I bought another Baldax....

 In my recent blog for my March roll of Ilford HP5 for this year's Frugal Film Project, I spoke of the bother I had with Baldy the Baldax and fearing I may have to bring on my supersub. It all hinged on my ability to find a parts camera to mend Baldy properly rather than rely upon a bodge I made to the mechanism with a piece of guitar string. That was only meant to be temporary and I went hunting on t' interweb.

It's not easy finding a specific camera at the best of times, but finding a Balda Baldax 4.5x6 folding camera with the identical folding mechanism to Baldy was a quest of Arthurian proportions. I found one in Paris, France and it was reasonably priced, but the taxes and postage cost more than the camera. Can someone please tell me where the Brexit benefits are? The leave brigade seem to have misplaced them. Quelle surprise!

But I digress.

Royal Mail and the French postal service managed to get my "parts camera" delivered quickly and I was able to see it in my hands for the first time. I was rather impressed with it and took a closer look. It's had a long life, but it may have been serviced at some point. The folding mechanism springs open very quickly and smoothly for a 90 year old camera. It's smoother than Baldy! The Prontor shutter works nice and crisply through its range of 1/25th, 1/50th, 1/100th and 1/125th of a second speeds and both Bulb and the double click timer settings work just as well. The Schneider - Kreuznach 7.5cm f/4.5 Radionar lens could do with a clean as there's dust inside, but hey, it's 90years old! It's done well to get this far.

I very quickly decided it was too good to harvest for parts and loaded a roll of Fomapan 100 into it to see how it fared. This would be the deciding factor on wether Baldy Jr, as I have lovingly christened it, will be my supersub. It finally stopped raining in mid April thus allowing me to get out and take some photos with it.

I headed out with a dual purpose as it was peak Sakura Season here and I have to get photos of the display of colour a short walk from my home. On my way home I walked via the local farm and shot my roll of Fomapan 100 in Baldy Jr along the way. My photos were nothing special, just whatever caught my eye as I made my way past the farm. I soon discovered how much fitness I have lost over the last month as I haven't been able to get out much, if at all. By the time I had arrived home I was ready for dropping, but I did accomplish my mission for the day and that was cause for a celebration cuppa tea and a long sit down to rest my weary legs.

I developed my roll of Fomapan 100 in Rodinal 1+50 for 9 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I scanned it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi medium format film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

I was quite impressed with how Baldy Jr performed on this first use. No clunkiness, everything was quite smooth where needed and it was a really pleasant experience. However, I totally chose the wrong film, but it did have an unexpected strong point. It represents dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy Wigan perfectly. What I saw as a sacrificial roll for testing purposes became a true representation of the weather that day. It was a total fluke of course, but I will take that as a win.

Here's a few images from my first roll of film shot with Baldy Jr and, as always, I have placed them and more in an album on Flickr and also a link to the ebay store I bought my camera from that you can visit using the links below. I hope you enjoy them.

Baldy Jr - Foma 100 
Camera Sanctuary ebay store

Quirky Cameras - Kodak Retina 1a 35mm film camera

 It's Quirky Camera time again. This time I talk about the Kodak Retina 1a 35mm film camera. This is a camera I purchased recently as a part of a job lot from ebay. I went hunting on the bay for a ground glass viewfinder for the Maximar I spoke about in February, you can go back and read that blog via the link below. I found what I was looking for in a bundle of vintage cameras from an ebay store I hadn't used before.

I did a little due diligence, liked what I saw and put in a bid. A few days later I had the highest bid and I became the owner of not just a ground glass viewfinder for my Maximar, it was a whole Maximar 207/3, a Ricohmatic 126 clockwork camera, an Ensign Midget 16mm camera and today's Quirky Camera, a Kodak Retina 1a.

When I got it I could see it had been looked after. It was in a leather ever ready case, looked reasonably clean and had a roll of colour film in it that I intend to develop in black and white chemicals. It looks like 1980's film by the design on the cartridge and I don't know if anyone has opened the back as the film hadn't been rewound. I carefully rewound the film before opening the camera and I wont be losing anything but my time developing it to find out if there's anything on it or it's a bust.

