#agfarapid — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #agfarapid, aggregated by home.social.
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Looking Ahead: My Intentions For 2026
About this time last year, I jotted down some intentions for 2025, ‘a few ideas of the things that I really want to do over the coming twelve months’. I did quite well with these: I resurrected a few old cameras, like the Kodak 1A and 3A folding cameras, and the Vest Pocket Kodak; I finally got to use the medium format half-frame beastie that’s the Bencini Koroll 2; and I actually used my only 127 film in the Purma Special on a 127 Day this year. I also tumbled down the rabbit hole that was the Rapid film system, which led to some great fun with colour emulsions, redscaling, and even trying some EBS photography, or exposing both sides of the emulsion, and of course I added a load more weird and wonderful cameras to my collection.
The only part of my ‘intentions’ for 2025 that I didn’t really get anywhere with was glitching; taking a perfectly good photograph in digital format and altering the data contained in it to produce a corrupted image. As a reminder, images can be glitched in a number of ways: with a Hex Editor, to alter details of individual pixels in an image; processing a digital photograph in a program not intended for editing image files; or using a script in a programming language to corrupt the file. This is known as databending, but there is also circuit bending, which either takes an image and corrupts it using a specially made image processor, or using a camera where the hardware within the camera has been physically altered so that the image saved to the card is corrupted.
A corrupted 3D image, taken with the Fujifilm W3 Real 3d stereo digital camera. The file has been databent by processing the file in the audio editing program Audacity.I already have one circuit bent camera, and also a couple of cameras with failing sensors that produce lovely glitchy images, but I’ve also recently obtained an old Digital8 video camera that I hope will allow me to use a circuit bent device called the Mismatcher Petite to corrupt digital images and videos. This year, I also picked up a scanner, the Epson Perfection v750 Pro flatbed scanner, and a little micro computer to use it with. Onto this computer I’ve loaded some of the programs and applications that I hope will aid me with databending and glitching.
The Mismatcher Petite, an image modification device the I’ll use in conjunction with the Sony Digital8 camera below.I’ve not forgotten film, of course, and although I’m not really in a position to soup and develop my own films, perhaps I can ‘glitch’ some instant film, or deliberately introduce light leaks to exposed 35mm and medium format film, for instance. Of course, there will always be new (to me) cameras to play with, and if last year is anything to go by, not all of these are light tight, and I have several rolls of expired film to use. With glitching, be it digital or film, you never quite know what result you’ll get, and that for me is what will make the coming year so exciting.
A digital image taken with an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and a homemade Deakinizer (a wide-angle effect lens held reversed over the lens). The image has been databent by processing the image in the audio editor, Audacity.If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Adapters #AgfaRapid #Cassette #CircuitBending #Databending #Experimental #Expired #Glitch #Inspiration #Intentions #LoFi #Motivation #Rapid #VintageCamera
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Looking Ahead: My Intentions For 2026
About this time last year, I jotted down some intentions for 2025, ‘a few ideas of the things that I really want to do over the coming twelve months’. I did quite well with these: I resurrected a few old cameras, like the Kodak 1A and 3A folding cameras, and the Vest Pocket Kodak; I finally got to use the medium format half-frame beastie that’s the Bencini Koroll 2; and I actually used my only 127 film in the Purma Special on a 127 Day this year. I also tumbled down the rabbit hole that was the Rapid film system, which led to some great fun with colour emulsions, redscaling, and even trying some EBS photography, or exposing both sides of the emulsion, and of course I added a load more weird and wonderful cameras to my collection.
The only part of my ‘intentions’ for 2025 that I didn’t really get anywhere with was glitching; taking a perfectly good photograph in digital format and altering the data contained in it to produce a corrupted image. As a reminder, images can be glitched in a number of ways: with a Hex Editor, to alter details of individual pixels in an image; processing a digital photograph in a program not intended for editing image files; or using a script in a programming language to corrupt the file. This is known as databending, but there is also circuit bending, which either takes an image and corrupts it using a specially made image processor, or using a camera where the hardware within the camera has been physically altered so that the image saved to the card is corrupted.
A corrupted 3D image, taken with the Fujifilm W3 Real 3d stereo digital camera. The file has been databent by processing the file in the audio editing program Audacity.I already have one circuit bent camera, and also a couple of cameras with failing sensors that produce lovely glitchy images, but I’ve also recently obtained an old Digital8 video camera that I hope will allow me to use a circuit bent device called the Mismatcher Petite to corrupt digital images and videos. This year, I also picked up a scanner, the Epson Perfection v750 Pro flatbed scanner, and a little micro computer to use it with. Onto this computer I’ve loaded some of the programs and applications that I hope will aid me with databending and glitching.
The Mismatcher Petite, an image modification device the I’ll use in conjunction with the Sony Digital8 camera below.I’ve not forgotten film, of course, and although I’m not really in a position to soup and develop my own films, perhaps I can ‘glitch’ some instant film, or deliberately introduce light leaks to exposed 35mm and medium format film, for instance. Of course, there will always be new (to me) cameras to play with, and if last year is anything to go by, not all of these are light tight, and I have several rolls of expired film to use. With glitching, be it digital or film, you never quite know what result you’ll get, and that for me is what will make the coming year so exciting.
A digital image taken with an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and a homemade Deakinizer (a wide-angle effect lens held reversed over the lens). The image has been databent by processing the image in the audio editor, Audacity.If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Adapters #AgfaRapid #Cassette #CircuitBending #Databending #Experimental #Expired #Glitch #Inspiration #Intentions #LoFi #Motivation #Rapid #VintageCamera
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Looking Ahead: My Intentions For 2026
About this time last year, I jotted down some intentions for 2025, ‘a few ideas of the things that I really want to do over the coming twelve months’. I did quite well with these: I resurrected a few old cameras, like the Kodak 1A and 3A folding cameras, and the Vest Pocket Kodak; I finally got to use the medium format half-frame beastie that’s the Bencini Koroll 2; and I actually used my only 127 film in the Purma Special on a 127 Day this year. I also tumbled down the rabbit hole that was the Rapid film system, which led to some great fun with colour emulsions, redscaling, and even trying some EBS photography, or exposing both sides of the emulsion, and of course I added a load more weird and wonderful cameras to my collection.
The only part of my ‘intentions’ for 2025 that I didn’t really get anywhere with was glitching; taking a perfectly good photograph in digital format and altering the data contained in it to produce a corrupted image. As a reminder, images can be glitched in a number of ways: with a Hex Editor, to alter details of individual pixels in an image; processing a digital photograph in a program not intended for editing image files; or using a script in a programming language to corrupt the file. This is known as databending, but there is also circuit bending, which either takes an image and corrupts it using a specially made image processor, or using a camera where the hardware within the camera has been physically altered so that the image saved to the card is corrupted.
A corrupted 3D image, taken with the Fujifilm W3 Real 3d stereo digital camera. The file has been databent by processing the file in the audio editing program Audacity.I already have one circuit bent camera, and also a couple of cameras with failing sensors that produce lovely glitchy images, but I’ve also recently obtained an old Digital8 video camera that I hope will allow me to use a circuit bent device called the Mismatcher Petite to corrupt digital images and videos. This year, I also picked up a scanner, the Epson Perfection v750 Pro flatbed scanner, and a little micro computer to use it with. Onto this computer I’ve loaded some of the programs and applications that I hope will aid me with databending and glitching.
The Mismatcher Petite, an image modification device the I’ll use in conjunction with the Sony Digital8 camera below.I’ve not forgotten film, of course, and although I’m not really in a position to soup and develop my own films, perhaps I can ‘glitch’ some instant film, or deliberately introduce light leaks to exposed 35mm and medium format film, for instance. Of course, there will always be new (to me) cameras to play with, and if last year is anything to go by, not all of these are light tight, and I have several rolls of expired film to use. With glitching, be it digital or film, you never quite know what result you’ll get, and that for me is what will make the coming year so exciting.
A digital image taken with an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and a homemade Deakinizer (a wide-angle effect lens held reversed over the lens). The image has been databent by processing the image in the audio editor, Audacity.If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Adapters #AgfaRapid #Cassette #CircuitBending #Databending #Experimental #Expired #Glitch #Inspiration #Intentions #LoFi #Motivation #Rapid #VintageCamera
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Looking Ahead: My Intentions For 2026
About this time last year, I jotted down some intentions for 2025, ‘a few ideas of the things that I really want to do over the coming twelve months’. I did quite well with these: I resurrected a few old cameras, like the Kodak 1A and 3A folding cameras, and the Vest Pocket Kodak; I finally got to use the medium format half-frame beastie that’s the Bencini Koroll 2; and I actually used my only 127 film in the Purma Special on a 127 Day this year. I also tumbled down the rabbit hole that was the Rapid film system, which led to some great fun with colour emulsions, redscaling, and even trying some EBS photography, or exposing both sides of the emulsion, and of course I added a load more weird and wonderful cameras to my collection.
The only part of my ‘intentions’ for 2025 that I didn’t really get anywhere with was glitching; taking a perfectly good photograph in digital format and altering the data contained in it to produce a corrupted image. As a reminder, images can be glitched in a number of ways: with a Hex Editor, to alter details of individual pixels in an image; processing a digital photograph in a program not intended for editing image files; or using a script in a programming language to corrupt the file. This is known as databending, but there is also circuit bending, which either takes an image and corrupts it using a specially made image processor, or using a camera where the hardware within the camera has been physically altered so that the image saved to the card is corrupted.
A corrupted 3D image, taken with the Fujifilm W3 Real 3d stereo digital camera. The file has been databent by processing the file in the audio editing program Audacity.I already have one circuit bent camera, and also a couple of cameras with failing sensors that produce lovely glitchy images, but I’ve also recently obtained an old Digital8 video camera that I hope will allow me to use a circuit bent device called the Mismatcher Petite to corrupt digital images and videos. This year, I also picked up a scanner, the Epson Perfection v750 Pro flatbed scanner, and a little micro computer to use it with. Onto this computer I’ve loaded some of the programs and applications that I hope will aid me with databending and glitching.
The Mismatcher Petite, an image modification device the I’ll use in conjunction with the Sony Digital8 camera below.I’ve not forgotten film, of course, and although I’m not really in a position to soup and develop my own films, perhaps I can ‘glitch’ some instant film, or deliberately introduce light leaks to exposed 35mm and medium format film, for instance. Of course, there will always be new (to me) cameras to play with, and if last year is anything to go by, not all of these are light tight, and I have several rolls of expired film to use. With glitching, be it digital or film, you never quite know what result you’ll get, and that for me is what will make the coming year so exciting.
