New Purchase - Ansco Anscoset

I just picked up this camera on Tuesday, 07/29/2008 at a thrift store by my apartment during my lunch break at work. This particular model was first released in 1961 and has a f/2.8 Rokkor 45mm lens. It uses a Selenium meter, meaning thtat batteries are not necessary. That is definitely not a bad thing. The placement is slightly off, towards the upper left when staring at the lens of the camera, unlike the Canon/Bell & Howell Canonet, whose selenium cell is around the lens itself. It cost me around $20.

This camera was in pretty admirable shape, and when I did some test winds and tripped the shutter a few times, it sounded as smooth as a new camera. I was pretty impressed at its condition. The leather case has definitely seen some action, wearing around the back flaps where it snaps onto the body is evident. It's pretty clear someone enjoyed this camera, both by its working condition (with little to know cosmetic damage) and by its case's wear. I'm kinda happy to give it a new home.

I noticed some quirks with the camera right off the bat when I opened the cover. First, the focusing ring seemed to be a slight bit tight. I can turn it fine, it just is somewhat sluggish. Upon testing of the camera itself, while somewhat tight for twisting the focusing ring, the focus is nice and tight. I was sort of worried about it at first, but now I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to live with a focusing ring that is a little stiff.

The second thing I noticed is that the film advance lever is quite the opposite to focusing ring. It's sort of strange how that works, isn't it? The film advance lever is nice and smooth, but honestly will take a little getting used to, as so little effort is needed to advance the film. Again, in the grande scheme of things, for a camera that's going on fifty years old now, this little camera handles like a dream.

The third quirk I noticed is the camera's controls. I'm somewhat at a loss to exactly know what to call it. I mean, the camera has settings based off of the EV (Exposure Value) rather than the aperture and shutter speed. I'm somewhat at a loss as to what to call it. Semi-Automatic? Quasi-manual? Sure, I set the EV, but I don't really mess with the aperture and shutter speed. I can set the EV above or below what it says, hence over or underexposing the frame... I'm somewhat at a loss right now. Either way, it works absolutely fine in normal sunlight - the negs were right around as dense as my shots normally are when I shot in direct sunlight. Where I found the problem is when I was taking pictures in relative shade. It was around a EV of around 10 when I noticed the negs getting thinner and thinner. From what little research I've done regarding Selenium Light Meters (I also found a Canon/Bell & Howell Canonet) have taught me that the Selenium light meter tends to trail off in the terms of accuracy the less and less light there is. Again, it can be worked around fairly easily.

I've done one test roll of film. Aside from what I've just talked about, I've also noticed some more indications for this camera. The Rokkor (I can't get enough of that lens maker's name... I'm such a nerd...) 45mm f/2.8 is remarkably crisp. Some of the pictures were taken off of my balcony, and the power lines across the street were both visible and rather crisp. The meter is incredibly accurate when it comes to brightly lit scenes - there's little if any variation. The Selenium cell's placement is slightly off putting, as is the dial showing the EV, but this will simply take some getting accustomed to this camera. The Parallax Correction is pretty spot-on, and the only time it really becomes a problem is when I'm around 3-4 feet from the subject. I'm working on a second test roll where I'm trying to stem the thin negative in soft and subdued light problem. I'll post when I get that one done, but as it stands now, I'm pretty happy with my new old camera.

New Polaroid Camera bought - "The Reporter"

I just bought this at another thrift store on Sunday, 07/28/2008. I got it for $3 and change. The camera's model is "The Reporter". It was first on the market in 1971. I've done some preliminary tests using it, and I am pretty pleased with it so far. First, it uses AA batteries like the Polaroid Minute Maker, and it has a front cover so it's light meter isn't constantly sapping the batteries. It's also a decent amount more compact than the LandCamera 210 that I've been working with for some time now.

