Is there a portion of your house you are willing to defend against all intruders?
6. Do you insist that every camera you own produce photos?
7. Do you have more than one cat?
8. Does "100" seem like a large number?

(If you have answered "yes" to all questions, the answer is ≈ 101.)

So much for the physical world.  I have also busied myself of late with tidying up my digital spaces.  I shut down my web site some time ago, leaving quite a few orphaned bits of data.  I'm slowly incorporating those fragments of camera lore into my blog, but that is a considerable challenge given the volume, as well as the fact that the Blogger platform has undergone some significant changes over the years.

I was able to come up with a camera count using the tagging feature built into Blogger, and I have posted the resulting tabulation in the right-hand column.  Each item there is actually a link to all the posts about each camera.  The number in parentheses shows the number of individual posts for each camera, which is revealing about my camera preferences.

Kodak Brownie Flash Six-20

Kodak Brownie Flash Six-20

I found this Flash Six-20 at a yard sale a couple years ago.  It was missing the carrying strap, but otherwise seemed in shootable condition.  When I got the camera home, however, I found that there was a small misalignment in the metal case which made it very hard to reassemble after loading film.  I put it aside, and only got around to looking at it again recently when I was planning a visit to a car show at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.  Some determined jiggling of the parts showed that the camera could be used, so I rerolled some TMAX 120 onto the 620 spool.  The camera has only two adjustments: a choice of Instant or Bulb for the shutter setting, and focus settings of "5 to 10 Feet" and "Beyond 10 Feet".  The curved back film plane compensates pretty well for the limitations of the simple meniscus lens, though there is a little darkness in the corners of the images.

The car show consisted of many fine examples of the Ford Model T belonging to the members of the Albuquerque Model T club.  They parked them first in front of the Museum's B-29 and then drove them over in front of the B-52 for some additional photo ops.

I thought this little panel truck was particularly interesting.

Vredeborch Felica

I found this spiffy little Felica recently on ebay.  The camera has some things in common with my all-time favorite box camera, the Ansco Panda.  The Felica is only a little less compact than the tiny Panda, and it also has a 60mm focal length meniscus lens, which produces a wide-angle view compared to most 6x6 format cameras.  Additionally, the Felica has a full focusing lens, shutter speed choices of 1/25, 1/50 and B as well as "cloud" and "sun" settings which are equal to f8 and f16.  A lever on the shutter housing can toggle in a yellow filter behind the lens.  The eye-level finder on the Felica is a little easier to use in bright sun than the waist-level type found on many box cameras including the Panda.  Another nice feature is that the camera can use standard 120 roll film, which makes film loading quite a bit more  convenient than the 620 Kodaks from the same era.  The company made several variations of the design including one which puts sixteen 6x4.5 images on a 120 roll.  As it says on the face plate, the Felica was made in West Germany, probably in about 1957.

Some shots from the first roll:

La Cieneguilla

I first visited the petroglyph site at La Cieneguilla shortly after we moved to Albuquerque in the Fall of 2008.  I was pleased sometime later when one of my shots of the Autumn foliage there was featured on the BLM web site for the area.  Recently, though, I noted that the picture has been reduced to a size which leaves much to the imagination, so I'm posting it here again.

The Cieneguilla site is a few miles south of the Santa Fe Airport at the west end of Galisteo Basin.

I drove up to La Cieneguilla again yesterday.  I was climbing up to the rimrock by 6:30, but it was already getting warm, and clambering over the rocks to get close to the petroglyphs was a challenge.  It is an effort worth making, however, because of the quantity and variety of rock art on display.  The site is particularly renowned for the large number of hunchback flute player images, but there are representatives of a great many of the designs found all along the valley of the Rio Grande and its tributaries.

Kokopeli

Procession

Whimsically recumbent Kokopeli

The Elk Hunter

I shot the Fuji 200 color in my Leica-copy FED 1g with the Jupiter-12 35mm lens and the matching wide-angle viewfinder.  My shutter repair seems to be holding up well, but I did get a little over-lap in a few frames.  Probably time for a more thorough cleaning.

I also exposed ten shots on TMAX 100 in one of my Kodak Duo Six-20 folders.  I have four of these 6x4.5 Kodaks which I like very much.  The one with the Anastigmat 4.5 lens and the Compur shutter works well.  I was planning on giving it some more exercise, but the heat and the terrain got the best of me. Next time, I'll take less gear and more water.

Species Thought Extinct Found in London

The Guardian has a piece today about recent inductees to the photo agency, Magnum.  One is Matt Stuart, a London street photographer.  Here is a snippet of the "About" page on his web site:

FAQS

How long have you been shooting on the street? 20 years.

What film camera do you use? I use a Leica MP with a 35mm f2 Leica Summicron lens

What film do you use? Fuji Superia 200/400

How many rolls of film do you use a week? At least three rolls a day. I never leave the house without my camera...

La Bajada

I drove an hour north of Albuquerque yesterday to enjoy the morning's cool breeze and a sunrise walk at La Bajada.

La Bajada is best known today for the remnants of the old Route 66 alignment which snakes up over the escarpment above the Santa Fe River. That famous roadway, however, was preceded by older north/south routes including the colonial Spanish Camino Real which stretched all the way from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Before that, the local native people followed trails across the mesas and down the river canyon for thousands of years. Many petroglyphs can be seen on the slopes beside the eroded Bajada roadway which are thought to date mostly from the height of the Puebloan period between AD 1300-1600.

An acequia at the base of the escarpment carries Santa Fe River water to cultivated fields and pastures around the village of La Bajada.

Petroglyphs along the La Bajada route are mostly in the Rio Grande style.  Some like the small horned serpent figure are nearly identical to glyphs at La Rinconada forty miles to the south.

The Sandia Mountains east of Albuquerque can be seen in the far distance in the scene below.  In the foreground a large, cryptic design covers the upper surface of a large basalt boulder.  On the other side of the boulder there are a number of zoomorphic figures.

There are said to be petroglyphs all along the five-mile stretch of the Santa Fe river canyon between La Bajada and La Cieneguilla where there is a concentration of thousands of petroglyphs along the rimrock above a marshy area.

Perhaps when the weather cools in the Fall I'll try hiking to the top of La Bajada and down through the river canyon.