A digital image taken with an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and a homemade Deakinizer (a wide-angle effect lens held reversed over the lens). The image has been databent by processing the image in the audio editor, Audacity.If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Adapters #AgfaRapid #Cassette #CircuitBending #Databending #Experimental #Expired #Glitch #Inspiration #Intentions #LoFi #Motivation #Rapid #VintageCamera
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Looking Ahead: My Intentions For 2026
About this time last year, I jotted down some intentions for 2025, ‘a few ideas of the things that I really want to do over the coming twelve months’. I did quite well with these: I resurrected a few old cameras, like the Kodak 1A and 3A folding cameras, and the Vest Pocket Kodak; I finally got to use the medium format half-frame beastie that’s the Bencini Koroll 2; and I actually used my only 127 film in the Purma Special on a 127 Day this year. I also tumbled down the rabbit hole that was the Rapid film system, which led to some great fun with colour emulsions, redscaling, and even trying some EBS photography, or exposing both sides of the emulsion, and of course I added a load more weird and wonderful cameras to my collection.
The only part of my ‘intentions’ for 2025 that I didn’t really get anywhere with was glitching; taking a perfectly good photograph in digital format and altering the data contained in it to produce a corrupted image. As a reminder, images can be glitched in a number of ways: with a Hex Editor, to alter details of individual pixels in an image; processing a digital photograph in a program not intended for editing image files; or using a script in a programming language to corrupt the file. This is known as databending, but there is also circuit bending, which either takes an image and corrupts it using a specially made image processor, or using a camera where the hardware within the camera has been physically altered so that the image saved to the card is corrupted.
A corrupted 3D image, taken with the Fujifilm W3 Real 3d stereo digital camera. The file has been databent by processing the file in the audio editing program Audacity.I already have one circuit bent camera, and also a couple of cameras with failing sensors that produce lovely glitchy images, but I’ve also recently obtained an old Digital8 video camera that I hope will allow me to use a circuit bent device called the Mismatcher Petite to corrupt digital images and videos. This year, I also picked up a scanner, the Epson Perfection v750 Pro flatbed scanner, and a little micro computer to use it with. Onto this computer I’ve loaded some of the programs and applications that I hope will aid me with databending and glitching.
The Mismatcher Petite, an image modification device the I’ll use in conjunction with the Sony Digital8 camera below.I’ve not forgotten film, of course, and although I’m not really in a position to soup and develop my own films, perhaps I can ‘glitch’ some instant film, or deliberately introduce light leaks to exposed 35mm and medium format film, for instance. Of course, there will always be new (to me) cameras to play with, and if last year is anything to go by, not all of these are light tight, and I have several rolls of expired film to use. With glitching, be it digital or film, you never quite know what result you’ll get, and that for me is what will make the coming year so exciting.
A digital image taken with an Olympus Pen E-PL1 and a homemade Deakinizer (a wide-angle effect lens held reversed over the lens). The image has been databent by processing the image in the audio editor, Audacity.If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Adapters #AgfaRapid #Cassette #CircuitBending #Databending #Experimental #Expired #Glitch #Inspiration #Intentions #LoFi #Motivation #Rapid #VintageCamera
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The #FrugalFilmProject, July 2025: The One Where We Tried To Expose Both Sides
This month I thought it would be fun to try something different with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera). EBS photography, or Expose Both Sides, is exactly what it sounds like. First exposing a film normally in the camera — with the emulsion side facing the subject — but then reversing the film, reloading that into the camera, and exposing the whole film again — this time with the emulsion side facing away from the subject.
There are a few factors that need to be borne in mind when conducting EBS photography, like slightly underexposing each side so that the multiple exposures balance out to give a ‘properly exposed’ film, and deciding whether its important to you if the frames on each side are lined up or not. I loaded the Golden Wonder with a canister of Harman Phoenix, but this time I inserted a little bit of film into the take-up canister and marked the position of the film gate on the film. By doing this I hoped that I could line up the frames when I exposed the other side of the film. I reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to ‘1’.
We took the camera to Barra, where I took photographs around the beach, and later finished the roll in Oliveira do Bairro. When metering the exposures I tried to underexpose the film slightly by taking each image 1-stop under the suggested reading from the Camera Meter app. Once the film was exposed, it was time to turn it over and reload it back into the Golden Wonder. Inside the dark bag I fed the previously exposed film into another Rapid canister, but this time I fed it backwards, as if for redscaling, with the emulsion side facing outwards.
Once loaded into the canister, I pulled a bit of film out of the canister until I could see the gate markings that I made for the first exposure. I marked the emulsion side of the film with the markings in the same position and loaded the canisters into the camera so the film was in the same position. I then reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to number ‘1’. By doing this, I hoped that the frames on each side were lined up.
I took the Golden Wonder on a walk around Águas Boas, a nearby village, and photographed walls, trees and various textures. When taking the photos I held the camera upside down so that the orientation of the images on the both sides would be in the same direction. On completion, the film was taken to Forever Blue in Aveiro and scanned at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
On return from the lab, looking at the negatives one thing was immediately apparent: the frames weren’t lined up. In fact they were almost precisely 50% off, so there was a big band down the centre of the first exposure which was the ‘between frames’ unexposed part of the film of the second exposure. Also, the ‘redscaled’ second exposure was well overexposed compared to the first exposure, so most of the details of the first exposure were completely lost. I had tried to underexpose the second exposure by going 1-stop unter the exposure, but clearly it didn’t work.
A couple of the images came out really well, and I was pleased there was some success, but most of them were an unintelligible mess. At the end of the roll, there were a few more redscale images, and these came out really well. I’m definitely going to try some EBS with Rapid films again, though, but next time I might use a different camera to the Golden Wonder. Still, it’s now challenging me to get the frames lined up.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #EBS #ExposeBothSides #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta
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The #FrugalFilmProject, July 2025: The One Where We Tried To Expose Both Sides
This month I thought it would be fun to try something different with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera). EBS photography, or Expose Both Sides, is exactly what it sounds like. First exposing a film normally in the camera — with the emulsion side facing the subject — but then reversing the film, reloading that into the camera, and exposing the whole film again — this time with the emulsion side facing away from the subject.
There are a few factors that need to be borne in mind when conducting EBS photography, like slightly underexposing each side so that the multiple exposures balance out to give a ‘properly exposed’ film, and deciding whether its important to you if the frames on each side are lined up or not. I loaded the Golden Wonder with a canister of Harman Phoenix, but this time I inserted a little bit of film into the take-up canister and marked the position of the film gate on the film. By doing this I hoped that I could line up the frames when I exposed the other side of the film. I reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to ‘1’.
We took the camera to Barra, where I took photographs around the beach, and later finished the roll in Oliveira do Bairro. When metering the exposures I tried to underexpose the film slightly by taking each image 1-stop under the suggested reading from the Camera Meter app. Once the film was exposed, it was time to turn it over and reload it back into the Golden Wonder. Inside the dark bag I fed the previously exposed film into another Rapid canister, but this time I fed it backwards, as if for redscaling, with the emulsion side facing outwards.
Once loaded into the canister, I pulled a bit of film out of the canister until I could see the gate markings that I made for the first exposure. I marked the emulsion side of the film with the markings in the same position and loaded the canisters into the camera so the film was in the same position. I then reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to number ‘1’. By doing this, I hoped that the frames on each side were lined up.
I took the Golden Wonder on a walk around Águas Boas, a nearby village, and photographed walls, trees and various textures. When taking the photos I held the camera upside down so that the orientation of the images on the both sides would be in the same direction. On completion, the film was taken to Forever Blue in Aveiro and scanned at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
On return from the lab, looking at the negatives one thing was immediately apparent: the frames weren’t lined up. In fact they were almost precisely 50% off, so there was a big band down the centre of the first exposure which was the ‘between frames’ unexposed part of the film of the second exposure. Also, the ‘redscaled’ second exposure was well overexposed compared to the first exposure, so most of the details of the first exposure were completely lost. I had tried to underexpose the second exposure by going 1-stop unter the exposure, but clearly it didn’t work.
A couple of the images came out really well, and I was pleased there was some success, but most of them were an unintelligible mess. At the end of the roll, there were a few more redscale images, and these came out really well. I’m definitely going to try some EBS with Rapid films again, though, but next time I might use a different camera to the Golden Wonder. Still, it’s now challenging me to get the frames lined up.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #EBS #ExposeBothSides #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta
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The #FrugalFilmProject, July 2025: The One Where We Tried To Expose Both Sides
This month I thought it would be fun to try something different with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera). EBS photography, or Expose Both Sides, is exactly what it sounds like. First exposing a film normally in the camera — with the emulsion side facing the subject — but then reversing the film, reloading that into the camera, and exposing the whole film again — this time with the emulsion side facing away from the subject.
There are a few factors that need to be borne in mind when conducting EBS photography, like slightly underexposing each side so that the multiple exposures balance out to give a ‘properly exposed’ film, and deciding whether its important to you if the frames on each side are lined up or not. I loaded the Golden Wonder with a canister of Harman Phoenix, but this time I inserted a little bit of film into the take-up canister and marked the position of the film gate on the film. By doing this I hoped that I could line up the frames when I exposed the other side of the film. I reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to ‘1’.
We took the camera to Barra, where I took photographs around the beach, and later finished the roll in Oliveira do Bairro. When metering the exposures I tried to underexpose the film slightly by taking each image 1-stop under the suggested reading from the Camera Meter app. Once the film was exposed, it was time to turn it over and reload it back into the Golden Wonder. Inside the dark bag I fed the previously exposed film into another Rapid canister, but this time I fed it backwards, as if for redscaling, with the emulsion side facing outwards.
Once loaded into the canister, I pulled a bit of film out of the canister until I could see the gate markings that I made for the first exposure. I marked the emulsion side of the film with the markings in the same position and loaded the canisters into the camera so the film was in the same position. I then reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to number ‘1’. By doing this, I hoped that the frames on each side were lined up.
I took the Golden Wonder on a walk around Águas Boas, a nearby village, and photographed walls, trees and various textures. When taking the photos I held the camera upside down so that the orientation of the images on the both sides would be in the same direction. On completion, the film was taken to Forever Blue in Aveiro and scanned at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
On return from the lab, looking at the negatives one thing was immediately apparent: the frames weren’t lined up. In fact they were almost precisely 50% off, so there was a big band down the centre of the first exposure which was the ‘between frames’ unexposed part of the film of the second exposure. Also, the ‘redscaled’ second exposure was well overexposed compared to the first exposure, so most of the details of the first exposure were completely lost. I had tried to underexpose the second exposure by going 1-stop unter the exposure, but clearly it didn’t work.
A couple of the images came out really well, and I was pleased there was some success, but most of them were an unintelligible mess. At the end of the roll, there were a few more redscale images, and these came out really well. I’m definitely going to try some EBS with Rapid films again, though, but next time I might use a different camera to the Golden Wonder. Still, it’s now challenging me to get the frames lined up.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #EBS #ExposeBothSides #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta
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The #FrugalFilmProject, July 2025: The One Where We Tried To Expose Both Sides
This month I thought it would be fun to try something different with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera). EBS photography, or Expose Both Sides, is exactly what it sounds like. First exposing a film normally in the camera — with the emulsion side facing the subject — but then reversing the film, reloading that into the camera, and exposing the whole film again — this time with the emulsion side facing away from the subject.
