Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Brownie Sprockets

So the other day I was telling you that I figured out how to load up some film in my little Kodak Brownie Bullet camera.
I've had this thing since summer and I fooled with it once, but never got around to actually getting film in it.
Well I was bored the other day and decided to try, earnestly this time, as we all know the importance of being earnest, and I finally got it to work.
Sort of.
First the film:



















That's a regular ole 35mm spool wedged in there.
You sort of have to twist it and snap it in and not all spools are created equal as the tolerances are tight so try a few if you got em handy.
Then I just attach it to the 127 spool on the other side:

















Make sure it's on good or it will slip off.
The film should sit just about in the middle of the film plane:

















Yeah okay, it's not in the middle but I had trouble with the demo spool.
Anyways, you do all this in the dark or change bag so you can't really see it even if it is a bit off.
You can also see the almost panoramic size of the pictures.
So first time I tried some 400 speed film figuring if its like some other cameras the aperture is small so as to create a nice deep depth of field.
Over exposed:























Except for the ones I took indoors:

























As you can see, I still haven't figured out the number turns on the knob to complete a frame and I was shooting for multiple exposures anyways.
The bright dot is from a light leak from the film counter window in back.
So since it was all over exposed, I figure let's try some ISO 50 stuff and seal that back window:

















Voila!
Looks right on the money.
Kinda.
Which I should have known since the shutter sounds like it's firing at about 1/30 of a second or so.
Not bad for a plastic lens thingy!
I still haven't got the knob turns down but I'm getting closer.
So I figure if the 400 film during the day was over exposed, let's try it at night!
Nope, all I got was black unless the lighting was fairly bright, like at the service station/slush place:













That looks like it was exposed about three or four times as I got to the end of the roll and the take up spool just got tighter.
I think I got the right amount of turns though and I think if I push process the 400 to 1600 or so I can get usable negatives.
I gotta load up another roll and try it out later.
Again, not bad from an olden days camera with a plastic lens.
Which brings me to another olden days camera with a better lens:


















I finally got the roll film adapter for this puppy:

















That camera was meant to shoot sheet film but the adapter is so that I can use 120 film.
Well okay it was really made to shoot 620 film but it's the same thing.
Sort of.
I'm about to load it up along with my tripod and do some testing.
So off I go!

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