Innovation Station: Medium Format Macros for the Frugal

Shooters of the 35mm format seem to get all the perks cheaply.  For under $20, one can easily pickup any of a wide number of choices for a competent used shooter taking 135 stock that will pretty much do about all that one can expect, including a wide range of shutter speeds and the ability to close focus on even some of the most basic of cameras, allowing for some great shots with wonderful separation of field.

In the world of medium format however, this wide array of choices quickly vanishes.  For those of us who love working with the larger negative sizes that 120 film offers, securing a decent 120 camera for anywhere under $100 often seems like something of a challenge.  And whether one's 120 camera of choice is ultimately is a TLR, a guess focus folder, or a something more along the lines of the "Texas Leica," the ability to get close can be especially elusive on medium format altogether. 

However, with a little bit of ingenuity and some stubborn determination, one can pretty readily be up and about shooting macros in medium format after having spent less than $20 in equipment for camera and accessories, while having a tremendous amount of fun and involvement in the process! This is the hobby of photography at its most enjoyable and affordable. 

So let's start with a shot taken on Ilford HP5 with focus around infinity.  Pretty decent stuff, though this gate in foreground is completely out of focus.  It'd be great to pull the focus a bit closer...

Hey, now we're getting somewhere, though the ornament is still a bit shy of the sweet spot...

Now that's better!  Any chance focus can be pulled in even further?...

Now this is closer than one typically sees from medium format cameras.  Just how close can we pull in focus?

All the way to the nearest bar in the gate!  By now that once crisp backdrop has been wonderfully muted in the distance.

The camera used to produce these images cost me just $15 in a second hand shop, and is readily found in antique stores or online auction sites at around the same price in ready to use condition.  So what did I use for these medium format macro photos?  This! 

A simple Kodak Brownie Number 2 was used to create all of the images above, by means of a pretty simple technique.

A Kodak Brownie Number 2 was indeed used for all of the above images.  I achieved this "Brownie Bliss" simply by using a number of close up filters (designed for use typically on SLR cameras) placed before the lens to achieve a closer focus point than the typical hyperfocal distance of a Brownie covering from about 10 feet to infinity.  The five images above were taken using (1) no filter, (2) an Ansco Portrait Attachment, (3) a screw in Close Up Filter #1, (4) a screw in Close Up Filter #2, and (5) a screw in Close Up Filter #3.

Using a handful of "Close Up Lenses" I had on hand that I placed over the lens of the Kodak Brownie Number 2, I was able to achieve a nice little bit of Box Camera Magic! 

The idea for this admittedly took far longer than I might want to admit.  A great book of vintage cameras and the photos they take turned me on to the Mayfair Portrait camera, a British made box camera that featured an accessory lens that could snap on to focus more closely for portrait images.  Intrigued as I was at this camera, samples surviving with the accessory lens intact were few and far between, and I soon after forgot about this model.  A few months later, I made another pickup of a collapsible box camera (to be featured soon) that came with its original manual, and made mention of the availability of a "Portrait Attachment" to enable this camera to do the same thing.  Regrettably, searches online for this specific attachment came up empty handed.  

But I came to discover there were a number of other portrait attachments readily available as low as $3, and with little to lose in such an investment, I snapped up an Ansco Portrait attachment designed specifically for a Folding Buster Brown model.  Even after its arrival, it took a few days for me to really get a good look at this lens and what it could do, and by this time, the brain child finally hit me to see what I could do by pressing the close up filters (and even discarded elements of broken rangefinder cameras I'd tried to fix without success) to the front of the box camera.  With the camera on the time setting, and a piece of frosted negative strip holder taped into the film plane, I was both delighted and astonished to see some amazing images through the lens of the Brownie Number 2. 

Deriving optimal focusing distances was accomplished by taping a piece of negative holder along the film plane, opening the shutter, and pointing the camera at a light fixture, while moving fore and aft until achieving focus.  

After taking some notes of what the approximate "perfect" distance was from front of camera to subject using each of the lenses and filters, I came away with a decent set of options for a versatile set of filters that I might be able to use in the field for some photographic fun that would put my guesstimating skills to the test, while also requiring me to frame images with little in the way of visual aids from the camera itself.  I determined that the "Portrait Attachment" seemed ideal for subjects that were roughly 5-6 feet from the front of the camera, while the "Close Up" lenses numbered 1, 2, and 3, were best at distances of just under 3, 2, and 1 feet respectively.  Naturally, the closer one gets to the subject, the less margin for error there is.  I also did a quick test of "Close Up #10" filter and found it achieved focus with subjects about 6 inches from the front of the camera. 