There are a few factors that need to be borne in mind when conducting EBS photography, like slightly underexposing each side so that the multiple exposures balance out to give a ‘properly exposed’ film, and deciding whether its important to you if the frames on each side are lined up or not. I loaded the Golden Wonder with a canister of Harman Phoenix, but this time I inserted a little bit of film into the take-up canister and marked the position of the film gate on the film. By doing this I hoped that I could line up the frames when I exposed the other side of the film. I reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to ‘1’.
We took the camera to Barra, where I took photographs around the beach, and later finished the roll in Oliveira do Bairro. When metering the exposures I tried to underexpose the film slightly by taking each image 1-stop under the suggested reading from the Camera Meter app. Once the film was exposed, it was time to turn it over and reload it back into the Golden Wonder. Inside the dark bag I fed the previously exposed film into another Rapid canister, but this time I fed it backwards, as if for redscaling, with the emulsion side facing outwards.
Once loaded into the canister, I pulled a bit of film out of the canister until I could see the gate markings that I made for the first exposure. I marked the emulsion side of the film with the markings in the same position and loaded the canisters into the camera so the film was in the same position. I then reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to number ‘1’. By doing this, I hoped that the frames on each side were lined up.
I took the Golden Wonder on a walk around Águas Boas, a nearby village, and photographed walls, trees and various textures. When taking the photos I held the camera upside down so that the orientation of the images on the both sides would be in the same direction. On completion, the film was taken to Forever Blue in Aveiro and scanned at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
On return from the lab, looking at the negatives one thing was immediately apparent: the frames weren’t lined up. In fact they were almost precisely 50% off, so there was a big band down the centre of the first exposure which was the ‘between frames’ unexposed part of the film of the second exposure. Also, the ‘redscaled’ second exposure was well overexposed compared to the first exposure, so most of the details of the first exposure were completely lost. I had tried to underexpose the second exposure by going 1-stop unter the exposure, but clearly it didn’t work.
A couple of the images came out really well, and I was pleased there was some success, but most of them were an unintelligible mess. At the end of the roll, there were a few more redscale images, and these came out really well. I’m definitely going to try some EBS with Rapid films again, though, but next time I might use a different camera to the Golden Wonder. Still, it’s now challenging me to get the frames lined up.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #EBS #ExposeBothSides #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta
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The #FrugalFilmProject, July 2025: The One Where We Tried To Expose Both Sides
This month I thought it would be fun to try something different with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera). EBS photography, or Expose Both Sides, is exactly what it sounds like. First exposing a film normally in the camera — with the emulsion side facing the subject — but then reversing the film, reloading that into the camera, and exposing the whole film again — this time with the emulsion side facing away from the subject.
There are a few factors that need to be borne in mind when conducting EBS photography, like slightly underexposing each side so that the multiple exposures balance out to give a ‘properly exposed’ film, and deciding whether its important to you if the frames on each side are lined up or not. I loaded the Golden Wonder with a canister of Harman Phoenix, but this time I inserted a little bit of film into the take-up canister and marked the position of the film gate on the film. By doing this I hoped that I could line up the frames when I exposed the other side of the film. I reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to ‘1’.
We took the camera to Barra, where I took photographs around the beach, and later finished the roll in Oliveira do Bairro. When metering the exposures I tried to underexpose the film slightly by taking each image 1-stop under the suggested reading from the Camera Meter app. Once the film was exposed, it was time to turn it over and reload it back into the Golden Wonder. Inside the dark bag I fed the previously exposed film into another Rapid canister, but this time I fed it backwards, as if for redscaling, with the emulsion side facing outwards.
Once loaded into the canister, I pulled a bit of film out of the canister until I could see the gate markings that I made for the first exposure. I marked the emulsion side of the film with the markings in the same position and loaded the canisters into the camera so the film was in the same position. I then reset the frame counter to zero, closed the camera, and fired off two shots to take the counter to number ‘1’. By doing this, I hoped that the frames on each side were lined up.
I took the Golden Wonder on a walk around Águas Boas, a nearby village, and photographed walls, trees and various textures. When taking the photos I held the camera upside down so that the orientation of the images on the both sides would be in the same direction. On completion, the film was taken to Forever Blue in Aveiro and scanned at home with an Epson Perfection v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
On return from the lab, looking at the negatives one thing was immediately apparent: the frames weren’t lined up. In fact they were almost precisely 50% off, so there was a big band down the centre of the first exposure which was the ‘between frames’ unexposed part of the film of the second exposure. Also, the ‘redscaled’ second exposure was well overexposed compared to the first exposure, so most of the details of the first exposure were completely lost. I had tried to underexpose the second exposure by going 1-stop unter the exposure, but clearly it didn’t work.
A couple of the images came out really well, and I was pleased there was some success, but most of them were an unintelligible mess. At the end of the roll, there were a few more redscale images, and these came out really well. I’m definitely going to try some EBS with Rapid films again, though, but next time I might use a different camera to the Golden Wonder. Still, it’s now challenging me to get the frames lined up.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #EBS #ExposeBothSides #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta
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Further and Further Down the Rabbit Hole: The Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid
Every time I say to myself, ‘I have enough cameras now,’ somehow another one always seems to grab my attention. I wasn’t looking for another Rapid camera, but then a Voigtländer Vitoret D popped up during a random browse on eBay, something, ‘Inspired by your recent search ‘. It was reasonably priced, and with several days to go before the auction came to an end no-one had made any bids. I added it to my watchlist and left it alone, popping in to see what was happening from time to time.
With a few hours to go before the end of the auction there were still no bids for this Rapid camera. I had checked the reviews of the seller already, which were positive, and the condition of the camera was described as, ‘beautiful, fully functional condition (tested) with only minor signs of wear’. With this in mind, I put in a minimum bid, and waited until the auction was closed. There were no further bids, and the Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid was mine.
The Vitoret D is a manual focus camera made by Voigtländer and introduced c.1962. There is a ‘normal’ 35mm version, but my model is the Rapid version that uses Agfa Rapid film canisters. It has a rounded body, which dates it to before 1966, when a modified model was released with squarer body corners. It comes with a 40mm f2.8 Color-Lanthar lens, with apertures between f2.8 and f22, and a Prontor 300 leaf shutter, with speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s and 1/300s (+ B).
According to the description, the ‘optics are clean, with no dust, fungus, or fungus residue. The shutter speeds run smoothly and even at long exposures. The leather trim is not worn.’ So it should be in good condition. The Vitoret D Rapid has an uncoupled selenium cell in a window to the right of the lens, and you can see the suggested exposure reading on a little window on the top of the camera, where in a normal camera the rewind knob might be. I’m not sure if this works properly but I can use the camera meter app and set the camera manually.
On its arrival, I could see that the Vitoret D was in lovely cosmetic condition, with few signs of use and a lovely clear lens. However, on checking the shutter speeds and apertures, although the faster speeds of 1/125s and 1/300s sounded fine, the slower speeds of 1/60s, 1/30s, and B, lagged terribly. This is something I will raise with the seller. The apertures were fine, though.
Naturally, I was keen to see how the camera performed, so I loaded the Vitoret D with a canister of Harman Phoenix and set off for a walk ‘around the block’. For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160, which is the speed I normally use with Harman Phoenix. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. However, there were also a lot of light leaks, and in some instances the image was more light leak than subject. Despite these faults, I really like the camera, and will certainly try it out again. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #VitoretRapidD #Voigtländer
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Further and Further Down the Rabbit Hole: The Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid
Every time I say to myself, ‘I have enough cameras now,’ somehow another one always seems to grab my attention. I wasn’t looking for another Rapid camera, but then a Voigtländer Vitoret D popped up during a random browse on eBay, something, ‘Inspired by your recent search ‘. It was reasonably priced, and with several days to go before the auction came to an end no-one had made any bids. I added it to my watchlist and left it alone, popping in to see what was happening from time to time.
With a few hours to go before the end of the auction there were still no bids for this Rapid camera. I had checked the reviews of the seller already, which were positive, and the condition of the camera was described as, ‘beautiful, fully functional condition (tested) with only minor signs of wear’. With this in mind, I put in a minimum bid, and waited until the auction was closed. There were no further bids, and the Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid was mine.
The Vitoret D is a manual focus camera made by Voigtländer and introduced c.1962. There is a ‘normal’ 35mm version, but my model is the Rapid version that uses Agfa Rapid film canisters. It has a rounded body, which dates it to before 1966, when a modified model was released with squarer body corners. It comes with a 40mm f2.8 Color-Lanthar lens, with apertures between f2.8 and f22, and a Prontor 300 leaf shutter, with speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s and 1/300s (+ B).
According to the description, the ‘optics are clean, with no dust, fungus, or fungus residue. The shutter speeds run smoothly and even at long exposures. The leather trim is not worn.’ So it should be in good condition. The Vitoret D Rapid has an uncoupled selenium cell in a window to the right of the lens, and you can see the suggested exposure reading on a little window on the top of the camera, where in a normal camera the rewind knob might be. I’m not sure if this works properly but I can use the camera meter app and set the camera manually.
On its arrival, I could see that the Vitoret D was in lovely cosmetic condition, with few signs of use and a lovely clear lens. However, on checking the shutter speeds and apertures, although the faster speeds of 1/125s and 1/300s sounded fine, the slower speeds of 1/60s, 1/30s, and B, lagged terribly. This is something I will raise with the seller. The apertures were fine, though.
Naturally, I was keen to see how the camera performed, so I loaded the Vitoret D with a canister of Harman Phoenix and set off for a walk ‘around the block’. For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160, which is the speed I normally use with Harman Phoenix. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. However, there were also a lot of light leaks, and in some instances the image was more light leak than subject. Despite these faults, I really like the camera, and will certainly try it out again. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #VitoretRapidD #Voigtländer
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Further and Further Down the Rabbit Hole: The Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid
Every time I say to myself, ‘I have enough cameras now,’ somehow another one always seems to grab my attention. I wasn’t looking for another Rapid camera, but then a Voigtländer Vitoret D popped up during a random browse on eBay, something, ‘Inspired by your recent search ‘. It was reasonably priced, and with several days to go before the auction came to an end no-one had made any bids. I added it to my watchlist and left it alone, popping in to see what was happening from time to time.
With a few hours to go before the end of the auction there were still no bids for this Rapid camera. I had checked the reviews of the seller already, which were positive, and the condition of the camera was described as, ‘beautiful, fully functional condition (tested) with only minor signs of wear’. With this in mind, I put in a minimum bid, and waited until the auction was closed. There were no further bids, and the Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid was mine.
The Vitoret D is a manual focus camera made by Voigtländer and introduced c.1962. There is a ‘normal’ 35mm version, but my model is the Rapid version that uses Agfa Rapid film canisters. It has a rounded body, which dates it to before 1966, when a modified model was released with squarer body corners. It comes with a 40mm f2.8 Color-Lanthar lens, with apertures between f2.8 and f22, and a Prontor 300 leaf shutter, with speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s and 1/300s (+ B).
