Waiting patiently for something to develop While sorting through a box of cameras, looking for some to sell, I noticed this handsome fellow had a roll of film left in it. It was on exposure eight, and hopefully, if it hadn't yet been opened by some curious person, might have some images on it. I did a little research on Verichrome Pan, and made a guess on development time for film that was possibly 50 years old. I settled on 5:45 minutes in Kodak HC-110, dilution B at 68 degrees. The Ansco Cadet is the simplest of designs, with no exposure adjustments at all. Just make sure your subject is i ..read more

The original point and shoot camera In the December 1916 issue of The American Boy magazine, Kodak took out a full page, two color, 10"x15" ad for their new camera aimed directly at the youth market. The tiny 2"x2.5"x3" camera used unperforated 35mm film with paper backing to take 6 exposures at the cost of one thin dime. Since there's no viewfinder, it has embossed V shaped lines on the top and side to guide your eye. It actually works pretty well. The lens is approximately 55mm with an aperture of F13. The shutter is probably around 1/25th, which would follow the Sunny 16 rule pretty well ..read more

Hey Grandma, how come you always cut the top off people's heads? Grandma bought this shiny new Tower box camera from Sears around 1950 and documented her family with it for the next 30 years. All of my siblings and cousins remember lining up for holiday pictures, the bigger the group the better. If it was summertime, we all had to look into the sun and squint. If it was Christmas, we'd wander around like zombies after the flash went off, blue spots competing with the Christmas lights. My oldest cousin would yell, Grandma, don't cut off my head! He was the tallest and never seemed to get the t ..read more

A basic Japanese Twin Lens Reflex that performs better than expected I've had the Ricohflex on display for some time, it's a very pretty camera, but not very high spec. It's a mass-produced, stamped steel camera with a very simple shutter and basic operation much like a box camera. The film is loaded by pulling out the wind knob and removing the film holder inside. There is no double exposure prevention and frames are counted through a covered red window. The shutter has to be cocked manually by lifting the lever and then released by pressing it down. The nine-blade aperture is adjusted with ..read more

Taking pictures with a 125-year-old camera is fun... and nerve-wracking. "Is the sun behind us?" "I forgot to take the darkslide out!" "How long is a third of a second?" When I started thinking about creating a blog, I wondered about what camera to write about first. But that was pretty easy; just start with the oldest one I have. But not so easy, as the oldest one takes glass plate negatives. I was planning on cutting sheet film and trying to load it with spacers in the wooden plate holders, but recently I found out about J. Lane Dry plates. After inquiring about a custom 3.5"x3.5" plate siz ..read more