After the initial "safe" examples (where there was a possibility of desired subject paced at any distance from the camera) that are shown above, it was time to cut the cord and try see what I could do with less ambiguous compositions.  After some surprisingly good results with the last three shots from the pilot roll of HP5, I did another trial using a roll of Bergger Panchro 400.  While there were some misses on my part on the second roll, the results were still remarkably encouraging, delivering large 6x9 negatives focused closely like nothing else I had ever shot before.

120 film negatives of HP5 and Bergger Panchro 400 showing the possibilities of close focus using this method.

Using the Close Up Filter #1, and guessing a distance of 2 feet and 10 inches from the front of the camera, my first standalone try using this method met with some pleasing success.  A hint of softness and a light leak create a very nostalgic look.

Stepping it up with Close Up Filter #2, and a subject sitting 1 foot and 10 inches from the camera, I managed to accomplish this image, which truly does set off the subject from the muted backdrop.

The nail biter was this one, resting the Brownie on the ground, and hoping that my use of Close Up Filter #3 would pull off a decent image of this prominent leaf.  While I expected some softness to result from the razor thin sweet spot, I was elated to see this image come forth from my attempt.  

My 3 for 3 on the remaining exposures on the HP5 led me to quickly load up another roll of film, a roll of Bergger Panchro 400 that I'd been saving for the right opportunity.  With my enthusiasm refusing to be muted by an overcast day, I set out to achieve more Box Camera Magic.  However, this attempt using the Close Up Filter #1 missed the mark, as I was apparently a hair too far from the subject. 

Even worse was this attempt using the Close Up Filter #3.  I just wasn't able to replicate my luck on the leaf shot above

Originally I eyed using the same close up filter as the one above, before ultimately settling on using Close Up Filter #2.  The result is a little soft, but nicely nostalgic.  I struggled a bit in composing this one, with the subject offset so far from center. 

The Portrait lens that inspired this whole experiment was brought back into use for more than just the trial shots above, and in this case, it seemed to work spot-on in delivering just the result that I'd hoped for.  Given that the subject distance from the camera was not so great, I was able to compose this image in the small viewfinder of the Brownie without worrying of extreme parallax error. 

On further review, it may be that the usefulness of Close Up Filter #3 is especially limited. I was hoping to achieve focus on the fence post 1/4 of the way from the right border, but instead accomplished proper focus on the board at far right.  A little review may be in order, as I certainly like the out of focus rendering of these images most of all. 

Trying to line up a backdrop in an image without a viewfinder while also guessing close focus in the same image is a huge challenge, and one that I didn't quite accomplish in this case.  Though I managed decent focus on the two dark leaves near the center of the frame using Close Up Filter #2, they don't stand out enough to be an effective subject.  And my hope of having the church steeple occupy the left side of the frame largely separated from the foreground didn't come to pass. 

All told, it seems that Close Up Filter #1 manages to hit the happy medium of enabling a sharp in-focus subject that can be effectively framed on the Brownie, while still muting the backdrop for better isolation.  

But that doesn't mean I won't try to use the trickier lenses at times too.  This is a result using Close Up Filter #10, focused at a bit less than 6 inches from this bulb.  I pre-focused this shot using the method shown above, marked the positioning using two pieces of tape, loaded film, stopped down the diaphragm on the camera, and took this 2 second time exposure, that delivered a truly mind boggling result for a Brownie Box Camera.

If I was the kind of film camera blogger that thrived on creating "Top 5" lists, this experiment would certainly be among the five most interesting and quirky film related things I've done in the year 2017. It involved little in the way of expense, while managing to create a feeling of involvement in the photo taking process that is so often lost or minimized using the "Do Everything" tools that are are so readily available to film photographers in smaller formats.  

But I can safely say that this won't simply be something I've done in the year 2017.  With frost having killed off some of the best subject matter for macro photography a few months before I had this revelation, I can easily see that this is something I'll be trying more of as warmer weather unfolds in 2018.  Meanwhile, if you are looking for something fun and challenging to add a twist to your photographic routine, I would wholeheartedly suggest this as a possibility to create your own Box Camera Magic! 

Film Hacking: Not Your Typical Polaroid

A number of months ago, I snapped a photo on Fuji FP-100C Instant Peel Apart Film, and was particularly pleased with the results that I obtained.  

Would you care to guess which camera model shot the photo?



Might it be the Polaroid 100?  The original article, that I have recently acquired?

Perhaps it is the Polaroid 360, a well equipped model complete with Zeiss finder, that I've also recently picked up?

There's also the possibility of the responsible camera being the 440 model, that I recently was less than elated with.