According to the description, the ‘optics are clean, with no dust, fungus, or fungus residue. The shutter speeds run smoothly and even at long exposures. The leather trim is not worn.’ So it should be in good condition. The Vitoret D Rapid has an uncoupled selenium cell in a window to the right of the lens, and you can see the suggested exposure reading on a little window on the top of the camera, where in a normal camera the rewind knob might be. I’m not sure if this works properly but I can use the camera meter app and set the camera manually.
On its arrival, I could see that the Vitoret D was in lovely cosmetic condition, with few signs of use and a lovely clear lens. However, on checking the shutter speeds and apertures, although the faster speeds of 1/125s and 1/300s sounded fine, the slower speeds of 1/60s, 1/30s, and B, lagged terribly. This is something I will raise with the seller. The apertures were fine, though.
Naturally, I was keen to see how the camera performed, so I loaded the Vitoret D with a canister of Harman Phoenix and set off for a walk ‘around the block’. For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160, which is the speed I normally use with Harman Phoenix. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. However, there were also a lot of light leaks, and in some instances the image was more light leak than subject. Despite these faults, I really like the camera, and will certainly try it out again. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #VitoretRapidD #Voigtländer
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Further and Further Down the Rabbit Hole: The Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid
Every time I say to myself, ‘I have enough cameras now,’ somehow another one always seems to grab my attention. I wasn’t looking for another Rapid camera, but then a Voigtländer Vitoret D popped up during a random browse on eBay, something, ‘Inspired by your recent search ‘. It was reasonably priced, and with several days to go before the auction came to an end no-one had made any bids. I added it to my watchlist and left it alone, popping in to see what was happening from time to time.
With a few hours to go before the end of the auction there were still no bids for this Rapid camera. I had checked the reviews of the seller already, which were positive, and the condition of the camera was described as, ‘beautiful, fully functional condition (tested) with only minor signs of wear’. With this in mind, I put in a minimum bid, and waited until the auction was closed. There were no further bids, and the Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid was mine.
The Vitoret D is a manual focus camera made by Voigtländer and introduced c.1962. There is a ‘normal’ 35mm version, but my model is the Rapid version that uses Agfa Rapid film canisters. It has a rounded body, which dates it to before 1966, when a modified model was released with squarer body corners. It comes with a 40mm f2.8 Color-Lanthar lens, with apertures between f2.8 and f22, and a Prontor 300 leaf shutter, with speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s and 1/300s (+ B).
According to the description, the ‘optics are clean, with no dust, fungus, or fungus residue. The shutter speeds run smoothly and even at long exposures. The leather trim is not worn.’ So it should be in good condition. The Vitoret D Rapid has an uncoupled selenium cell in a window to the right of the lens, and you can see the suggested exposure reading on a little window on the top of the camera, where in a normal camera the rewind knob might be. I’m not sure if this works properly but I can use the camera meter app and set the camera manually.
On its arrival, I could see that the Vitoret D was in lovely cosmetic condition, with few signs of use and a lovely clear lens. However, on checking the shutter speeds and apertures, although the faster speeds of 1/125s and 1/300s sounded fine, the slower speeds of 1/60s, 1/30s, and B, lagged terribly. This is something I will raise with the seller. The apertures were fine, though.
Naturally, I was keen to see how the camera performed, so I loaded the Vitoret D with a canister of Harman Phoenix and set off for a walk ‘around the block’. For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160, which is the speed I normally use with Harman Phoenix. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. However, there were also a lot of light leaks, and in some instances the image was more light leak than subject. Despite these faults, I really like the camera, and will certainly try it out again. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #VitoretRapidD #Voigtländer
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Further and Further Down the Rabbit Hole: The Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid
Every time I say to myself, ‘I have enough cameras now,’ somehow another one always seems to grab my attention. I wasn’t looking for another Rapid camera, but then a Voigtländer Vitoret D popped up during a random browse on eBay, something, ‘Inspired by your recent search ‘. It was reasonably priced, and with several days to go before the auction came to an end no-one had made any bids. I added it to my watchlist and left it alone, popping in to see what was happening from time to time.
With a few hours to go before the end of the auction there were still no bids for this Rapid camera. I had checked the reviews of the seller already, which were positive, and the condition of the camera was described as, ‘beautiful, fully functional condition (tested) with only minor signs of wear’. With this in mind, I put in a minimum bid, and waited until the auction was closed. There were no further bids, and the Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid was mine.
The Vitoret D is a manual focus camera made by Voigtländer and introduced c.1962. There is a ‘normal’ 35mm version, but my model is the Rapid version that uses Agfa Rapid film canisters. It has a rounded body, which dates it to before 1966, when a modified model was released with squarer body corners. It comes with a 40mm f2.8 Color-Lanthar lens, with apertures between f2.8 and f22, and a Prontor 300 leaf shutter, with speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s and 1/300s (+ B).
According to the description, the ‘optics are clean, with no dust, fungus, or fungus residue. The shutter speeds run smoothly and even at long exposures. The leather trim is not worn.’ So it should be in good condition. The Vitoret D Rapid has an uncoupled selenium cell in a window to the right of the lens, and you can see the suggested exposure reading on a little window on the top of the camera, where in a normal camera the rewind knob might be. I’m not sure if this works properly but I can use the camera meter app and set the camera manually.
On its arrival, I could see that the Vitoret D was in lovely cosmetic condition, with few signs of use and a lovely clear lens. However, on checking the shutter speeds and apertures, although the faster speeds of 1/125s and 1/300s sounded fine, the slower speeds of 1/60s, 1/30s, and B, lagged terribly. This is something I will raise with the seller. The apertures were fine, though.
Naturally, I was keen to see how the camera performed, so I loaded the Vitoret D with a canister of Harman Phoenix and set off for a walk ‘around the block’. For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160, which is the speed I normally use with Harman Phoenix. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. However, there were also a lot of light leaks, and in some instances the image was more light leak than subject. Despite these faults, I really like the camera, and will certainly try it out again. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #VitoretRapidD #Voigtländer
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A Karat Film Camera That Wasn’t Made By Agfa: The Bilora Radix 35 BH
I came across an odd one the other day. I was searching for some history on the Karat film system, the original version of Agfa’s Rapid system launched (or relaunched) in the 1960s, and naturally Chrome suggested an article by Mike Eckman. Keppler’s Vault 84: AGFA Rapid Film, is a thorough history of the Rapid film system. It delves into the history of the format, notably that the Rapid film system was based on a revival of Agfa’s Karat film from the 1930s and 40s. (Interestingly, Karat film was an attempt to compete with Kodak’s 35mm cassette.)
In the post, Mike Eckman discusses the history of the Rapid film system with reference to a couple of contemporary articles from the 1960s. ‘The second article’, Eckman writes, ‘is from August 1964, and … tells some of the history of the format, even alluding to a very rare Bilora Radix Karat camera that was introduced in 1949 ….’ Mentally, my ears pricked up. What? A Karat camera not made by Agfa? Of course, my curiosity was raised so I started a search for this elusive ‘Bilora Radix camera’.
Turns out that there is quite a bit of information out there about the Radix. It was only around for a few years, from 1948 until about 1952, and it was bad timing by the Bilora camera company, better known for its cheap box cameras, to launch a Karat format camera just as Agfa was winding down its own operations in favour of using the dominant 35mm film cassette. There were a whole range of Radix cameras, from models with a fixed shutter speed, but a variable aperture, to models with five shutter speeds.
Well, by now I really wanted to get my hands on one of these cameras, so turned my attention to that popular auction site. There were a few variations available in Europe, and prices were not that bad. I found one interesting item in Germany. ‘For sale is an old camera that shoots in the 135mm square format using 24×24 film’, the advert for the item said (in German). ‘I found it in a store, bought it home, and used it to shoot two rolls of FomaPAN200.’ Unusually for an eBay post, this advert actually included two or three images taken with the camera, and they weren’t bad.
‘Although this camera isn’t famous,’ the description continued, ‘it’s still an improved version of the RADIX series with adjustable shutter speeds. The lens is clear and scratch- and fungus-free, and the shutter is precise and stick-free.’ According to the description and photographs the camera even included two Rapid canisters, so now I was really interested. Fortunately, I won the auction, although someone did try to snap it up at the last second, but didn’t bid higher than my max bid, and the auction closed.
The Bilora Radix is a strange beast. Yes, it looks like a normal camera, but the shutter button is not a button but a serrated lever that slides left to right. The shutter speed dial is a knob on the front of the camera to the right of the lens, and the back is removed by twisting the two lugs on the back of the camera which comes off in one piece. The aperture is changed by a small lever on the front of the lens, and this model was known as the Radix 35 because it is fited with an f3.5 lens. Another model, fitted with an f5.6 lens is known as the Radix 56. I think this version is one of the later models in the Radix range, and I reckon that it dates from the early 1950s. All in all, it’s in pretty good condition for a 70-year-old camera.
This version of the Radix is quite sophisticated compared to others in the Range, with variable shutter speeds and apertures. It also came with two Rapid canisters, which was really useful. The take-up canister is nice and lose in its space, but the full/delivery canister was really tight. I’m wondering if this is because of a difference between Rapid and Karat canisters, and I’m going to have to compare these later, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the function of the camera.
In the meantime, I’m going to load the Radix with a roll of Harman Phoenix redscaled film that I have loaded in a canister and take that to Aveiro. One thing I did find about the Radix is that when you open the back it doesn’t reset to 0, the numbers just continually cycle around. I wound the camera back to the dot after ’16’ and loaded the canister of Phoenix. I fired off two frames, but instead of a ‘1’ appearing for the start of the film, an ‘A’ appeared, followed by a dot. In fact, it looks like these frame indicator goes, ‘1 … 16 . . . A . 1 …’. But hopefully it’ll work OK.
As the film was redscaled I rated it at ISO 100, and set the shutter speed to 1/200s, the fastest shutter speed of the Radix. To judge the correct exposure, I used the Camera Meter app. It was a cloudy day, and around Aveiro the suggested aperture for the redscaled Harman Phoenix film was mainly between f16 and f8.
Aside from a couple of images in Oiã, I only managed about 6 exposures in total from what turned out to be a really short piece of film, and only one was from Aveiro. There were a few light leaks, and I’m still not sure where these were from, but I was delighted with the images that turned out and I can’t wait to get out with the Bilora Radix again soon. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Agfa #AgfaKarat #AgfaRapid #Bilora #BiloraRadix #Canister #Experimental #Karat #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage #Radix
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A Karat Film Camera That Wasn’t Made By Agfa: The Bilora Radix 35 BH
I came across an odd one the other day. I was searching for some history on the Karat film system, the original version of Agfa’s Rapid system launched (or relaunched) in the 1960s, and naturally Chrome suggested an article by Mike Eckman. Keppler’s Vault 84: AGFA Rapid Film, is a thorough history of the Rapid film system. It delves into the history of the format, notably that the Rapid film system was based on a revival of Agfa’s Karat film from the 1930s and 40s. (Interestingly, Karat film was an attempt to compete with Kodak’s 35mm cassette.)
