Resurrecting a Kodak Folding Camera for Paper Negatives
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- This is a tale of hope, disappointment and, ultimately, success. Crippled with numerous faults, each of which could prove fatal to its intended purpose, Joe eventually manages to get usable paper negative images from a Kodak Autograph 1A folding camera.
Joe, your innovation, creativity, and fortitude never ceases to amaze your viewers! Well done!
Thank you!
When you first talked about the shutter I immediately thought of Borut Peterlin and a few moments later you mentioned him. Top sheet photography😉
Joe, this is genius!! The paper negative selfie camera brings this camera forward to the current century. Well done!
I just found your channel today. I'm pleasantly surprised to hear you mention Borut. He got me interested in alt processes and by extension, how I ended up on this video!
I have the non-pocket version of the camera and am about to try my first paper negatives. Watching your video has helped immensely. I especially liked the paper tray idea.
Really nice design !
I've seen the falling plates (looks like a Guillotine) before on large format cameras, but this looks more compact. Easier to bring around to shoot outside. Good job !
Thank you!
In the 90s I took my old Dians camera and rigged some screw eyes and string to mane a shutter release, not as complex as a two string thingy, but between the super-glued nut for a tripos mount and my devise, I was able to simple selfies!!!
Hello, Joe: = Another really well explained VID from you... Really great idea, and something anyone can do. Thank you for doing what You Do. ;-)
Big fan of Borut Peterlin's work, and he has some really cool equipment
Yes, I've seen where his later shutters are radio-controlled.
Nice, i have the same camera, thanks joe..😮🎉
May I just say, Joe, I really like your videos!
Thank you!
Light leaks in bellows could be stoped with liquid rubber used for vulcanize punched tires.It dryes fast and is flexible.Saludos desde Patagonia.
Very creative.
Thank you for sharing.
I found a similar camera today, a 3-A pocket folding Kodak model B-5. Shutter, aperture are still working. I didn’t check the below yet.
Hope I will put it in use soon.
Great video Joe! Very innovative.
Thank you!
Very cool. I built my own 4x5 camera several years ago; I'll have to do a video on it sometime. When it came to the shutter, I built what they call a "guillotine shutter", based on a video made by a guy in Japan who built one (and his is so much finer-looking than mine). That shutter is one of my proudest moments as I can do different speeds with it and its quite reliable. Your shutter is kind like a half guillotine since only the closing portion drops like a guillotine blade. If I had my own garage or workshop I'd have more tools and be a busy beaver building stuff like this.
About old folding cameras, I have one that belonged to my grandmother. Fortunately, the bellows is in good order and so it the shutter. Only hitch is that it used 116 size roll film, which seems to have been discontinued in 1983 or so. I made little spacers so I can use 120 film in it, as well as a mask for the film, and there is also a guy who 3D prints better spacers for 116 to 120 conversions. As a result, the camera is fully functional. I use it occasionally but am careful with it. If the shutter weren't working, I'd probably try to get it fixed. There is something magic about keeping a near century old device in working order.
15:54 "like a lot of...people are." Almost got yourself into trouble there lol!
I'm curious to see your shutter as I have some lenses without shutters. Is it one of those with a falling plate with a slit in it? How do you vary the size to achieve different speeds?
@@PaulNechifor I made multiple guillotine blades, each with a different size slot. Bigger slot = slower shutter speed.
Love that camera. I made a digital cam with that and a 5x7 scanner had to change the lens out but it worked perfectly. Was able to print out 24x36” black a white portrait prints of my fam. Used a wifi sd card and sent the images directly to my phone.
It was a fun setup.
Thank you... a nice essay in determination!
Thank you!
Thats hilarious. My first thought was “yank the cap off with a string” but since you couldn’t put it back on, that would make things difficult, and I threw it away.
With longer several minute exposures, you could simply bring a black piece of paper, dash up and cover it before you would actually appear on film. Then re-cap
Very clever idea! I don't have a workshop I could use, but I with a pair of screwdrivers and some other tools I can repair many of those old shutters. And for larger cameras, I actually use a Packard Shutter, which is also a very old and simple technique and still works well today for lenses without shutters.
Yes, Packards are interesting, though perhaps too big and heavy for this little camera.
@@Joe_VanCleave Absolutely. I use it only for my large format cameras.
Thanks a lot. I will try it on a projector lens on 4x5.
This is cool! Have you ever seen the gameboy camera? It has a resolution of 128x112, has 4 darkness levels of grey, and can print out on the gameboy printer, which is pretty much a thermal reciept printer. I want to try to get one working soon, and i know its not that similar but this video has inspired me. I really like that you got your camera to work as well as it does. Its always nice to fix something cool!
I've seen the gameboy camera, it's cool indeed. But some of the newer thermal photo printers have up to 300dpi, they are making prints with a bit more intermediate gray scale, or at least dithering that looks at a distance more like a gray scale. I'm curious indeed about them, especially for making prints onto adhesive thermal labels and sticking them inside sketchbooks.
It's funny because I'd probably have ended-up racking my brain trying to make an internal shutter that fit in the existing housing 😁
Just got a Kodak pocket vest model b with a bellows that is like yours, so I'll have to get some liquid electric tape... It works fine as is with paper negs, but not with high speed film. These are fun cameras to work with!
Yes they are! Good luck with your experiments.
👍Cool, Thanks for that.
Love this idea, it is something I have thought about doing myself. Once you used the liquid electric tape is it still foldable? Is there a reason not to use the flexseal? I use Flexseal on the inside of some of my coffee can pinhole cameras.
I tried both Flexseal and liquid electrical tape, and thought the electrical variety covered better. I don't intend on folding the camera back down, since the original bellows was so badly worn, I don't want to risk more holes. Having it fold up isn't high on my priority list, since on display it looks better with bellows deployed.
Fantastic and Inspiring! Have you done any Lumen Prints with this camera yet?
No, the lens is too slow. Lumen prints need a fast lens to be practical.
@@Joe_VanCleave- That is helpful info... so you mean "fast" because you can't sit still for a long time for a self portrait? Or just "fast for all use cases"? (I have been thinking about a box camera as a dedicated lumen camera with paper negatives on a tripod for landscapes with 10+ minute exposures) - Thanks in advance for any additional insights (and also your videos)
@@blaironeil9235 Fast in terms of wide aperture,
@@Joe_VanCleave- Thank you Joe for the added explanation... 👍I live in Northern Nevada so the UV, bright sun and cloudless skies are the norm and the bane of normal photos!
@@blaironeil9235 It works even faster if you wet the paper with water and put it in the camera wet.
🤯
Light leaks in bellows could be stoped with liquid rubber used for vulcanize punched tires.It dryes fast and is flexible.Saludos desde Patagonia.
Light leaks in bellows could be stoped with liquid rubber used for vulcanize punched tires.It dryes fast and is flexible.Saludos desde Patagonia.