So why do I buy and shoot old vintage film cameras? Part 3.

So the idea of this second test film covers quite a diverse bit of ground.

OBJECTIVE 1 - FIX LIGHT LEAKS

For a start, I applied a liberal amount of black electrical insulation tape to all the places where I thought light might leak in. With test film number 1 I had a good idea where light does indeed leak in.

Removing an exposed film from the Kodak Pocket camera.

When a new film is loaded, it is loaded into the body shell. The camera bellows and lens assembly is placed back into the body shell by a simple tilt, catch and drop-in movement. The one end slots into rails and the drop-in side locks in place with this sliding clasp.

Kodak pocket camera body clip

This gap has all the potential for light to leak in so it was covered with 3 layers of tape.

The film advance crank on the Kodak pocket camera.

At the film winder crank end is where the one end of the camera assembly drops in first and slots into the body shell. This side was also taped up properly. Or rather, properly enough I hope...

The empty 120 roll film spool near the film frame counter window.

The little red-orange window is essential to see the frame numbers on the film backing paper. The film used back in the day was not sensitive to red light and so it was never an issue. Most modern Black & White film is much more sensitive to the complete spectrum so light entering there could cause issues. It was covered with a single layer of tape while I shot the first film. I obviously had to open it to see the advancing frame numbers on the backing paper. When I did so I shaded the open window as much as possible. I never saw evidence of light leaking in but, hey, rather safe than sorry...

Film loaded but no frame number visible.

Speaking of rather safe than sorry...careless handling of the camera and specifically the film winder could cause issues. When I loaded the film I advanced the film until the 1 of the first frame was perfectly centered. Then I fumbled. In order not to have overlapping frames I decided to sacrifice the first frame and shoot from frame 2. I now know, again, that the film does not lock from frame to frame.

Enough about light leaks. Later this evening I will develop the film and then I will know if there are still any light leaks or not.

OBJECTIVE 2 - FOCUS

Now after the light leak issue, the objective was focus and depth of field.

Focus scale and worm gear actuator in the camera bed.

In the top right of the image above a little worm-gear screw is visible. This moves the front of the lens assembly in and out away from or closer to the focal plane. Top left a rather rudimentary focus scale is visible. Now I did not roll out a tape measure. I also did not perform any double-checks with a laser. I eyeballed it.

Why, you ask? Shooting her in future I will also not be laying out tape measures either but I need to see what those rudimentary distances give me. I like this seat-of-my-pants approach. It often works well. And sometimes it doesn't...

The focus range scale guide in the camera bed.

With the first film shot at 100 feet focus I saw that this was not the way. I also tend to thumb-suck more than just a moderate over-exposure. Over-exposing black & white negative film is not a big deal but there ARE limits.

Today I tested at all the demarcated focus distances and also at the extreme forward stop. There was one shutter misfire as far as I could see but later tonight I will know.

The view through the viewfinder.

The viewfinder is fairly good once you get used to it. It takes some getting used to but it works a treat in bright light. Later I will know how accurate it is.

Now as for the exposure I worked from 1 or 2 assumptions. If you wish, have a look at the "Part 1" of this series here... I share a bit more about the lens and aperture aspects there.

Exposing by the "Sunny f/16 Rule", I worked from the assumption that aperture setting 3 must be f/32. I built this assumption on a combination of prior assumptions. Somewhere in the mix I started out assuming that the focal length is 111mm as I found on a few sites. Eyeballing things with a ruler and basic math it looked good so here we go. Yep, seat-of-my-pants is alive and well. Until crushing results to the contrary is pulled out of the development tank later tonight, that is.

Test film number 2 was still Ilford's lovely ISO 125 rated FP4 Plus. As said, I decided that aperture setting "3" simply HAD to be f/32. This would, I believed, give me a good exposure using 1/25 of a second in bright daylight. Sunny f/16 is as close as I get to using a light meter.

On a variety of net-based sources it is generally agreed that the aperture needs to be closed down to the minimum size for front-to-back depth of field. I hate even using the word sharpness. I will need to have the shutter mechanism looked at for long exposures but for now I have 1/25 and 1/50 of a second working fairly reliably. I will probably use ISO 400 film for anything but bright daylight shooting in future.

Antique Kodak No1 Autographic pocket camera in action.

The first set was made about 2 meters away from this flower bed and will hopefully also include some buildings and sky in the background. To finish the film I moved in closer. I never recorded the exact settings but, hey, if it works here it will work in future, right?

OK, time to go and develop a film and rejoice or sulk at the results.

See you in the next and, hopefully, the final episode of this series.

Happy shooting!

Anton