In the post, Mike Eckman discusses the history of the Rapid film system with reference to a couple of contemporary articles from the 1960s. ‘The second article’, Eckman writes, ‘is from August 1964, and … tells some of the history of the format, even alluding to a very rare Bilora Radix Karat camera that was introduced in 1949 ….’ Mentally, my ears pricked up. What? A Karat camera not made by Agfa? Of course, my curiosity was raised so I started a search for this elusive ‘Bilora Radix camera’.
Turns out that there is quite a bit of information out there about the Radix. It was only around for a few years, from 1948 until about 1952, and it was bad timing by the Bilora camera company, better known for its cheap box cameras, to launch a Karat format camera just as Agfa was winding down its own operations in favour of using the dominant 35mm film cassette. There were a whole range of Radix cameras, from models with a fixed shutter speed, but a variable aperture, to models with five shutter speeds.
Well, by now I really wanted to get my hands on one of these cameras, so turned my attention to that popular auction site. There were a few variations available in Europe, and prices were not that bad. I found one interesting item in Germany. ‘For sale is an old camera that shoots in the 135mm square format using 24×24 film’, the advert for the item said (in German). ‘I found it in a store, bought it home, and used it to shoot two rolls of FomaPAN200.’ Unusually for an eBay post, this advert actually included two or three images taken with the camera, and they weren’t bad.
‘Although this camera isn’t famous,’ the description continued, ‘it’s still an improved version of the RADIX series with adjustable shutter speeds. The lens is clear and scratch- and fungus-free, and the shutter is precise and stick-free.’ According to the description and photographs the camera even included two Rapid canisters, so now I was really interested. Fortunately, I won the auction, although someone did try to snap it up at the last second, but didn’t bid higher than my max bid, and the auction closed.
The Bilora Radix is a strange beast. Yes, it looks like a normal camera, but the shutter button is not a button but a serrated lever that slides left to right. The shutter speed dial is a knob on the front of the camera to the right of the lens, and the back is removed by twisting the two lugs on the back of the camera which comes off in one piece. The aperture is changed by a small lever on the front of the lens, and this model was known as the Radix 35 because it is fited with an f3.5 lens. Another model, fitted with an f5.6 lens is known as the Radix 56. I think this version is one of the later models in the Radix range, and I reckon that it dates from the early 1950s. All in all, it’s in pretty good condition for a 70-year-old camera.
This version of the Radix is quite sophisticated compared to others in the Range, with variable shutter speeds and apertures. It also came with two Rapid canisters, which was really useful. The take-up canister is nice and lose in its space, but the full/delivery canister was really tight. I’m wondering if this is because of a difference between Rapid and Karat canisters, and I’m going to have to compare these later, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the function of the camera.
In the meantime, I’m going to load the Radix with a roll of Harman Phoenix redscaled film that I have loaded in a canister and take that to Aveiro. One thing I did find about the Radix is that when you open the back it doesn’t reset to 0, the numbers just continually cycle around. I wound the camera back to the dot after ’16’ and loaded the canister of Phoenix. I fired off two frames, but instead of a ‘1’ appearing for the start of the film, an ‘A’ appeared, followed by a dot. In fact, it looks like these frame indicator goes, ‘1 … 16 . . . A . 1 …’. But hopefully it’ll work OK.
As the film was redscaled I rated it at ISO 100, and set the shutter speed to 1/200s, the fastest shutter speed of the Radix. To judge the correct exposure, I used the Camera Meter app. It was a cloudy day, and around Aveiro the suggested aperture for the redscaled Harman Phoenix film was mainly between f16 and f8.
Aside from a couple of images in Oiã, I only managed about 6 exposures in total from what turned out to be a really short piece of film, and only one was from Aveiro. There were a few light leaks, and I’m still not sure where these were from, but I was delighted with the images that turned out and I can’t wait to get out with the Bilora Radix again soon. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Agfa #AgfaKarat #AgfaRapid #Bilora #BiloraRadix #Canister #Experimental #Karat #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage #Radix
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A Karat Film Camera That Wasn’t Made By Agfa: The Bilora Radix 35 BH
I came across an odd one the other day. I was searching for some history on the Karat film system, the original version of Agfa’s Rapid system launched (or relaunched) in the 1960s, and naturally Chrome suggested an article by Mike Eckman. Keppler’s Vault 84: AGFA Rapid Film, is a thorough history of the Rapid film system. It delves into the history of the format, notably that the Rapid film system was based on a revival of Agfa’s Karat film from the 1930s and 40s. (Interestingly, Karat film was an attempt to compete with Kodak’s 35mm cassette.)
In the post, Mike Eckman discusses the history of the Rapid film system with reference to a couple of contemporary articles from the 1960s. ‘The second article’, Eckman writes, ‘is from August 1964, and … tells some of the history of the format, even alluding to a very rare Bilora Radix Karat camera that was introduced in 1949 ….’ Mentally, my ears pricked up. What? A Karat camera not made by Agfa? Of course, my curiosity was raised so I started a search for this elusive ‘Bilora Radix camera’.
Turns out that there is quite a bit of information out there about the Radix. It was only around for a few years, from 1948 until about 1952, and it was bad timing by the Bilora camera company, better known for its cheap box cameras, to launch a Karat format camera just as Agfa was winding down its own operations in favour of using the dominant 35mm film cassette. There were a whole range of Radix cameras, from models with a fixed shutter speed, but a variable aperture, to models with five shutter speeds.
Well, by now I really wanted to get my hands on one of these cameras, so turned my attention to that popular auction site. There were a few variations available in Europe, and prices were not that bad. I found one interesting item in Germany. ‘For sale is an old camera that shoots in the 135mm square format using 24×24 film’, the advert for the item said (in German). ‘I found it in a store, bought it home, and used it to shoot two rolls of FomaPAN200.’ Unusually for an eBay post, this advert actually included two or three images taken with the camera, and they weren’t bad.
‘Although this camera isn’t famous,’ the description continued, ‘it’s still an improved version of the RADIX series with adjustable shutter speeds. The lens is clear and scratch- and fungus-free, and the shutter is precise and stick-free.’ According to the description and photographs the camera even included two Rapid canisters, so now I was really interested. Fortunately, I won the auction, although someone did try to snap it up at the last second, but didn’t bid higher than my max bid, and the auction closed.
The Bilora Radix is a strange beast. Yes, it looks like a normal camera, but the shutter button is not a button but a serrated lever that slides left to right. The shutter speed dial is a knob on the front of the camera to the right of the lens, and the back is removed by twisting the two lugs on the back of the camera which comes off in one piece. The aperture is changed by a small lever on the front of the lens, and this model was known as the Radix 35 because it is fited with an f3.5 lens. Another model, fitted with an f5.6 lens is known as the Radix 56. I think this version is one of the later models in the Radix range, and I reckon that it dates from the early 1950s. All in all, it’s in pretty good condition for a 70-year-old camera.
This version of the Radix is quite sophisticated compared to others in the Range, with variable shutter speeds and apertures. It also came with two Rapid canisters, which was really useful. The take-up canister is nice and lose in its space, but the full/delivery canister was really tight. I’m wondering if this is because of a difference between Rapid and Karat canisters, and I’m going to have to compare these later, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the function of the camera.
In the meantime, I’m going to load the Radix with a roll of Harman Phoenix redscaled film that I have loaded in a canister and take that to Aveiro. One thing I did find about the Radix is that when you open the back it doesn’t reset to 0, the numbers just continually cycle around. I wound the camera back to the dot after ’16’ and loaded the canister of Phoenix. I fired off two frames, but instead of a ‘1’ appearing for the start of the film, an ‘A’ appeared, followed by a dot. In fact, it looks like these frame indicator goes, ‘1 … 16 . . . A . 1 …’. But hopefully it’ll work OK.
As the film was redscaled I rated it at ISO 100, and set the shutter speed to 1/200s, the fastest shutter speed of the Radix. To judge the correct exposure, I used the Camera Meter app. It was a cloudy day, and around Aveiro the suggested aperture for the redscaled Harman Phoenix film was mainly between f16 and f8.
Aside from a couple of images in Oiã, I only managed about 6 exposures in total from what turned out to be a really short piece of film, and only one was from Aveiro. There were a few light leaks, and I’m still not sure where these were from, but I was delighted with the images that turned out and I can’t wait to get out with the Bilora Radix again soon. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Agfa #AgfaKarat #AgfaRapid #Bilora #BiloraRadix #Canister #Experimental #Karat #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage #Radix
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A Karat Film Camera That Wasn’t Made By Agfa: The Bilora Radix 35 BH
I came across an odd one the other day. I was searching for some history on the Karat film system, the original version of Agfa’s Rapid system launched (or relaunched) in the 1960s, and naturally Chrome suggested an article by Mike Eckman. Keppler’s Vault 84: AGFA Rapid Film, is a thorough history of the Rapid film system. It delves into the history of the format, notably that the Rapid film system was based on a revival of Agfa’s Karat film from the 1930s and 40s. (Interestingly, Karat film was an attempt to compete with Kodak’s 35mm cassette.)
In the post, Mike Eckman discusses the history of the Rapid film system with reference to a couple of contemporary articles from the 1960s. ‘The second article’, Eckman writes, ‘is from August 1964, and … tells some of the history of the format, even alluding to a very rare Bilora Radix Karat camera that was introduced in 1949 ….’ Mentally, my ears pricked up. What? A Karat camera not made by Agfa? Of course, my curiosity was raised so I started a search for this elusive ‘Bilora Radix camera’.
Turns out that there is quite a bit of information out there about the Radix. It was only around for a few years, from 1948 until about 1952, and it was bad timing by the Bilora camera company, better known for its cheap box cameras, to launch a Karat format camera just as Agfa was winding down its own operations in favour of using the dominant 35mm film cassette. There were a whole range of Radix cameras, from models with a fixed shutter speed, but a variable aperture, to models with five shutter speeds.
Well, by now I really wanted to get my hands on one of these cameras, so turned my attention to that popular auction site. There were a few variations available in Europe, and prices were not that bad. I found one interesting item in Germany. ‘For sale is an old camera that shoots in the 135mm square format using 24×24 film’, the advert for the item said (in German). ‘I found it in a store, bought it home, and used it to shoot two rolls of FomaPAN200.’ Unusually for an eBay post, this advert actually included two or three images taken with the camera, and they weren’t bad.
‘Although this camera isn’t famous,’ the description continued, ‘it’s still an improved version of the RADIX series with adjustable shutter speeds. The lens is clear and scratch- and fungus-free, and the shutter is precise and stick-free.’ According to the description and photographs the camera even included two Rapid canisters, so now I was really interested. Fortunately, I won the auction, although someone did try to snap it up at the last second, but didn’t bid higher than my max bid, and the auction closed.