I've done some playing around with it, and I've noted:

1. It has no focusing aid in the viewfinder, and the focusing mechanism is a ring around the lens like most contemporary cameras. Normally I'd say that would be a bad thing, but I've had to get pretty good with guestimating my distance with my LandCamera 210. The 210 has a focusing aid that is based off the size of a human head - put the head between the two lines without overlapping or any gaps and it should be in focus. This would be great if I shot more people, but it's mostly useless for my purposes.
2. There are three ISO settings - 75, 3000, and 3000 ER. The 75 behaves how it should, as does the 3000 (with the aperture mask covering the shutter making the aperture f/58). The curious part is that the 3000 ER removes the aperture mask. I did some testing, and it appears that this mode is for shooting indoors without flashcubes. Everything shot was just as I thought it should be. This alone has me really fascinated by the camera.
3. It has a tripod mount. Yes, the camera has a tripod mount! I was pretty surprised by this fact. If only I had it for the 4th of July and fireworks and fountains! It can't be helped, but that's another plus to this camera.
4. Just push the button, the picture is taken. Very much unlike the 210. I do like this as it helps me work a little more quickly.
5. I could be mistaken, but it appears that there is a hole for a cable release by the shutter. Again, this is a very nice part of the camera.

I will likely still use the 210, but I must admit that it's quite nice to have more than one option when it comes to shooting with Polaroids. The Cable Release and Tripod Mount are most interesting - I will likely be using those two features fairly regularly for some of the projects.

The focusing ring seems slightly loose and the rollers and film slot had some chemistry deposits on them, but aside from that, the camera was in fantastic shape with little dust. Unlike the other similar camera we saw at the same thrift store... Which we used for pricing of the camera. I will likely be trying the Reporter out with the FP-100C shortly, but I do know it handles FP-3000B admirably. At most, I anticipate to turn the dial a little towards the dark.

Edit: Upon using the camera some more, I'm sort of noticing that it seems to vignette the edges a little bit. While it's not too big of a problem, it still is something that is noticable, especially with dark shots. I could be imagining it - more tests are needed.

Finished piece - 07/27/2008

This is the first finished piece using Fuji FP-100C. The emulsion didn't lay down as well as I had hoped it would, but that is almost to be expected. I do worry about using the emulsions on pieces with such detailed surfaces, and these fears are not unfounded. The hardest parts I had was with the ears. Aside from that, the Fuji film is really showing what it can do, and I am pretty pleased with it.

It wasn't TOO difficult - the learning curve with this new emulsion is somewhat abbreviated, but still present. I think I may need to soak the emulsion for longer than I did on this piece. I did that on the first bit of emulsion at the bottom by the feet of the bunny, and it seemed to be more pliable. I don't quite remember exact times, but it was around by the 2 minute 30 second mark. I just remember this much because the glue between the emulsion and the paper became incredibly soupy.

For my own reference, the piece is refered to as EIP-0001.

Art Show ending tomorrow (as in Friday - I've not slept yet so it's still tomorrow)...

It's somewhat weird. I'm slightly conflicted here. I mean, this WAS the first art show I've taken part in. While it was largely stressful and everything, I'm actually going to miss it. My crazy side would go check up on the cards I have there with my e-mail address on it. Well, it just appears that I'm likely going to need to get back into the grind. Oddly enough, it seems like I genuinely missed working on the Emulsion Instrumentality Project.

I should be able to buy some more Fuji FP-100C - I'm really liking the stuff alot. Just from the experience I've had so far, it's less messy and tricky to work with, more color fast, and slightly more durable. So far, the biggest difficulty I have here isn't so much procuring the film for the emulsion lifts, but it's the lack of stuff to put it on.

I have some ideas at the flea markets that I saw, but if I really am going that route... Well, let's just say that my pieces are going to grow more and more complex. I've been eyeing a certain ~3 foot ceramic cat that looks like it could be fun to use. Aside from that, I only have a clear acrylic frosted bunny rabbit wearing a blue vest that has a light that goes into the bottom.

I have some other ideas I'm working on... But right now I just mostly need more supplies. I'm going to pick up my pieces either Saturday or Sunday, depending on assorted plans for the weekend. Since the show ends tomorrow, I think I may drop by there with the little digital and maybe the Polaroid 210 and some FP-100C. I'll have to think long and hard what to put pictures from my parts at the art show onto. It would need to be something adequitely triumphant.

