My New (old) Camera

Well, its spring break. That time of year when I'm looking forward to going home and spending some time in Charlotte.

More exciting news, I got a roll of film back from my Kodak Duaflex II. I got this camera from ebay a couple of weeks ago and its pretty much one of the funnest cameras I own.

Made somewhere between 1950 to 1954 this camera is beautiful in its simplicity. It has no light meter, nothing run by electronics, it is completely mechanical. You push a button and the spring loaded shutter pulls back for 1/30th of a second to expose the medium format film that runs through the back of it.

This camera is basically a consumer grade point and shoot, one of the nicer models with a manual focus (3.5-inf) and three aperture settings (f.8 f.11 f. 16) for hazy, sunny, and extra bright (snow or sand) conditions. When I first got it in the mail everything appeared to be in working order so I shot a roll through it.

620 film and 120 film are exactly the same except for 620 rolls being wrapped around a smaller spool. So with a pair of scissors i managed to trim it down enough to fit into the loading area of the camera, and wrapped the film around to the 620 spool that came with it. After a little confusion at the local Ritz Camera store, which involved an all out search for Mr. Peter's missing role. Right after I told the clerk my name was Oakes. The results from this camera are pretty fantastic. Soft and dreamy, barely in focus, Plus some awesome light leaks from when I took the film out.

The first shot to the left is a light leak across the frame that just happens to look really cool. Note the ethereal quality of the photos, the dream like quality may be a result of either dirty lens, a non reflective lens shooting into the sun, or possible just fog from light leaking in. I'm really not sure, but I am tempted to shoot another roll to figure it out.





Unfortunately shooting rolls of 120 film is expensive to buy and to process. Thankfully, the kodak is more versatile than it first appears. By combining it with my point and shoot digital, the everfaithful canon A620 I can shoot through the viewfinder of my duaflex to achieve a new level of distorted awesome goodness. Click on the pictures below to see more on my Flickr.