The Bilora Radix is a strange beast. Yes, it looks like a normal camera, but the shutter button is not a button but a serrated lever that slides left to right. The shutter speed dial is a knob on the front of the camera to the right of the lens, and the back is removed by twisting the two lugs on the back of the camera which comes off in one piece. The aperture is changed by a small lever on the front of the lens, and this model was known as the Radix 35 because it is fited with an f3.5 lens. Another model, fitted with an f5.6 lens is known as the Radix 56. I think this version is one of the later models in the Radix range, and I reckon that it dates from the early 1950s. All in all, it’s in pretty good condition for a 70-year-old camera.
This version of the Radix is quite sophisticated compared to others in the Range, with variable shutter speeds and apertures. It also came with two Rapid canisters, which was really useful. The take-up canister is nice and lose in its space, but the full/delivery canister was really tight. I’m wondering if this is because of a difference between Rapid and Karat canisters, and I’m going to have to compare these later, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the function of the camera.
In the meantime, I’m going to load the Radix with a roll of Harman Phoenix redscaled film that I have loaded in a canister and take that to Aveiro. One thing I did find about the Radix is that when you open the back it doesn’t reset to 0, the numbers just continually cycle around. I wound the camera back to the dot after ’16’ and loaded the canister of Phoenix. I fired off two frames, but instead of a ‘1’ appearing for the start of the film, an ‘A’ appeared, followed by a dot. In fact, it looks like these frame indicator goes, ‘1 … 16 . . . A . 1 …’. But hopefully it’ll work OK.
As the film was redscaled I rated it at ISO 100, and set the shutter speed to 1/200s, the fastest shutter speed of the Radix. To judge the correct exposure, I used the Camera Meter app. It was a cloudy day, and around Aveiro the suggested aperture for the redscaled Harman Phoenix film was mainly between f16 and f8.
Aside from a couple of images in Oiã, I only managed about 6 exposures in total from what turned out to be a really short piece of film, and only one was from Aveiro. There were a few light leaks, and I’m still not sure where these were from, but I was delighted with the images that turned out and I can’t wait to get out with the Bilora Radix again soon. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Agfa #AgfaKarat #AgfaRapid #Bilora #BiloraRadix #Canister #Experimental #Karat #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage #Radix
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A Karat Film Camera That Wasn’t Made By Agfa: The Bilora Radix 35 BH
I came across an odd one the other day. I was searching for some history on the Karat film system, the original version of Agfa’s Rapid system launched (or relaunched) in the 1960s, and naturally Chrome suggested an article by Mike Eckman. Keppler’s Vault 84: AGFA Rapid Film, is a thorough history of the Rapid film system. It delves into the history of the format, notably that the Rapid film system was based on a revival of Agfa’s Karat film from the 1930s and 40s. (Interestingly, Karat film was an attempt to compete with Kodak’s 35mm cassette.)
In the post, Mike Eckman discusses the history of the Rapid film system with reference to a couple of contemporary articles from the 1960s. ‘The second article’, Eckman writes, ‘is from August 1964, and … tells some of the history of the format, even alluding to a very rare Bilora Radix Karat camera that was introduced in 1949 ….’ Mentally, my ears pricked up. What? A Karat camera not made by Agfa? Of course, my curiosity was raised so I started a search for this elusive ‘Bilora Radix camera’.
Turns out that there is quite a bit of information out there about the Radix. It was only around for a few years, from 1948 until about 1952, and it was bad timing by the Bilora camera company, better known for its cheap box cameras, to launch a Karat format camera just as Agfa was winding down its own operations in favour of using the dominant 35mm film cassette. There were a whole range of Radix cameras, from models with a fixed shutter speed, but a variable aperture, to models with five shutter speeds.
Well, by now I really wanted to get my hands on one of these cameras, so turned my attention to that popular auction site. There were a few variations available in Europe, and prices were not that bad. I found one interesting item in Germany. ‘For sale is an old camera that shoots in the 135mm square format using 24×24 film’, the advert for the item said (in German). ‘I found it in a store, bought it home, and used it to shoot two rolls of FomaPAN200.’ Unusually for an eBay post, this advert actually included two or three images taken with the camera, and they weren’t bad.
‘Although this camera isn’t famous,’ the description continued, ‘it’s still an improved version of the RADIX series with adjustable shutter speeds. The lens is clear and scratch- and fungus-free, and the shutter is precise and stick-free.’ According to the description and photographs the camera even included two Rapid canisters, so now I was really interested. Fortunately, I won the auction, although someone did try to snap it up at the last second, but didn’t bid higher than my max bid, and the auction closed.
The Bilora Radix is a strange beast. Yes, it looks like a normal camera, but the shutter button is not a button but a serrated lever that slides left to right. The shutter speed dial is a knob on the front of the camera to the right of the lens, and the back is removed by twisting the two lugs on the back of the camera which comes off in one piece. The aperture is changed by a small lever on the front of the lens, and this model was known as the Radix 35 because it is fited with an f3.5 lens. Another model, fitted with an f5.6 lens is known as the Radix 56. I think this version is one of the later models in the Radix range, and I reckon that it dates from the early 1950s. All in all, it’s in pretty good condition for a 70-year-old camera.
This version of the Radix is quite sophisticated compared to others in the Range, with variable shutter speeds and apertures. It also came with two Rapid canisters, which was really useful. The take-up canister is nice and lose in its space, but the full/delivery canister was really tight. I’m wondering if this is because of a difference between Rapid and Karat canisters, and I’m going to have to compare these later, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the function of the camera.
In the meantime, I’m going to load the Radix with a roll of Harman Phoenix redscaled film that I have loaded in a canister and take that to Aveiro. One thing I did find about the Radix is that when you open the back it doesn’t reset to 0, the numbers just continually cycle around. I wound the camera back to the dot after ’16’ and loaded the canister of Phoenix. I fired off two frames, but instead of a ‘1’ appearing for the start of the film, an ‘A’ appeared, followed by a dot. In fact, it looks like these frame indicator goes, ‘1 … 16 . . . A . 1 …’. But hopefully it’ll work OK.
As the film was redscaled I rated it at ISO 100, and set the shutter speed to 1/200s, the fastest shutter speed of the Radix. To judge the correct exposure, I used the Camera Meter app. It was a cloudy day, and around Aveiro the suggested aperture for the redscaled Harman Phoenix film was mainly between f16 and f8.
Aside from a couple of images in Oiã, I only managed about 6 exposures in total from what turned out to be a really short piece of film, and only one was from Aveiro. There were a few light leaks, and I’m still not sure where these were from, but I was delighted with the images that turned out and I can’t wait to get out with the Bilora Radix again soon. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.
#Agfa #AgfaKarat #AgfaRapid #Bilora #BiloraRadix #Canister #Experimental #Karat #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage #Radix
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Starting on 14 April is the next Folder Week, a Challenge that's new to me but is a great idea to get out some of the many folding cameras that I seem to be accumulating. The plan is to use the KW Patent Etui from the 1920s with the 118 roll film back, but worst case, the 1940s Agfa Karat could be a worthy substitute.
#LargeFormat, #Folder, #FolderWeek, #1920s, #PatentEtui, #AgfaRapid, -
Starting on 14 April is the next Folder Week, a Challenge that's new to me but is a great idea to get out some of the many folding cameras that I seem to be accumulating. The plan is to use the KW Patent Etui from the 1920s with the 118 roll film back, but worst case, the 1940s Agfa Karat could be a worthy substitute.
#LargeFormat, #Folder, #FolderWeek, #1920s, #PatentEtui, #AgfaRapid, -
Starting on 14 April is the next Folder Week, a Challenge that's new to me but is a great idea to get out some of the many folding cameras that I seem to be accumulating. The plan is to use the KW Patent Etui from the 1920s with the 118 roll film back, but worst case, the 1940s Agfa Karat could be a worthy substitute.
#LargeFormat, #Folder, #FolderWeek, #1920s, #PatentEtui, #AgfaRapid, -
Starting on 14 April is the next Folder Week, a Challenge that's new to me but is a great idea to get out some of the many folding cameras that I seem to be accumulating. The plan is to use the KW Patent Etui from the 1920s with the 118 roll film back, but worst case, the 1940s Agfa Karat could be a worthy substitute.
#LargeFormat, #Folder, #FolderWeek, #1920s, #PatentEtui, #AgfaRapid, -
Starting on 14 April is the next Folder Week, a Challenge that's new to me but is a great idea to get out some of the many folding cameras that I seem to be accumulating. The plan is to use the KW Patent Etui from the 1920s with the 118 roll film back, but worst case, the 1940s Agfa Karat could be a worthy substitute.
#LargeFormat, #Folder, #FolderWeek, #1920s, #PatentEtui, #AgfaRapid, -
The Agfa Karat worked a treat! OK, the lens was full of haze, but the actual images weren't half bad ...
#AgfaRapid #Karat #HarmanPhoenix -
The Agfa Karat worked a treat! OK, the lens was full of haze, but the actual images weren't half bad ...
#AgfaRapid #Karat #HarmanPhoenix -
The Agfa Karat worked a treat! OK, the lens was full of haze, but the actual images weren't half bad ...
#AgfaRapid #Karat #HarmanPhoenix -
The Agfa Karat worked a treat! OK, the lens was full of haze, but the actual images weren't half bad ...
#AgfaRapid #Karat #HarmanPhoenix -
The Agfa Karat worked a treat! OK, the lens was full of haze, but the actual images weren't half bad ...
#AgfaRapid #Karat #HarmanPhoenix -
Decanted some Harman Phoenix 35mm film into a couple of Rapid canisters this morning in anticipation of good weather on Tuesday. Loaded one of the canisters into the 1940s Agfa Karat.
#HarmanPhoenix #AgfaRapid -
Decanted some Harman Phoenix 35mm film into a couple of Rapid canisters this morning in anticipation of good weather on Tuesday. Loaded one of the canisters into the 1940s Agfa Karat.
#HarmanPhoenix #AgfaRapid -
Decanted some Harman Phoenix 35mm film into a couple of Rapid canisters this morning in anticipation of good weather on Tuesday. Loaded one of the canisters into the 1940s Agfa Karat.
#HarmanPhoenix #AgfaRapid -
Decanted some Harman Phoenix 35mm film into a couple of Rapid canisters this morning in anticipation of good weather on Tuesday. Loaded one of the canisters into the 1940s Agfa Karat.
#HarmanPhoenix #AgfaRapid -
Decanted some Harman Phoenix 35mm film into a couple of Rapid canisters this morning in anticipation of good weather on Tuesday. Loaded one of the canisters into the 1940s Agfa Karat.
#HarmanPhoenix #AgfaRapid -
A brief interlude: The Agfa Silette Rapid F
From 1953 until 1974 Agfa released a family of 35mm cameras known as the Silette series. A basic manual focus viewfinder camera, these came in various forms and with different features. In the early 1960s, Agfa released a Rapid film version in competition with Kodak’s introduction of instamatic film. In fact, they released three Rapid versions, the Silette Rapid I, the Rapid L, and the Rapid F.