Polaroid Emulsion Lifts onto an old Polaroid Camera...

These are different angles of a Polaroid Swinger that I found at another thrift store. Since the Swinger uses roll Polaroid Film that is no longer in production, I decided to say forget it and cover it with emulsions. I think it turned out quite nicely.

Excuse the scan - crappy scanner

The scan quality isn't likely too great, and I needed to clean it a little, but this is part of what Fuji FP-100C is capable of. I'm not even sure if I'm going to use this shot for any emulsion lifts. I really like the shot alot.

Learning Curve for the FP-100B Emulsion Lifts

'Twas a valiant effort for doing the emulsion lift onto the GameBoy Advance SP, but alas. I ran into some decent problems with the process. Well, a few issues, to be honest.

1) It appears that I may need to boil the Black and White emulsions for far longer than I originally thought. As I peeled off the film, I noted white splotches placed near the center of the shot. I am thinking it's due to the glue not being completely loosened and coming along for the ride. It is looking like I'm going to have to boil them completely until the film fully separates from the frame.

2) Getting the emulsion to stay on the surface of the GBA is proving to be problematic. I may actually need to place a thin layer of Mod Podge onto the GBA before I put the emulsion on to give something to grab onto. After that I'll have to put more onto the top. At least, that's what I am thinking at this point. When I started to take off the tape, some of the emulsion came along with it. This could be disheartening, but only time will tell. Perhaps it can be solved with a little pre-treating?

I may want to hold up on working on the GBA just yet. I love that little GBA, so I want to make sure I do my best with it. It wasn't a complete failure, as I've learned a good amount from it all. Always a learning experience.

More experimentation with FP-100B black and white instant film

Okay, I figured out some more when it comes to working with Fuji's instant film with emulsion lifts. I just lifted an emulsion from FP-100B and put it on my dark blue GameBoy Advance SP. I noticed a few things while I was in the process.

A) It appears that the Fuji emulsion does not "spread out" from absorbing all of the water like Polaroid's emulsions do. This could be pretty useful now that I know it. In theory, I could cut the pictures to the exact proportions of what I am laying the emulsion on. With the Polaroids (like on Ad Astra), it was more of a "Hmmm, maybe this will work..." process, and it usually resulted in far too much emulsion in assorted areas. I kind of suspected this after feeling the Fuji's emulsion when I tried it on the empty can of Diet Coke with Splenda, but even still, it's nice to confirm it.

B) The black and white emulsion is relatively the same as the color - it is completely transparent aside from where the dyes are. The black and white emulsion seems to work well for darker base colors. The picture is slightly more subtle on the GBA SP, but it is there and I think it looks pretty nice.

Once I finish EIP-0001, I'll post it on here - if it shows up on a picture well.

FINALLY the thrift stores are becoming my friends again!!!

I've had somewhat of a dry spell when it comes to finding stuff to slap emulsions onto lately. Not a whole lot has really jumped out at me like the Cabbage Patch Kid head or anything for the last couple of weeks...

THANKFULLY, over lunch today I returned to the Thrift store and found an odd translucent hollow bunny statuette wearing a clear blue vest. There's a little recepticle for a tiny light bulb (from what I can tell, probably nothing larger than that for a Christmas Tree) as well. It's not TOO big, but in all honesty, it fascinated me. First, I'm admitedly a manchild when it comes to bunnies. I'm not sure why, but I just love them. Alot. Second, this piece looked intriguing. The biggest problem I had with some of my more translucent pieces was lack of lumiescence. Look at "20 IF 10 = TRUE GOTO 30" - since it was mostly clear, it didn't show up through the glass as well. Now if I had a light to shine through the piece, it could be more impressive.

Anyways, I decided to grab it during lunch - I needed something new to finish up my tests on Fuji, and really, this sounds like the test for the rest of my film. I've already done it on something with a smooth contour (a Diet Coke with Splenda can), so this will be a chance to do something with a good amount of ... well, nooks, crannies, and the like. Also, its texture is slightly more rough than the can, so it will be a good chance to see how well the Fuji emulsion works with textures. I mean, I'm not 100% sure how it works with texture, but just from the scant work I've done with it thus far, I think it will more than suffice when it comes to the whole "taking on the texture of the receptor" deal.

anyways, I should crash. Take care.