The Kodak Retina 1a was made between 1951 and 1954 in Germany by Kodak AG - Dr Nagel Werk. The manufacturing plant was founded by Dr August Nagel, one of the founders of Zeiss Ikon who made my Maximar. Dr Nagel left Zeiss Ikon in 1928 and formed his own company, the Nagel Camera Werk. Kodak liked what they saw coming from Dr Nagel's factory and bought it in 1931 to manufacture cameras for their European customers. You can read about August Nagel via the link below.

The Kodak Retina 1 was a basic 35mm viewfinder camera and the staple of the Nagel Camera Werk. It was in production up to WW2 when, for obvious reasons, production stopped. Their pre-war cameras had a reputation for being dependable and affordable for the photography enthusiast and sold well. Kodak AG returned the Retina to production in Germany as soon as possible after the cessation of the war. The Kodak Retina 1a, an upgrade to the Retina 1, was introduced in 1951 and remained in production until 1954 when the Retina 1b model was introduced.

The Kodak Retina 1a is the same basic 35mm viewfinder camera as its predecessor, but with added features and better materials that became available after the war. It is a small, pocket sized folding camera with a lens and shutter cover that springs open by pressing a button on the base of the camera. This reveals a Schneider-Kreuznach 50mm f/2.8 Retina-Xenar lens housed in a Compur Shutter attached to a short section of folding bellows. It is a very easy camera to operate. You find your composition using the view finder, but the viewfinder and lens are separate. What you see in the view finder is not coupled to the lens and shutter, you need to zone focus.

Zone focus is an easy concept once you get your head around the numbers and lines. On the lens/shutter housing is a focus ring with measurements shown in feet from 3.5 feet through to infinity. You estimate the distance to the subject you wish to photograph, lets say 10 feet and you set the distance scale to 10 on the focus ring so it lines up with the centre line on the apertures marked on the shutter housing.

At ten feet, if you select an aperture of f/16 using the setting arrow on the lower front of the lens/shutter, everything between 5 feet and infinity should be in focus. You can point and shoot all day long with this setting on bright sunny days. If you want to add some background blur, select an aperture of f/5.6 and everything from 8 to 15 feet will be in focus. Select the widest aperture of f/2.8 and everything between 9 and 12 feet will be in focus.  

Then you choose the shutter speed which is marked on the front of the lens/shutter. They range from 1 second to 1/500th of a second and B for hand timed long exposures. If you are a sunny 16 shooter like me, on bright sunny days 1/500th at f/16 is all you need. More experienced sunny 16 users can usually guess the right aperture and shutter speed based on the conditions of the day. Here in Wigan we tend to get 1/250th of a second at f/11 days when the sun decides to make an appearance. Overcast days are usually around 1/60th or 1/125th of a second at f/8. Wind the film on with the lever on top of the camera, recompose your shot and when you're happy with it press the shutter button.

It sounds complicated, but once you get used to it you can do it easily. Some people use a rangefinder accessory that slots into the shoe mount on top of the camera. I have a Watameter rangefinder that I used with my Agfa Isolette I. It makes life much easier when you have something to help with estimating distance. Folks with more modern tastes can get a digital rangefinder from your local hardware store for a reasonable price. Do whatever works for you, but I like the old way, no batteries required.

You can of course take the guesswork from finding your aperture and shutter speeds with a decent hand held light meter like my trusty Gossen Trisix or you can use a Light Meter app on your phone. I have Light Meter-Lite produced by WBPhoto that I got for free from the Google Play Store, but there's plenty to choose from, both free and paid for.

Once I got my head around the Zone Focus system used by the Kodak Retina 1a and I was happy I could operate the camera, I loaded a roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 35mm black and white film into the camera and set off out for a wander to see what I could find. My photos are nothing special, just a test to see if the camera is light tight and the shutter and aperture works as it should. The camera was in very good condition for its age and I was hopeful I would get a few useable images. I used my Watameter rangefinder and my trusty Gossen Trisix as well as having a guess to get my settings and I got used to the quirkiness of Zone Focus pretty quickly.

We are spoiled with all manner of cameras these days that show you the view through the lens or through a viewfinder with a coupled rangefinder to help with getting your composition in focus. This camera really tested my skills and you can see how I did when you see my photos at the end. As is often the case when I'm having fun with my camera, my walk seemed to fly by. I had reached the end of my roll of film and headed home. 

