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September 8, 2005
Lubitel 166 Universal
After being overshadowed in my collection by my Zeiss Ikon Ikoflex 1a, I finally got around to shooting a roll of film on my Lubitel 166 Universal. The Lubitel is the poor man's twin lens reflex camera. Being made of plastic, it is sometimes lumped into the toy camera category, but it does have a glass lens and other features like several aperatures and shutter speeds. Despite the apparent ability to "control" this camera, I have to admit that this isn't my favorite machine. Although bright, the screen is really hard to focus. It has a ground circle in the center and a small magnifying glass to help with the task, but the results don't seem worth the effort. You are almost better off estimating the distance Holga-style. But all-in-all, it is capable of taking pretty sharp photos, and if you are willing to put up with its idiosyncracies, it can be a nice little camera. Here is a link to my Lubitel 166U gallery for your amusement.
Posted by Adrian at 3:46 AM
September 7, 2005
Hole-On Ex
My friend Bennett gave me the perfect gift last weekend. He found a pinhole camera kit at a bookstore and past the treasure on to me. It is called a Hole-On Ex (don't ask me why) and it is pretty easy to put together. The instructions say it only takes 2 hours, but that seems a little unrealistic. I used Elmer's glue, so maybe you could save some time with a faster drying glue!
In my haste to test it out, I forgot to reinforce some of the walls with the included black paper. After wasting a roll of 35mm film, I used my aluminum tape to be extra sure there weren't any leaks. The Hole-On Ex is a welcome addition to my ever growing camera collecion.
Posted by Adrian at 10:16 PM
September 6, 2005
Polaroid 95a 120 Film Conversion With Legos
The Polaroid 95a Land camera was manufactured from 1954-1957. It is a beautiful camera, and it is a shame that they don't make film for it anymore. When my friend gave me this camera, I knew I had to modify it somehow to make it usable. I came close to modifying it so I could use it with my Polaroid 545 back, but I couldn't bring myself to hack off the back of this camera. So, I decided to convert the Polaroid 95a to accept medium format 120 film. A quick measurement showed that I should be able to get a 6x10 image on 120 film. Here are the instructions for how to modify a Polaroid 95a to a usable 6x10 medium format camera. Oh, and I fabricated most of the new camera assembly out of Legos.
The first, and maybe the hardest part of modifying our Polaroid 95a camera is going to be stripping out all the rollers and unnecessary parts. We need to make as much room for our medium format Lego assembly as possible. I used a needle nose pliers, a drill to drill out the rivets, a hammer, and alot of elbow grease. Here is what your gutted Polaroid 95a looks like after you remove all the rollers:
With the hard part out of the way, you are ready to play with legos. To advance the film, you will need to drill a hole in the top of the camera to put your film advance knob through. My hole wasn't in exactly the right place so you can see where I used a dremmel to make a little more room on the right (this is looking at it from the top):
I used a larger gear to turn a smaller gear. This allows one turn of the knob to advance the film one frame. The downside is that it puts a little too much pressure on the gears and if I am not careful it will miss a gear.
The next step is to build the part that will hold the spool. Here is a closer look at my assembly with and without the spool:
There isn't a lego piece that will fit perfectly in a 120 spool so we will have to fabricate our own. A Dremmel and some sand paper should do the trick. Here is the before and after photo:
The left side of the camera is where the unexposed roll of film will sit. This side is less complex than the film advance side because all it has to do is hold the film. A size 8 lego fits almost perfectly here. Keep in mind that you want the spool to be exactly straight accross from the spool on the other side so it doesn't bind. It should look like this:
Now that we have a place for the spool on both sides, it is time to build a guide in the center. This keeps the film tight and prevents it from getting off the spool on the right. I used matte board and it looked like this after the film is loaded:
Now all you have to do is fill any holes and test it out. It is a good idea to waste a roll of 120 film so that you can test your advance knob and make sure everything lines up. If any piece is loose or not perfectly aligned it will cause problems. I had to tweak things quite a bit before it loaded and advanced properly.
You are now ready to take pictures. There is one other thing to keep in mind before you start shooting up film. Old Polaroid cameras had their own system of "light values." Rather than setting the shutter and aperture separately, the Polaroid 95a has 8 different settings (1-8). Don't ask me the reason for this setup, but I can show you this chart that shows what each setting actually is in terms of shutter speed and aperture:
| Polaroid # | Aperature | Shutter Speed |
| 1 | f/8.8 | 1/12 |
| 2 | f/8.8 | 1/25 |
| 3 | f/8.8 | 1/50 |
| 4 | f/8.8 | 1/100 |
| 5 | f/12.5 | 1/100 |
| 6 | f/17.5 | 1/100 |
| 7 | f/25 | 1/100 |
| 8 | f/35 | 1/100 |
The chart above uses information taken from www.rhwhirled.com which is a great resource if you want to learn more about the Polaroid 95a or many other older Polaroid cameras. Good luck with your modifications and drop me an email if you decide to undertake this hack.
Posted by Adrian at 10:11 PM | TrackBack
September 3, 2005
The World's Largest Camera
In my research for my “alternative photography” contribution to the Be A Design Group group post, I came accross the world’s largest camera. It was called the Mammoth and it was built in 1900. It weighed 900lbs and made an 8 x 4.5 foot negative. I haven’t been able to track down any photos taken with the world’s largest camera, but here is a link to a page that tells more about George Lawrence, the camera’s inventor. That page has some links to other pages that show some photos taken from his Kite Arial Photography experiments. Fascinating stuff. Check it out if you get the chance.
Posted by Adrian at 3:50 PM