Idea for another piece

Well, I've mulled this idea for a while - I'm thinking of making a new piece. I'll be taking the top shell of a Nintendo Entertainment System and covering it with representations of the Konami Code... As in by a drive through with two up arrows is for the up, up part. Etc. There are only a few problems I can think of with this.

From the prior works I've done, I could fit ~2 pictures lengthwise and ~4 pictures up and down leading to a total maximum of 8 pictures. This could be problematic, as a rough estimate if I use each direction as one picture, I would need 11 pictures, and if I grouped the ups and downs, I could cut that to 9. I think I may be able to go a little further - perhaps combine the B, A... Like in the beginning of "bank" or something?

I really need to get some more Fuji FP-100C. I think that this would work well with the FP-100C. I want to make sure it's color, and I'd like to start off my new prefix with a NES - Sort of fitting, I think. I do need to make a new prefix for the Fuji emulsion lifts - they're markedly different from the Polaroid emulsion lifts. Perhaps "EIP" - "Emulsion Instrumentality Project" fits this next evolution pretty well... That and I have a habit of naming things "* Instrumentality Project" - I can't help it, I'm a nerd.

My latest piece...

I just did this around 2 days ago. I decided to modify the Nintendo DS. I placed emulsion lifts onto the cover of it, and it seems to have worked well.

Recent Acquisitions

I just got these yesterday. On the right is the Brownie Star Flash Camera, manufactured from 1957 to 1965. It uses 127 film as well, so of course I can't quite use it, but again, it's in rather good condition and will look nice.

On the left is the Argus Instant Load 164. This camera I've been having a hard time digging up facts on, but I do know that it uses 127 film as well. Hence I'm not going to be using it often.

The whole camera bag cost me $3.

I also found a Polaroid 215 in a pretty nice case along with flashbulbs and a flash. The Polaroid is in great shape... The cover is in wonderful shape, the rollers looked well, and all in all, it is in great shape. Especially given the price of $3.00, this is probably one of the best buys to date.

Now check out the bulb - if ya look closely you can see the magnesium still in the bulb itself. Sure, there were just 4 bulbs in there, so I can't quite use them too often, but I must admit I'm curious as to how it all works.

Polaroid LandCamera 440

Here's the Polaroid LandCamera 440 that I picked up for $10 at another thrift store. It was manufactured from 1971-1976. As with the other Polaroids, it uses that 4.5 volt battery that's somewhat hard to come by.

While cosmeticly, it was in pretty good shape aside from a "Property of Duneland School District" plate, one could tell it was used by students. The contacts for the battery were rather crusty with corrosion, and the rollers didn't look like they've been cleaned once.

Emulsion Lifts

This is one of the 7 Emulsion Lifts I've done. I worked really hard on these - this is one of my favorites. I could go into working on emulsion lifts, but that's a bit involved. This piece is "Mossfungus" - sort of going into my thoughts about not being able to have kids.

This one has one of the longer titles I've used. "20 IF 10=TRUE GOTO 30"

This piece is titled "Obsolescence." I found the Disc camera at a thrift store.

This one, I found the cabbage patch kid head at a thrift store, and decided I wanted to make this piece as creepy and unsettling as I could. I think I succeeded.

This last one was difficult to make - it took me around 30ish hours to just lay the emulsions on. I titled this one "Ad Astra." The hard part was getting them to lay flat. Good news is that the polaroid emulsions are working out fairly well with being protected from UV. Ultraviolet light tends to fade emulsions really quickly.

Some more of the cameras I've gotten

I bought these two at the flea market, for $5 and $8 respectively. On the left is a Brownie Reflex Synchro. It was in production from 1940 to 1952. Unfortunately, it's a camera I can't use. It uses 127 film, which was discontinued. Also, its insides seem pretty dirty to the point where it would be far too difficult to clean. It does look nice, so I'm pretty happy.



