Spartus Folding Camera Model No. 5-500

Back when I was in the deepest grip of camera mania I bought this camera off Ebay.  The main attraction was its Art Deco design.  I didn't pay much for it and I had it for a while before I started to appreciate it.  So far my experience has been that while not being a very good picture taker it is great to look at.  It helps that the camera was in like new condition.  I don't think that it was used much.  I imagine that it sat in its box for years. Probably the Spartus Folding camera was designed in the late 1930's. It started out as the Falcon Folding Camera in 1940 and shortly after the design was taken over by the Spartus Company of Chicago.  Spartus continued to make the Spartus Folding Camera up to the 1950's.

One of the things I like most about old cameras is that they can give me a feel of having a link to an earlier era in photography.  Sometimes that feeling is ruined by a camera that is so decrepit that it is hard to get a feel for what it must have been like when it was in its prime.  The Spartus Folding camera was in such good shape that it was not hard to imagine what it would have been like to use it when it was brand new. 

As you can see from the image above the Spartus Folding Camera is very simple.  About the only choice you have to make is to select an aperture of either f/16 or f/22.  There also is a choice of instant or timed for the shutter. Since there is no option for flash, the best time to use the Spartus would be on a sunny day.  That was a common limitation for cameras of the time. And since people back in those days seem to have spent more time outdoors this would not have seemed like a great limitation.

As far as the pictures it makes, well they aren't too great. Although I think the results would have met the expectations that most people would have for such a camera at the time. For a price of $7.95 the Spartus Folding Camera must have satisfied the needs of many picture takers back in the 1940's.  That is evidenced by its long production run, and by a fair number of these cameras still being around.

The Spartus uses 127 film, which was fairly popular for amateur picture making up to the 1960's.  Today with the demise of Efke, the last maker of 127 film, it appears that making use of cameras like the Spartus Folding Camera will be more difficult.  For the image here I took some 35mm film and put it on 127 backing paper.  That works reasonably well, however I don't think that I often will be willing to go to the trouble for the images that the Spartus Folding Camera makes.  Still I think the Spartus Folding Camera is very worthwhile for its design alone.  My advice if you are planning on getting one is to hold out for one in very good condition.  I would guess there still are a lot of good ones out there.  And having one in excellent condition adds much to being able to appreciate the non-picture-taking qualities of the Spartus Folding Camera.

Fixing 1940's Found Photos

Just have a short time to make a post today.  Over the past few months I have been posting photos that I made from old negatives that I purchased at an antique shop.  Most of the film strips have been in fairly good shape and haven't needed much work. The latest batch has been an exception. Most were underexposed, poorly composed, and dusty.

One of the images as it came out of the scanner.  I used curves in the scanner software to improve the underexposure somewhat.

This is the result from some fairly quickly done work in Photoshop.  I used a curves adjustment to improve the exposure and contrast.  To further lighten it I made a new layer which I overexposed and then blended with the existing layer. The clone stamp and spot healing tool took care of most of the dust and blemishes. I also used a small amount of LAB sharpening.









If you ever do work with this type of image it is very helpful to at least learn about some tools like the clone stamp and spot healing.  These are present in both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.  If you don't want to spend money to buy that software such tools are also available in The Gimp.

While I think this image is interesting because of the extended look at the vintage decor, the intended focus likely was meant to be on the woman and child.

Using the same tools as before.























If you ever tried to fix an old photo back in the days before digital than you may be like me and sometimes see the tools available in programs like Photoshop as being almost magic.

This also needed some fixing up, however I am showing it because the girl is holding a camera.  I finally was able to see that it is a Kodak Target Six-16












Also the man in the undershirt and the woman with the child on her lap were in one of my favorite images from a previous post.

Family Reunion at Crystal Lake Park

It is not easy to see, however there is another photographer at this event.  The man in the middle is holding some kind of TLR.  TLR's were a popular style of camera in the 40's and 50's.









I had not scanned any of the rolls of negatives that I bought earlier this year in a while.  So last night I figured it was time.  What I found in the next roll appears to be a family reunion that took place at Crystal Lake Park in Urbana Illinois. Going by the cars and the clothes the time appears to be in the late 1940's.  There aren't any images that stand out like the little girl with the gun, or the couple hopefully just carving a turkey from past found film. Still it is pretty good coverage of a type of event that I think was once more popular than it is today.

Looks like there was a good turnout.

There was even some live music. Radio or recorded music wasn't easily portable in those days.














These negatives were in the best shape of any of this group that I have scanned so far.  They required very little in the way of cleaning up.

Here is the rest of the Family Reunion Gallery.