It could also be the Colorpack II model, the first peel apart Polaroid model I tried, which became an unexpected favorite to me.

Or might I have found a way to finally adapt my otherwise obsolete J66 model that uses roll film to be able to use pack film instead?

Well, none of these answers are correct, though the last one is the closest to being correct. Here is the camera that shot the above photo...

This is a Kodak Brownie 2C, a model that looks like the typical 116 or 120 format box camera, but this model is designed to use 130 size film.  I picked it up at a nearby antique store for under $20, if only to round out my box camera collection that already had examples in 116, 120, 124, 125, and 127 formats.  It was clean and solid, and had a healthy working shutter.  

But then there was the matter of film, which had been discontinued in 1961.  Typically I'd do as I'd done on some other cameras using discontinued film formats, and either find a roll of the film on ebay and after first use, recycle the backing paper with 120 film stock taped on.

However, the 130 format film that I was spotting wasn't exactly cheap.  It was actually costlier than the camera itself, so I improvised and taped a pair of 120 backing papers together to create a 2 7/8" wide backing with handwritten numbers.  This was something that worked only so well given the challenges of keeping the papers parallel and slack free.  I then took a roll of Orwo NP15 in 120 format and taped it upon this impromptu backing paper, and tried some test shots.

A pair of shots of 120 Orwo NP-15 film placed onto a homemade 130 backing showed me not only that this film had encountered a hard life before I got it, but also that the Kodak 2C Brownie is a decent camera! 

The results were dreary (and certainly aged in appearance) to say the least, but this was more due to the extreme fogging present in the 1980's Orwo film stock.  Looking at the details of the photos that I could make out, I was actually pretty impressed with the details evident from the simple lens.   I certainly wanted to try this camera again, but before grafting another roll of 120 stock onto my homemade 130 backing, my curiosity got the best of me.

I had previously loaded up the aforementioned Polaroid 360 with a fresh pack of Fuji FP-100C, and upon taking the first shot, experienced a jam in the camera that simply would not clear.  Apparently this is a common issue due to the pressure of this camera's electronic timer mechanism.  The issue typically occurs with the first 2 or 3 shots in a pack before clearing up.  As I cleared the jammed exposure from the film pack in the dark, a light bulb went off.  Fortunately that light bulb was in my head so it did not fog the film. 

Taking the jammed exposure and examining it, I was able to see that with a bit of maneuvering, it fit PERFECTLY in the film area of the Kodak 2C.  Since I wanted to clear a few more exposures from the FP-100C film pack to be able to use it readily in the Polaroid 360, I elected to pull another shot from the pack and carefully lay it with the negative facing the lens of the 2C.  I then lightly placed a cut piece of black card stock over the whole arrangement (to both block light from the red window on the back of the camera and to help keep the film negative flat. I then reassembled the camera.  All of this was done IN DARKNESS.

A cross section of how one shoots a piece of pack film in a Kodak 2C Brownie.  The camera's dimensions fit perfectly around the carefully folded piece of unexposed pack film, negative facing toward the lens. 

With the lights now able to be turned on, I headed out and found a sunny scene to test my experiment,.  Following the exposure, I came home and went back to my dark room.  With the lights out, I carefully disassembled the camera and removed the film, taking care to then realign the packet so that the exposed negative could be pulled through my Colorpack II camera and transfer the image from the negative to the paper. 

The results are what you see at the top of the page.  I was elated with the results, being a vast improvement from my ill fated first roll from the Orwo film.  I actually found myself dipping into the film pack a few more times to recreate this experiment, some samples of which are seen below.  While I hit a few technical stumbles on the way, particularly with getting good film pulls through the spreader bars of the Colorpack camera, I was still quite pleased with what was coming forth through the lens of the old Kodak Brownie 2C.

One challenge of going out for a drive in new territory with one sheet of film in your camera that you can't swap out until returning home is finding the ideal chance to use it. A trip west through Boonsboro revealed this old lime kiln that seemed as good a photo op as any.  Note the crimp in the paper at left top indicating an issue with the pull, as well as a blur and light leak on either side of the center. 

Exposure controls on the Brownie 2C are pretty basic, but are there, but you must remember to use them!  On a separate day from the photo above, I drove for a while and finally elected to snap this farm scene, hastily stopping on the shoulder and hustling up a hill for the quick snap, only to realize AFTER I fired the shutter that I hadn't used the aperture setting I wanted on this bright day.  Despite some over exposure, the result still looks nice! 