All three Rapid cameras had the same characteristics as their 35mm counterparts, but instead of a cold shoe for an external flash, the Rapid F (and Silette F) had a small translucent window and a flip up lid into which a flash bulbs could be plugged. The flash bulb was powered by a Pertrix No. 74 battery, but otherwise the camera was wholly mechanical. The Agfa Rapid F has a 45mm f2.8 Agnar lens and a Parator shutter with speeds of 1/30s – 1/250s (plus B and a synchro flash speed, but I’m not sure what this is). It has a four leaf iris, with apertures from f2.8 – f22.
Being a Rapid camera, the top of the camera is plain with the wind on lever on the bottom left of the camera. One wind of this will push the film one frame from the full Rapid canister on the left to the empty canister on the right.
On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw and the film counter, which counts down from 12 to one. When the count reaches 1, the shutter is disabled and you can only wind on to finish the film. The position of the ratchets that catch the film sprockets to move the film suggests that a leader of about 40mm of film is left outside the canister.
My particular model, the Agfa Silette Rapid F, was picked up for 20€ from the Not Passed category of the Kamerastore website. Although it has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, the only thing that was wrong with this camera was that the little translucent window for the flashgun was missing. Otherwise, it was perfectly sound.
The aperture selection, shutter speed selection, and zone focusing is all set on the lens assembly. Selecting the shutter speed and aperture is quite straightforward, but the focusing confused mess for a second. On the focusing ring, at the top and bottom are two arrows. Rotating the lens moves little icons on the top of the lens, a church and a mountain for infinity, a group of people for middle distance, and two heads for portrait/close up. At the same time, at the bottom of the focusing ring are shown distances in metres and feet. Choosing the right symbol, or setting the distance, should give reasonably close focus.
As I have several Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix film for the Frugal Film Project, I took one of these to use with the Agfa Silette Rapid F. Loading the Rapid F was simple enough, just a question of making sure the wind-on ratchets lined up with the sprockets of the film and slowly advancing the film so that it fed into the empty canister. Then close the back of the camera and shoot two frames until the counter was at zero.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I took the Rapid F to Águas Boas. I took a range of images, long distance, middle distance, and close-up using the symbols on the lens and also the distance markers. To measure the exposure I used an app called Camera Meter. After exposing the film, I decanted the 35mm back into a 35mm cassette and took it to the lab.
The first thing to say about this camera is that it’s a really nice camera to use. All the movements are smooth, and a single wind of the lever moves the film from one frame to the next. The only thing that confused me early on was the focusing with the symbols. But even that became intuitive after a while. I was a little unsure whether the film was feeding properly into the empty canister, but there’s a different ‘feel’ to the wind on lever when film is present in the film gate and when it is not. I noticed that with the Lomo Smena SL, too.
The images came out really well, although with the high contrast Harman Phoenix emulsion some of the highlights were really blown out. I’ll put that down to my faulty exposure reading rather than the camera. One the whole I was really happy with how the Agfa Silette Rapid F performed, and it’s certainly earned its place as a backup camera to the Welta Penti II ‘Golden Wonder’ and the Lomo Smena SL.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #Silette
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A brief interlude: The Agfa Silette Rapid F
From 1953 until 1974 Agfa released a family of 35mm cameras known as the Silette series. A basic manual focus viewfinder camera, these came in various forms and with different features. In the early 1960s, Agfa released a Rapid film version in competition with Kodak’s introduction of instamatic film. In fact, they released three Rapid versions, the Silette Rapid I, the Rapid L, and the Rapid F.
All three Rapid cameras had the same characteristics as their 35mm counterparts, but instead of a cold shoe for an external flash, the Rapid F (and Silette F) had a small translucent window and a flip up lid into which a flash bulbs could be plugged. The flash bulb was powered by a Pertrix No. 74 battery, but otherwise the camera was wholly mechanical. The Agfa Rapid F has a 45mm f2.8 Agnar lens and a Parator shutter with speeds of 1/30s – 1/250s (plus B and a synchro flash speed, but I’m not sure what this is). It has a four leaf iris, with apertures from f2.8 – f22.
Being a Rapid camera, the top of the camera is plain with the wind on lever on the bottom left of the camera. One wind of this will push the film one frame from the full Rapid canister on the left to the empty canister on the right.
On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw and the film counter, which counts down from 12 to one. When the count reaches 1, the shutter is disabled and you can only wind on to finish the film. The position of the ratchets that catch the film sprockets to move the film suggests that a leader of about 40mm of film is left outside the canister.
My particular model, the Agfa Silette Rapid F, was picked up for 20€ from the Not Passed category of the Kamerastore website. Although it has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, the only thing that was wrong with this camera was that the little translucent window for the flashgun was missing. Otherwise, it was perfectly sound.
The aperture selection, shutter speed selection, and zone focusing is all set on the lens assembly. Selecting the shutter speed and aperture is quite straightforward, but the focusing confused mess for a second. On the focusing ring, at the top and bottom are two arrows. Rotating the lens moves little icons on the top of the lens, a church and a mountain for infinity, a group of people for middle distance, and two heads for portrait/close up. At the same time, at the bottom of the focusing ring are shown distances in metres and feet. Choosing the right symbol, or setting the distance, should give reasonably close focus.
As I have several Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix film for the Frugal Film Project, I took one of these to use with the Agfa Silette Rapid F. Loading the Rapid F was simple enough, just a question of making sure the wind-on ratchets lined up with the sprockets of the film and slowly advancing the film so that it fed into the empty canister. Then close the back of the camera and shoot two frames until the counter was at zero.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I took the Rapid F to Águas Boas. I took a range of images, long distance, middle distance, and close-up using the symbols on the lens and also the distance markers. To measure the exposure I used an app called Camera Meter. After exposing the film, I decanted the 35mm back into a 35mm cassette and took it to the lab.
The first thing to say about this camera is that it’s a really nice camera to use. All the movements are smooth, and a single wind of the lever moves the film from one frame to the next. The only thing that confused me early on was the focusing with the symbols. But even that became intuitive after a while. I was a little unsure whether the film was feeding properly into the empty canister, but there’s a different ‘feel’ to the wind on lever when film is present in the film gate and when it is not. I noticed that with the Lomo Smena SL, too.
The images came out really well, although with the high contrast Harman Phoenix emulsion some of the highlights were really blown out. I’ll put that down to my faulty exposure reading rather than the camera. One the whole I was really happy with how the Agfa Silette Rapid F performed, and it’s certainly earned its place as a backup camera to the Welta Penti II ‘Golden Wonder’ and the Lomo Smena SL.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #Silette
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A brief interlude: The Agfa Silette Rapid F
From 1953 until 1974 Agfa released a family of 35mm cameras known as the Silette series. A basic manual focus viewfinder camera, these came in various forms and with different features. In the early 1960s, Agfa released a Rapid film version in competition with Kodak’s introduction of instamatic film. In fact, they released three Rapid versions, the Silette Rapid I, the Rapid L, and the Rapid F.
All three Rapid cameras had the same characteristics as their 35mm counterparts, but instead of a cold shoe for an external flash, the Rapid F (and Silette F) had a small translucent window and a flip up lid into which a flash bulbs could be plugged. The flash bulb was powered by a Pertrix No. 74 battery, but otherwise the camera was wholly mechanical. The Agfa Rapid F has a 45mm f2.8 Agnar lens and a Parator shutter with speeds of 1/30s – 1/250s (plus B and a synchro flash speed, but I’m not sure what this is). It has a four leaf iris, with apertures from f2.8 – f22.
Being a Rapid camera, the top of the camera is plain with the wind on lever on the bottom left of the camera. One wind of this will push the film one frame from the full Rapid canister on the left to the empty canister on the right.
On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw and the film counter, which counts down from 12 to one. When the count reaches 1, the shutter is disabled and you can only wind on to finish the film. The position of the ratchets that catch the film sprockets to move the film suggests that a leader of about 40mm of film is left outside the canister.
My particular model, the Agfa Silette Rapid F, was picked up for 20€ from the Not Passed category of the Kamerastore website. Although it has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, the only thing that was wrong with this camera was that the little translucent window for the flashgun was missing. Otherwise, it was perfectly sound.
The aperture selection, shutter speed selection, and zone focusing is all set on the lens assembly. Selecting the shutter speed and aperture is quite straightforward, but the focusing confused mess for a second. On the focusing ring, at the top and bottom are two arrows. Rotating the lens moves little icons on the top of the lens, a church and a mountain for infinity, a group of people for middle distance, and two heads for portrait/close up. At the same time, at the bottom of the focusing ring are shown distances in metres and feet. Choosing the right symbol, or setting the distance, should give reasonably close focus.
As I have several Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix film for the Frugal Film Project, I took one of these to use with the Agfa Silette Rapid F. Loading the Rapid F was simple enough, just a question of making sure the wind-on ratchets lined up with the sprockets of the film and slowly advancing the film so that it fed into the empty canister. Then close the back of the camera and shoot two frames until the counter was at zero.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I took the Rapid F to Águas Boas. I took a range of images, long distance, middle distance, and close-up using the symbols on the lens and also the distance markers. To measure the exposure I used an app called Camera Meter. After exposing the film, I decanted the 35mm back into a 35mm cassette and took it to the lab.
The first thing to say about this camera is that it’s a really nice camera to use. All the movements are smooth, and a single wind of the lever moves the film from one frame to the next. The only thing that confused me early on was the focusing with the symbols. But even that became intuitive after a while. I was a little unsure whether the film was feeding properly into the empty canister, but there’s a different ‘feel’ to the wind on lever when film is present in the film gate and when it is not. I noticed that with the Lomo Smena SL, too.
The images came out really well, although with the high contrast Harman Phoenix emulsion some of the highlights were really blown out. I’ll put that down to my faulty exposure reading rather than the camera. One the whole I was really happy with how the Agfa Silette Rapid F performed, and it’s certainly earned its place as a backup camera to the Welta Penti II ‘Golden Wonder’ and the Lomo Smena SL.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #Silette
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A brief interlude: The Agfa Silette Rapid F
From 1953 until 1974 Agfa released a family of 35mm cameras known as the Silette series. A basic manual focus viewfinder camera, these came in various forms and with different features. In the early 1960s, Agfa released a Rapid film version in competition with Kodak’s introduction of instamatic film. In fact, they released three Rapid versions, the Silette Rapid I, the Rapid L, and the Rapid F.
All three Rapid cameras had the same characteristics as their 35mm counterparts, but instead of a cold shoe for an external flash, the Rapid F (and Silette F) had a small translucent window and a flip up lid into which a flash bulbs could be plugged. The flash bulb was powered by a Pertrix No. 74 battery, but otherwise the camera was wholly mechanical. The Agfa Rapid F has a 45mm f2.8 Agnar lens and a Parator shutter with speeds of 1/30s – 1/250s (plus B and a synchro flash speed, but I’m not sure what this is). It has a four leaf iris, with apertures from f2.8 – f22.