I developed my roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 the following day in Kodak HC110 dilution E 1+47 for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my trusted Nikon D700 and Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi 35mm film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 led light source. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.

When I hung my film to dry I was immediately impressed with my exposures. Alex Luyckx is right when he says HC110 dilution E is an often overlooked magic potion. I couldn't wait to get my film digitised, but had to wait for it to dry. It was the longest evening of my life....  Once I started editing my RAW files I saw why this camera was a big seller in the 1950's and how well the Kodak AG - Nagel Camera Werk built it. I am beginning to question my choice of camera for the Frugal Film Project 2025 and it's only my second Quirky Camera. Light leaks? None. Missed focus? None. Sharpness? Dang that Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenar lens is sweet! I may just do double duty again with my Kodak Retina 1a as my 35mm camera.

I really enjoyed my first ever experience of using a Kodak Retina 1a, it's a sweet little camera, fits in my pocket and I will definitely be taking it out and about a lot more this year. If you would like to help me feed my addiction to film photography and continue writing about my adventures, you can make a donation to the cause using the Ko-Fi links on the page. Here's a few of my favourite photos from my first roll of film shot with my Kodak Retina 1a, as always I have placed them and more in a album on Flickr you can vist using the link below. I hope you enjoy them

Kodak Retina 1a
August Nagel - Camera designer 
Quirky Cameras - Zeiss Ikon Maximar 

Phoenix 200 - A Brand New Colour Film made by Harman Technology

 Harman Technology, the home of Ilford Photo and manufacturers of high quality, top notch, black and white photographic film for the great film photography community, have made a 35mm colour film. Yes, you read that right, 35mm colour film is being made in the Harman Technology manufacturing facility in Mobberley, Cheshire and it's called Harman Phoenix 200. I am a tad late to the party, but let's celebrate anyway.

 This news is not just a ground breaking entry into colour film, it is the very first colour film made entirely in house by Harman Technology. For years Harman have thought that making a colour film wasn't feasible for them, but that all changed when a few select individuals got together and discussed the pro's versus the con's of designing and manufacturing a colour film, from scratch, for the very first time. 

 The project was top secret, nobody in the film photography community knew they were even considering it, never mind actually making a 35mm colour film. As you can imagine when the first teaser appeared on social media in November 2023 the community was full of questions. What was this new product being teased? When would it be unleashed upon the world and what would it be called? We got that question answered pretty quickly as the new social media channels all proudly bore the name Harman Photo.

But, hang on, why call it Harman, why isn't it branded as Ilford Photo or Ilford Colour?

 That's a great question and has a two part answer. The first part is to keep Ilford Photo for black and white film, paper and chemicals. A brand new film required a brand new name and Harman Photo was chosen to differentiate the black and white section of the company from this new colour section. Ilford Photo will always be synonymous with high quality black and white film, paper and chemicals. Harman Photo will hopefully do the same for colour film starting with Phoenix 200. The second part is that Ilford Imaging (the other Ilford) own the Ilfocolour brand and continue to sell colour film, probably made by Kodak, and rebranded as Ilfocolour 400.

 More teaser videos were published with a picture of a Phoenix on a business card. A few select businesses, vloggers and bloggers were sent a sample to test and give feedback for how best to shoot, develop and scan this brand new film.  Not me though, *sob*, I had to wait until 4pm on December 1st 2023 for the big reveal. A millisecond after Harman Photo Phoenix 200 colour film went live on the Analogue Wonderland website I was filling out my order form as I knew I had to get my hands on it.

 This first batch is a limited run, there's only so many to go around, which makes sense to me. There's no point in making one million rolls of film if you know the formula may change for the next production run. There was only a limited number of the first production run "in the wild" and I bought three of them. As far as I know it has been flying off the shelves at film retailers around the world who were lucky enough to get an advance supply to sell on the day of the big reveal.

But, hang on, you shoot black and white film. Why do you want this new colour film?

 Another great question and an even easier answer. It is the first all new colour film made by Harman Technology. It was formulated, coated and packaged totally in house in Mobberley. That facility is an hour drive from my home and I see it as supporting a local business. It is also an experimental film and I like to have a little fun experimenting with different cameras and film.

