Week 9 – Kodak Vest Pocket Autograph
Week 9's camera came to me just prior to the Christmas holiday and I had
time off booked, I had set myself a little project of personal fun for this
period so hearing this Russell thought the Kodak Vest Pocket would tie in
nicely. To be honest we had tried to run one in week 2 but the expired film we
had was shot so we shelved it. Russell is a passionate folder collector and
offered me several to choose from. I choose this one firstly for its dog eared
appearance which would allow me to get busy with electrical tape without fear
of damage and secondly its lens, this one I discovered after a search was the
U.S design fitted with a speed 8 Rapid Rectilinear lens which sits proud of the
front plate and screws off. I set about giving it a good clean and loaded the
first film – a nice fresh 127 Rerapan 100 Russell had bought, now this is where
my project comes in! Week 10 without giving it away will be 2 cameras exactly
the same but one is mine, a gift from my son but requiring 127 film. Why a
project? The Rerapan came in at £15!!!! For 8 frames!!! So, I was determined to
attempt rolling 35mm into spare 127 spools and backing paper. There are many
instructional sites on the web so won't bore you but I managed to roll a couple
of HP5 successfully.
First chance to shoot was Boxing day, a family walk (roller skate, kids
+ pressies) on the parade on Plymouth hoe, bright low harsh sun meant shooting
would hard with just 2 fixed shutter speeds 1/25th & 1/50th
and 3 marked apertures 8/16/32, the aperture iris though could be seen opening
so I was fairly sure I could estimate some others. I metered using my old 50s
Ziess Ikon, a meter using a different scale (there were many before
standardisation) this uses American Scheiner, I carry a table printed off the
net to cross reference so never discount old meters especially if they are
pretty! This one also meters 1 stop out so I just pre set film speed 1 stop
slower and this is spot on for ME!
I shot through the Rerapan far too quickly, a fashioned hood held on
with rubber bands with the yellow filter it holds I thought would help control
the light, having been extensively used by soldiers in the Great War I shot a
few of the monuments honouring them and even tried (stupidly) a few sunsets.
Once developed it was clear… (a) I had overexposed! (b) The tiny tiny tiny
prism viewer was too small for my bad eye sight and was not particularly
straight, the former I think the main issue. (c) maximum respect for those
soldiers who shot great images in terrible conditions! Bugger! The second roll
was going to be sprockets and would make the frame much tighter! I loaded the
home rolled HP5 and it loaded well, I was able to take advantage of the frame
numbers of the backing paper and it advanced nicely through the whole roll.
Annoyingly another bright day meant selected film was really too fast and I
just never nailed the exposure and as I feared I struggled framing the
sprockets, everything was one sided, to be fair it was my first time so I can only
get better at it. A light leak was evident which didn't bother me, this is to
be expected on a 100yr old camera and once found a bit of tape will cure it.
So, the images below are not the best. Over exposed and wonky. I didn't
straighten and I left in the rough edges in the scans as I like them (I will go
into the scanning next week), there is lots of “vintage” dust from the pumping
of the bellows which is to be expected. The viewer was just too small for me
but I had fun while proving if you have the time and patience (and eyesight)
you can run one of these on 35mm and vital for next weeks camera. ……….hope
both my readers had a good Christmas, hope have a good new year.