Being a Rapid camera, the top of the camera is plain with the wind on lever on the bottom left of the camera. One wind of this will push the film one frame from the full Rapid canister on the left to the empty canister on the right.
On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw and the film counter, which counts down from 12 to one. When the count reaches 1, the shutter is disabled and you can only wind on to finish the film. The position of the ratchets that catch the film sprockets to move the film suggests that a leader of about 40mm of film is left outside the canister.
My particular model, the Agfa Silette Rapid F, was picked up for 20€ from the Not Passed category of the Kamerastore website. Although it has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, the only thing that was wrong with this camera was that the little translucent window for the flashgun was missing. Otherwise, it was perfectly sound.
The aperture selection, shutter speed selection, and zone focusing is all set on the lens assembly. Selecting the shutter speed and aperture is quite straightforward, but the focusing confused mess for a second. On the focusing ring, at the top and bottom are two arrows. Rotating the lens moves little icons on the top of the lens, a church and a mountain for infinity, a group of people for middle distance, and two heads for portrait/close up. At the same time, at the bottom of the focusing ring are shown distances in metres and feet. Choosing the right symbol, or setting the distance, should give reasonably close focus.
As I have several Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix film for the Frugal Film Project, I took one of these to use with the Agfa Silette Rapid F. Loading the Rapid F was simple enough, just a question of making sure the wind-on ratchets lined up with the sprockets of the film and slowly advancing the film so that it fed into the empty canister. Then close the back of the camera and shoot two frames until the counter was at zero.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I took the Rapid F to Águas Boas. I took a range of images, long distance, middle distance, and close-up using the symbols on the lens and also the distance markers. To measure the exposure I used an app called Camera Meter. After exposing the film, I decanted the 35mm back into a 35mm cassette and took it to the lab.
The first thing to say about this camera is that it’s a really nice camera to use. All the movements are smooth, and a single wind of the lever moves the film from one frame to the next. The only thing that confused me early on was the focusing with the symbols. But even that became intuitive after a while. I was a little unsure whether the film was feeding properly into the empty canister, but there’s a different ‘feel’ to the wind on lever when film is present in the film gate and when it is not. I noticed that with the Lomo Smena SL, too.
The images came out really well, although with the high contrast Harman Phoenix emulsion some of the highlights were really blown out. I’ll put that down to my faulty exposure reading rather than the camera. One the whole I was really happy with how the Agfa Silette Rapid F performed, and it’s certainly earned its place as a backup camera to the Welta Penti II ‘Golden Wonder’ and the Lomo Smena SL.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #Silette
-
A brief interlude: The Agfa Silette Rapid F
From 1953 until 1974 Agfa released a family of 35mm cameras known as the Silette series. A basic manual focus viewfinder camera, these came in various forms and with different features. In the early 1960s, Agfa released a Rapid film version in competition with Kodak’s introduction of instamatic film. In fact, they released three Rapid versions, the Silette Rapid I, the Rapid L, and the Rapid F.
All three Rapid cameras had the same characteristics as their 35mm counterparts, but instead of a cold shoe for an external flash, the Rapid F (and Silette F) had a small translucent window and a flip up lid into which a flash bulbs could be plugged. The flash bulb was powered by a Pertrix No. 74 battery, but otherwise the camera was wholly mechanical. The Agfa Rapid F has a 45mm f2.8 Agnar lens and a Parator shutter with speeds of 1/30s – 1/250s (plus B and a synchro flash speed, but I’m not sure what this is). It has a four leaf iris, with apertures from f2.8 – f22.
Being a Rapid camera, the top of the camera is plain with the wind on lever on the bottom left of the camera. One wind of this will push the film one frame from the full Rapid canister on the left to the empty canister on the right.
On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw and the film counter, which counts down from 12 to one. When the count reaches 1, the shutter is disabled and you can only wind on to finish the film. The position of the ratchets that catch the film sprockets to move the film suggests that a leader of about 40mm of film is left outside the canister.
My particular model, the Agfa Silette Rapid F, was picked up for 20€ from the Not Passed category of the Kamerastore website. Although it has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, the only thing that was wrong with this camera was that the little translucent window for the flashgun was missing. Otherwise, it was perfectly sound.
The aperture selection, shutter speed selection, and zone focusing is all set on the lens assembly. Selecting the shutter speed and aperture is quite straightforward, but the focusing confused mess for a second. On the focusing ring, at the top and bottom are two arrows. Rotating the lens moves little icons on the top of the lens, a church and a mountain for infinity, a group of people for middle distance, and two heads for portrait/close up. At the same time, at the bottom of the focusing ring are shown distances in metres and feet. Choosing the right symbol, or setting the distance, should give reasonably close focus.
As I have several Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix film for the Frugal Film Project, I took one of these to use with the Agfa Silette Rapid F. Loading the Rapid F was simple enough, just a question of making sure the wind-on ratchets lined up with the sprockets of the film and slowly advancing the film so that it fed into the empty canister. Then close the back of the camera and shoot two frames until the counter was at zero.
It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I took the Rapid F to Águas Boas. I took a range of images, long distance, middle distance, and close-up using the symbols on the lens and also the distance markers. To measure the exposure I used an app called Camera Meter. After exposing the film, I decanted the 35mm back into a 35mm cassette and took it to the lab.
The first thing to say about this camera is that it’s a really nice camera to use. All the movements are smooth, and a single wind of the lever moves the film from one frame to the next. The only thing that confused me early on was the focusing with the symbols. But even that became intuitive after a while. I was a little unsure whether the film was feeding properly into the empty canister, but there’s a different ‘feel’ to the wind on lever when film is present in the film gate and when it is not. I noticed that with the Lomo Smena SL, too.
The images came out really well, although with the high contrast Harman Phoenix emulsion some of the highlights were really blown out. I’ll put that down to my faulty exposure reading rather than the camera. One the whole I was really happy with how the Agfa Silette Rapid F performed, and it’s certainly earned its place as a backup camera to the Welta Penti II ‘Golden Wonder’ and the Lomo Smena SL.
If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.
#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #Silette
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Some Rapid cameras arrived today, bought just for the cassettes. Inside one of them were two cassettes. Peeking out of the cassette was a little bit of film. I think it's colour film, should I get it developed?
#Agfa, #Rapid, #AgfaRapid, #Cassette, #Expired, #IsoRapid, #RapidFilm, #ExpiredFilm, #Experimental, -
Some Rapid cameras arrived today, bought just for the cassettes. Inside one of them were two cassettes. Peeking out of the cassette was a little bit of film. I think it's colour film, should I get it developed?
#Agfa, #Rapid, #AgfaRapid, #Cassette, #Expired, #IsoRapid, #RapidFilm, #ExpiredFilm, #Experimental, -
Some Rapid cameras arrived today, bought just for the cassettes. Inside one of them were two cassettes. Peeking out of the cassette was a little bit of film. I think it's colour film, should I get it developed?
#Agfa, #Rapid, #AgfaRapid, #Cassette, #Expired, #IsoRapid, #RapidFilm, #ExpiredFilm, #Experimental, -
Some Rapid cameras arrived today, bought just for the cassettes. Inside one of them were two cassettes. Peeking out of the cassette was a little bit of film. I think it's colour film, should I get it developed?
#Agfa, #Rapid, #AgfaRapid, #Cassette, #Expired, #IsoRapid, #RapidFilm, #ExpiredFilm, #Experimental, -
Some Rapid cameras arrived today, bought just for the cassettes. Inside one of them were two cassettes. Peeking out of the cassette was a little bit of film. I think it's colour film, should I get it developed?
#Agfa, #Rapid, #AgfaRapid, #Cassette, #Expired, #IsoRapid, #RapidFilm, #ExpiredFilm, #Experimental, -
Bought this Fujica Rapid D1 on a whim thinking it was 35mm half frame, before finding out it takes AGFA rapid. Not a problem, but the USP of rapid format seems to be square format on 35mm so i need a Minolta 24 Rapid as well!
Oh, it's also a wind up camera!
#VintageCamera #AgfaRapid #FujicaRapidD1 #retrocamera #BelieveInFilm
#FilmPhotography #FilmIsNotDead
#AnalogPhotography #Analog #FilmCamera
#FilmFeed #analogue #photography
#IShootFilm #FilmCommunity #FilmPhoto #FilmIsAlive #ShootFilm -
Bought this Fujica Rapid D1 on a whim thinking it was 35mm half frame, before finding out it takes AGFA rapid. Not a problem, but the USP of rapid format seems to be square format on 35mm so i need a Minolta 24 Rapid as well!
Oh, it's also a wind up camera!
#VintageCamera #AgfaRapid #FujicaRapidD1 #retrocamera #BelieveInFilm
#FilmPhotography #FilmIsNotDead
#AnalogPhotography #Analog #FilmCamera
#FilmFeed #analogue #photography
#IShootFilm #FilmCommunity #FilmPhoto #FilmIsAlive #ShootFilm -
Bought this Fujica Rapid D1 on a whim thinking it was 35mm half frame, before finding out it takes AGFA rapid. Not a problem, but the USP of rapid format seems to be square format on 35mm so i need a Minolta 24 Rapid as well!
Oh, it's also a wind up camera!
#VintageCamera #AgfaRapid #FujicaRapidD1 #retrocamera #BelieveInFilm
#FilmPhotography #FilmIsNotDead
#AnalogPhotography #Analog #FilmCamera
#FilmFeed #analogue #photography
#IShootFilm #FilmCommunity #FilmPhoto #FilmIsAlive #ShootFilm -
Bought this Fujica Rapid D1 on a whim thinking it was 35mm half frame, before finding out it takes AGFA rapid. Not a problem, but the USP of rapid format seems to be square format on 35mm so i need a Minolta 24 Rapid as well!
Oh, it's also a wind up camera!
#VintageCamera #AgfaRapid #FujicaRapidD1 #retrocamera #BelieveInFilm
#FilmPhotography #FilmIsNotDead
#AnalogPhotography #Analog #FilmCamera
#FilmFeed #analogue #photography
#IShootFilm #FilmCommunity #FilmPhoto #FilmIsAlive #ShootFilm -
Bought this Fujica Rapid D1 on a whim thinking it was 35mm half frame, before finding out it takes AGFA rapid. Not a problem, but the USP of rapid format seems to be square format on 35mm so i need a Minolta 24 Rapid as well!
Oh, it's also a wind up camera!
#VintageCamera #AgfaRapid #FujicaRapidD1 #retrocamera #BelieveInFilm
#FilmPhotography #FilmIsNotDead
#AnalogPhotography #Analog #FilmCamera
#FilmFeed #analogue #photography
#IShootFilm #FilmCommunity #FilmPhoto #FilmIsAlive #ShootFilm