 Harman are confident they can do this and have invested a chunk of money into making a colour film. They also know it isn't perfect. It needs critical eyes on it to give feedback on how it can be improved and, more importantly, what film photographers like and don't like about it. It makes sense to ask us to invest our money into this project at this stage and be a part of the research and development process.

 My first impression of this brand new colour film is the attention to detail Harman have given to the presentation of this film. The packaging is a nice design with the Phoenix motif prominent on the box and on the film cartridge. It is DX coded too which makes life easier for your average film photographer who just wants to load a film into their camera and crack on. How a product looks is often as important as how it performs and Harman have applied the same high standards of presentation to Phoenix 200 as their Ilford Photo black and white film. 

 Film photographers are notoriously curious and many probably have a fear of missing out (guilty as charged, m'lud!) I have read many reviews of it and, as I live in dark, wet, cold, dull and gloomy Wigan, I shot my first roll at 100 iso. Many people have said give it plenty of light, so I pulled it one stop. I also got a rare afternoon of bright sunshine in January and took full advantage of winter golden hour. I knew the shadows would be really dark, but the etra light would make the colours pop. That's why we shoot colour film, isn't it?

 I want a solid baseline to work from and having three rolls gives me a chance to rectify any mistakes I make and maybe even experiment with it. It is after all an experimental film, so why the heck not. I chose to shoot Phoenix 200 with my Olympus OM-10 and Zuiko lenses. The aperture priority mode and legendary metering Olympus built into their OM range of cameras would give me the best chance of having decent, well exposed shots to work from. I took a walk around my favourite classroom, Mesnes Park in Wigan and finished my roll in the town centre. Golden hour in January is magical. The sun stays low in the sky all day and allows us an extended period of beautiful light to play with on a sunny afternoon. I really hoped I had got this first roll right or I might not have got another sunny afternoon for a while. Two days later it snowed.

So, how does it look?

 I sent mine to Analogue Wonderlab to get it developed and scanned. When it was time to see how a commercial lab other than Harman Lab would develop and scan Phoenix 200, Analogue Wonderland was invited to become involved with it. I will be learning to scan and process my film at home, but for this first one it needs a lab to do it right and I trust Analogue Wonderland with my film. They were entrusted with helping Harman with the scanning so, to me, it made sense to send it back there for development. I figured they would take a little time to get their scanning settings for Phoenix 200 dialled in. When I got my scans I could see they had spent that time wisely and it looks great.

 It's got bags of character and the colours really do pop in the sunshine. For a first attempt at manufacturing their own colour film, Harman have "almost" got it right. Yes this release was a gamble, it's a beta test and who is better to test it than the film community? I would like to see an anti halation layer on the film and the midrange tweaking to stop it being an all or nothing kind of film. It reminds me of film from the 1970's, yeah I am that old. It has a look similar to 126 film shot with an Instamatic with lots of grain, dark shadows and colours that pop in the sunlight, especially red. The grain isn't overpowering either, it adds to the nostalgic look of the photos and I quite like it.

 The halation is great for neon signs at night, but on a rare sunny day here in Wigan, I didn't need to see the branches of the trees fringed with red. Kodak and Fuji use an orange substrate for their colour film, I think Harman used what they have in stock, their black and white film substrate. I can't fault them for wanting to keep their costs down. Research and development costs to make an entirely new film, colour or black and white, are rather high and it can take several years to perfect.

 Harman have put a lot into this film and getting the film community involved has worked. We have helped with the costs, Harman have a heap of data to go through and the next iteration of Harman Phoenix 200 will take our thoughts and observations into account. There will never be another Harman Phoenix 200 like this first retail version and that makes it unique. For that reason alone I'm glad I got a few from the first batch. It was fun to use a brand new film and not knowing what to expect from it. Now I know what to expect I will really enjoy shooting my second and third rolls from this first batch.