On the right is an Argoflex 75 with a flash gun using bulbs - a pretty nice little twin lens reflex camera. It is in pretty good shape. This one I COULD use. It uses 620 film - similar in most aspects to standard medium format film, 120 film. I'd prolly need to respool the film, but I've wanted to mess with medium format for quite some time.







I found this one at a flea market around a month ago or so. It's the Canon Canonet GIII QL17. It was first on the market in 1972. It's got a 40mm f1.7 lens. It uses a Mercury Oxide batteries, but since those are made anymore. Thankfully there's a Zinc-Air battery available, and it seems to work fairly well. I also like that it has a leaf shutter, so X-Sync doesn't pose any problem. It can sync from 1/4th of a second to 1/500th of a second.

It's got a rather clear, crisy lens. Also its film loading is remarkable. It's really simple to load, just laying the film where you need to, no threading the film through the spool. I've got very good luck with the camera.

Catching up again - more cameras.

I'm going to go as chronologically as I can remember here. I can't remember exact dates, but I know I found this Polaroid LandCamera 210 (circa 1967-1969) at another thrift store. It was $10 for the camera, a case, and a flash bulb attachment.

So far I've really liked this camera - I used it for a decent number of the projects I've been working on. It's pretty dependable, and it is in good working condition. I had to get used to guestimating the distance from my subject for focusing. Unlike the 230, which uses a prism to show two independant images and it's focused when they line up, it uses a focusing aid that assumes your subject is an average sized adult as you measure the head. After getting used to that, the camera works quite well.

I got the Canon AE-1 a bit after this. I ended up spending $25 for the camera, the Canon 50mm f1.4 lens, the Canon 35-70mm f4-5.6, and the little Vivitar Flash there. Again, I checked it to make sure the camera's innards were working fine. Of course, as I was checking the camera, I remembered that this camera actually has the shutter release run off of battery power. Not 100% knowing if it worked or not, I bought it anyway, bought the 4LR44 battery, and to my joy, it worked.

This was my first prime lens I've worked with, and I must say, I am getting spoiled by having a lens that stops down so far. It really opens up what you can do with low light situations. It's about just as useful and helpful as a zoom lens if not more. I rather like this camera - it's got some decent heft to it, it is comfortable, and it has the prism inside of the viewfinder where you line up the top and bottom half as a focusing aid.

Up To Now

I've sort of picked up a new hobby, almost at random. It started a little less than a year ago when I wanted to start doing Polaroid Emulsion Lifts. I started scouring thrift stores and flea markets searching for Polaroid LandCameras from the 100, 200, 300, and 400 series. I ended up finding my cameras, and quite a bit more as well.

Before I found the Polaroid LandCamera 230 (pic unavailable), I was able to find a Pentax K-1000 with a 35-70mm lens and a flash for $8. It did had some superficial damage along the barrel of the off-brand lens, but upon winding the camera, I noted that the shutter tripped just fine. I'd spent some time working in a photo chain, so I got to know what it sounds like when a shutter isn't working right. I bought it and tested it. Everything was working fine, and it still works at this time. At present, it's in a friend's possession. He wanted to learn photography, and I wanted him to learn with a camera that is as bare bones as possible so he doesn't prop himself up using the automatic crutch.

A week or two later, I found the LandCamera 230 at a flea market. They wanted $10 for it. My foolish enthusiasm almost had it cost more. Thankfully for me, it seems that the poor camera was sitting around for a while. They just wanted it gone. I had to get some film and a new battery. I mean, given the thing was made in 1969, the battery was a tad of a pain to locate, but I searched it down. Thankfully the camera worked just fine, and a beast was born. Hungry for old cameras...

So here's the blog. Bear in mind, the pictures of the cameras I've gotten are not going to be the best in the world. I don't quite have a decent set-up for studio lighting in my apartment. Also this blog is for some of the work I've done with emulsion lifts. Thankfully I don't have to stop with the emulsion lifts since Polaroid left the film game to redirect their efforts to their dreadfully subpar digital division. Fujifilm has their pack film, for roughly the same price, and I tend to like their film better.