Just as 130 film vanished over 50 years, time is running scarce to use fresh FP-100C in a Kodak 2C, given its discontinuance by Fuji.  And while this sort of experimentation isn't for everyone, for the film hackers out there like myself who enjoy getting recorded images from long dormant lenses, this little improvisation works amazingly well for the time being. And what to do for the longer term?!?  Well there is always Instax Wide!

A pair of exposures in the Kodak Brownie 2C using Instax Wide film.  Using polarizing filters and the diaphragm to tame the Instax film speed, I was able to get some promising results that got my curious mind wandering again.  In the shot below, I used the "Close Up Lens #1" over the lens of the Brownie, just as I did with 120 film a few weeks ago, to create a close focused image through the box camera. 

This experiment served to me as a really great example of a win-win.  Not only was I able to bring new life into this 130 film format camera to see that it was capable of quite a lot more than anyone might expect, but it also opened my eyes into doing more experimental things with different instant film media, eventually resulting in my own fun little breakthrough only days later that will be shared shortly!  Stay tuned! 

The Box Camera Baby: The Agfa-Cadet A-8

Surprises can be a very good thing, particularly when they fill an unmet need or want.

I had just won one of those "bulk" camera ebay auctions which somehow closed for surprisingly less than I'd have expected.  In fact, I considered by bid to be a mercy bid that would soon be sniped as the auction drew to a close.  Perhaps I had a little luck on my side, or perhaps traffic was light on this afternoon before a three day weekend, but I now had a motley collection of about 8 cameras that also included the Ansco Goodwin, Rolls, and the Pickwik.

As I surveyed my surprising win, I could see that one of the cameras headed my way would be a more modern Agfa box camera with a lot of patina on its face plate.  Doing a quick look about online, I spotted a very similar looking Agfa-Box B2 camera, and presumed this was what would be in that package on delivery day.

So the true surprise came upon opening the box and discovering the tiniest of box cameras awaiting me.  I had become the unexpected owner of an Agfa-Cadet A-8 camera, a true box camera for 127 film!

Pictures do lie. This seemingly imposing brute of a box camera is likely smaller than the box your last mobile phone was packaged in. 

This adorable little box camera dates from about 1940, and is a bit of an update over previous versions of this camera with a more ordinary leather front.  This model has a metal front with a more Art Deco style to it, with geometric lines inside of the box case and outside of the lens opening, all punctuated by the diamond "Agfa" script logo.  Atop the camera, which measures roughly 3" x 5" x 7", is a leather carrying handle.   



The Cadet A-8 is a full frame 127 camera producing negatives (or transparencies should you dare) measuring about 40mm x 65mm. Film is loaded by removing the inside of the camera and spooling the film on a rather long path between supply and take up reel.  On my example, opening and closing of the camera is often a bit belabored as the fit between interior and shell of the camera does not have much tolerance, requiring patience and some skill, and oh yeah.... more patience. 

Interestingly, the lens of the camera is actually mounted to the interior of the camera rather than within the front of the box itself.  I thought this was a great touch as it helps ensure a more consistent distance between lens and film plane in the event there is any possibility of slack between the interior of the camera and it's shell.  

Controls on the A-8 are admittedly even more limited than most box cameras of the era. Whereas the typical box camera may offer between 2 and 4 "diaphragm" settings to adjust for light and improve sharpness, the A-8 offers only a wide open setting.  I've toyed at times with the idea of making my own "snap on" diaphragms that could be slipped on or off the outer opening of the camera, but never got around to it.  

Lack of aperture settings aside, there is a lever that will allow for taking bulb exposures that most box cameras have, though sliding it upward to the bulb position isn't the easiest for those of who were never cured of our nail biting habits.  Rounding out the controls and "features" are a wind knob, two porthole waist level viewfinders for verticals and horizontals, and the red window on the back to see the frame numbers when advancing film.

With a healthy amount of verdigris, an aged Cadet A-8 may have an acquired look compared to a mint version, but don't let the patina lead you into thinking it is a junk camera.  Though the lack of a diaphragm lever is a disappointment, this Cadet has a particularly decent waist level finder that isn't too tough to use for framing, as can be seen below.

My usage of the A-8 actually got off to an interesting start.  With 127 film a somewhat scarce commodity at times, I elected to try this camera out by attempting to spool 35mm film onto some recycled 127 backing.  My first thought wasn't in getting cool "sprocket shots" but more of testing the lens and shutter of this camera without having to delve into my limited 127 stocks. I took a long snippet of TMax 100 and applied it to the backing, and loaded up the Cadet.  

Interestingly, the little Cadet did a lot better with this repurposed 135 film than the Ihagee Auto-Ultrix, returning a decent amount of good images, despite my hasty re-respooling job being a bit amateur in following a straight alignment.  Either I rolled the film with less slack, or the A-8's simple internal mechanism is a bit more forgiving of less than perfect spooling. Maybe the cadet cut me some slack!