 Here are a few of my favourite photos from my first roll of Harman Phoenix 200 35mm colour film. These are the scans I got back from Analogue Wonderland. I have straightened a few photos up because I got them wonky when I took them, but I haven't done anything else to them. It was a fun experiment and the Photography Gods smiled upon me with a sunny afternoon to get the best from it. As always I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account that you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Harman Phoenix

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 Medium Format - March

 For my March roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 120 medium format film, I took a stroll in the park on the Ides of March. I had a Doctors appointment that morning and, as the park isn't far from there, I used up my daily exercise for a leisurely stroll around Mesnes Park on a grey day that tried desperately to be better. My Gossen Trisix told me that it was a 1/125th of a second at f/8 kind of day and I set about hunting compositions.

I have photographed the park to death over the last few years and I tried to find some alternative compositions to my normal offerings. My first find was a line of bright red industrial sized rubbish bins stored next to the Bandstand. My normal shot is of the bandstand looking towards the old derelict Mill, so a change of direction was welcome. Just as I took my shot, a train passed along the embankment to the north of the park and I was hoping I captured it.

I also tried a shot of The Pavilion from the bandstand with two of the bandstand pillars framing it. I hadn't tried this composition before as there are usually some youths enjoying some time at the bandstand during their lunch break from College. This time it was empty so I took my chance, lined up my composition and got the shot.

The Park Keepers have been busy planting the flower beds with fresh spring flowers and I tried to capture the lengthened "Z" shape of one of the flower beds. I also captured a few of the trees that are ready to wake up from their winter slumber. Also, instead of capturing yet another photo of Sir Francis and his shiny foot, I photographed one of the ornate corner posts around the statue.

My remaining shots were of the clock tower at the Linacre Centre, a medical facility in town that was originally Wigan Grammar School, then became Mesnes High School and finally one of the college buildings before being repurposed for medical use. It has had quite a varied life and it's good to see an old building put to good use. Also put to good use is the old Rushton's warehouse that is now the Centre for Advanced Technical Studies at Wigan and Leigh College.

Not all old buildings are being put to good use. Wigan & Leigh College is now affiliated to Edge Hill University in Ormskirk. This has been accompanied with significant investment and new buildings are going up to replace ones built in the 1960's. Asbestos around the heating systems and old concrete that had started to crumble meant they had to be replaced. My final shots were in the town centre itself and more as a means to finish my roll of film before getting the bus home, thoroughly happy with my walk and in need of a nice refreshing cup of tea.

I developed my roll of Ilford HP5 later that day in HC110 1+47 dilution E for 8 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom where I left it overnight. I scanned it the next day using my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Valoi film holder, Pixl-Latr and A5 sized led light source. The RAW files were processed with Affinity Photo 2.

It was during that processing where I discovered I was having a problem with my framing. I'm not sure how or why it happened, I can only assume it was user error and not a problem with Baldy the Baldax which has been behaving rather well for me. There are times when I don't concentrate for long enough and take my eye off the task in hand, it's a constant battle I have with myself and after 57 years I have got used to it.

As a precaution I took a good look at Baldy the Baldax to check and It would appear that Baldy has a screw loose! Somewhere along the line a screw has come loose and is nowhere to be found. At first I thought it might be on the floor where I was sitting and I searched for it carefully, but to no avail.

Although the Balda Baldax 4.5 x 6 medium format cameras were sold as other brands, they do have variations in viewfinders and brackets for the folding mechanism etc. Ones like mine are quite rare and hard to find on the bay and I really want to keep using Baldy the Baldax for as long as I can. This is the peril of using a vintage camera, parts are hard to come by and I'm gutted!

I searched and searched for another Balda Baldax 4.5x6 with the exact same folding mechanism as the one on Baldy The Baldax. It took me a while, but I managed to find one in France for £20. When it arrived I started to feel pangs of guilt about having to take it apart to mend Baldy, so Baldy has been bodged for now. I am going to give parts cam a clean and put a roll of Fomapan through it and see if it works as well as it appears to on first inspection. I will eventually get Baldy sorted properly and continue using it for as long as possible. If my bodge fails, "Super Sub" is waiting. 

Here's a few favourites from my walk in the park with Baldy the Baldax. You can see the framing issues I was having and perhaps understand why it puzzled me. I wasn't doing anything different, Baldy was ever so slightly out of kilter. As always I have placed them and more in my Frugal Fim Project 2024 - 120 medium format album on Flickr you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Frugal Film Project 2024 - 120 Medium Format