A little bit of film slack in the dead center of the frame mars an otherwise sharp photo from the Cadet, most noticeable in the bust on the monument. 

Shutter speed on the Cadet isn't even fast enough to stop a distant moving bus, which made its use on TMax in full sun a bit of a problem.  Note the meandering film path of my spooling in the top border of the film.

Vertical "sprocket shots" can sometimes be effective, though the inability to get closer to the subject as well as the blown highlights make this shot pretty ineffective. 

A darker scene with more shadow renders better while the slack seems to have abated.  The slow shutter speed is again evident in the moving water. 

Seeing the blow out of highlights in this image makes me glad I didn't sacrifice a roll of 127 film for the first testing in harsh mid day sun.  Seeing the border of this image makes me wince at my spooling job. 

Though the viewfinder is generally easy to use, I was still prone to screwing up the alignment if I wasn't careful about my framing.  To my defense, I was trying to quickly snap this from a vantage point in the middle of a busy street. 

Looking at the tonality of this image, I can see that if I used 100 speed film in this camera again, I'd tend to shoot in moderate overcast to optimize exposure.

Two more shots showing the blown highlights on 100 speed film.  In spite of this, I can still detect an impressive amount of sharpness in the basic lens. 

While my first results offered me some encouragement, I could clearly see signs of overexposure on the film in the blown out highlights.  How I wish this camera had a way to stop down the lens.  Still, I had a good bit of fun with this easy to use camera, and elected to slow things down a bit on the next attempt. 

Not only did this mean I'd do a better job of spooling the film on the next roll, but I'd go for a slower speed film.  And there are few films slower than my beloved Mr. Brown Low ISO film from Film Photography Project.

This film turned out to be a near perfect match for the Cadet, producing results far better than my first roll.  Gone were the blown out highlights and spots of blur, and in their place were some very vintage looking images that gave off the look typical of a nice meniscus lens: sharp centers and blurred edges.  

Now this is a bit more like it.  Despite having a speed of only 6 (and a bit of light leakage that may have occurred in the canister loading process), the exposure of this image is pretty much spot-on with the Agfa Cadet. 

As I began working through this short test roll, I got more accustomed to framing, and was rewarded with images like this.  The film rendering is lovely. 

This was pushing it however.  The subject is just not offering enough light and contrast to yield a defined image on the slow film. 

The fountain shot above seemed to have more motion blur than this.  Either the fountain jets in that shot are more powerful, or the shutter speed on this camera is gradually quickening with added use. 

One of my favorite dusty roads at the Best Farm at Monocacy National Battlefield.  This is one image that I'd have rather had full frame without the sprockets. 

One more attempt at a vertical sprocket shot gives an OK result. 

Though the Cadet sat out the Winter as I tended to other projects, it came to mind as I assembled my Spring list of color films to process.  Armed with the 50 foot roll of 46mm wide expired Agfa Portrait, I elected to try a few more shots on the A-8, to see how it performed full frame on something closer to true 127 film stock.  As with previous rolls shot on this film, this came back with the same "pontillistic" effects, but the old Agfa film was very tolerant of overexposure.  Besides it seemed fitting to have the first "true" 127 roll I send through this Agfa camera be genuine Agfa film stock. 

Shot very close in, the foreground has a grainy blur, but the center of the backdrop is pleasingly sharp.

After my headaches with blown highlights with 100 speed film, it's odd to see poor shadow detail when using a 160 speed film. 

Through the moire and pointillism of the aged Agfa film, I can see some decent results from the aged Agfa camera.  

After getting sharp centers for most of my images, my only explanation on this one is that I must have had some camera shake when taking this. 

One of my typical "finish the roll" shots of Summers Farm.  The fogging makes it tough to discern the technical qualities of this image. 

In retrospect, the Cadet A-8 is a very fun camera to use, despite having even more limited functionality than your typical box camera.  It's the only box camera in my collection that will "share" the camera bag with other cameras, and when paired with a slow film, and a careful eye, can produce some fine photos with a vintage appearance not easily or entirely replicated using digital methods.  The full frame 127 format offers a great size for both traditional 127 film as well as CAREFULLY respooled 135 film.  

For an auction lot that I didn't expect to win to provide me a camera I didn't even know existed, this was certainly among the happiest of happy accidents.  The Cadet A-8 comes in a few variants and can be readily picked up for under $20.  Given the fun outings it can provide with its compact size and good results, I'd recommend it at that price without any hesitation.