Street Photography

 I started on this post sometime ago and didn't get it finished. Figured as I restart this blog for the winter I might as well make this the first offering.

A few days ago I was reading this post and got to thinking about street photography. I imagine there are some definitions for what street photography is, however I tend to think of it as photos of people out in public going about their business. My version of street photography doesn't mean that the subjects have to actually be along a street.  And around here as in most places streets aren't what they used to be. There are a lot of cars, however not many people walking on the sidewalks.

So I got to wondering about the photos that I have taken in the last few years that might fall into a broad definition of street photography. What I found is that most of my pictures of this type where taken at events like festivals and flea markets.  The one above is from a flea market. I took it using a Canon 50-250 lens on one of my Canon digital SLRs.

The ones above also were with the Canon 50-250.  I think I get the best results with this lens since it lets me get close without sticking a camera in someone's face.

A couple more from when I had a phase of liking to put frames around things.

The two below are with a Holga lens for Canon.  Since this lens is around 50mm it makes me get closer.  I like the soft look of this lens.  I wish I could remember where I put it.

The last one is with a Sony DSC TX7.  I usually carry this one in my pocket. I took this one at Flesor's Candy Store in Tuscola IL. I thought it looked much better converted to B&W. Hope that no one is offended that my first post in a while is digital. Plan to be back with more film cameras soon.

Minolta SR-T 201

Every since I again took up film photography I had wanted to get my hands on a classic 1970's Minolta. The easy way would have been to look on Ebay, however I figured I would go local for this one. I remember back in the 1970's that Minolta was a common brand of SLR in this area. I think I saw them almost as often as Pentax. So I didn't think it would be long until one showed up in a garage sale, thift shop, or etc.. While that line of thought turned out to work for Pentax it wasn't true for Minolta.  A few years passed until recently I came across this nice Minolta 201 for $10 at a garage sale.  My ideal choice would have been the classic SR-T 102, however after all this time I am happy with the SR-T 201.

The SR-T 201 was lower priced than the SR-T 102 and SR-T 202 and lacks some of their features.  However it does have the two features that I most wanted. The first is CLC metering.  With CLC Minolta used two cds cells to combine spot and center-weighted metering.  The second is the MD 50mm f/1.7 lens which is one of the classic lenses from the 1970's. The great metering system and lens combined along with an economical price made the Minolta SR-T series one of the best-selling cameras during the 1970's. 

 In just a brief experience of the Minolta SR-T 201 I can say that the exposure system lives up to its reputation. Pretty much every image I took was spot-on as far as exposure. The lens also lived up to expectations. Overall a very good camera. If you go looking for a Minolta SR-T 201 look for the letters CLC on the front.  There was a late version of the SR-T 201 that only one cds cell and these do not have the CLC marking. 

Right now I am in the middle of switching to a new ISP and it isn't going so well. For some reason the connection is very slow and that doesn't make blogging much fun. Hopefully another call to support will get things working. 

 

Kodacolor-X 616 film

Last week I found these two rolls of film at a garage sale for 50 cents.  I had never seen actual 616 film before. I don't remember the format although it was still for sale when I was first into photography. 616 film was introduced by Kodak in 1932.  It is the same size as 116 film, however the spool is smaller.  The idea was that the smaller spool would let cameras be smaller also. As it was most commonly used 616 film made 8 images that were 2 1/2 inches by 4 1/4 inches. Prints from 616 film were usually made by the contact method.  That is why it is fairly common to see prints of that dimension from the 1930's and 40's. By the 1950's 616 film was in decline although Kodak continued to make it until 1984.

The rolls that I bought both expired in 1972.  By that time Kodak only offered 616 film in Kodacolor-X. Kodacolor-X was introduced in 1963 and discontinued in 1974.  I believe it was the last of the Kodak films to use the C-22 method of processing. If this film could still yield some images it still would be a challenge to get it processed.  There are still a couple of places that say they can do color processing on this film if the dyes have stayed intact.  If not B&W images are still possible.  Also if you are a DIYer then I have heard of people being able to get B&W images from Kodacolor-X. 

I do have a Kodak Senior 616 camera that uses this film, however I don't think that the results I would get would be worth the trouble.  So probably I will put this out on Ebay. 

First garage sale film find of the year

The last few years I have had good luck finding slightly expired, but usable film at garage sales.  However so far this year I had found no film.  Then a couple weeks ago the bag above caught my eye beneath the table of a garage sale.

When I looked inside I saw that it was packed to the top with old film.  Most had expired in 1993.  Since most of it was B&W I figured it was likely that some of it would be fine to use.  Also since there were several boxes of sheet film I figured that the source of the film was probably sophisticated enough to have done a good job storing the film.  Anyway for $5 I didn't have much to lose.

For my $5 I got several 5 pack boxes of T-MAX 100 and Tri-X 120 film.  There also were several boxes of Vericolor and Ektachrome 400 120.  In the 4x5 size there was a hundred sheet box each of Ektapan and Plus-X.  There also were a couple of 25 sheet boxes of Ektapan and Plus-X.  And lastly there is a 100 sheet box of HP5 and LP4.  None of the boxes had been opened.

So far I have only done a couple rolls of the T-MAX.  It seems to be in good shape.

If all this film has held up as well as the T-MAX this will have to be by far and away my best film deal ever.

Found Film and Three Strollers

I imagine that this stroller would face all sorts of safety recalls if it were made today. Although I doubt that it could compete price-wise with the plastic models. I think this photo was made in the 1940s. Notice the brace on the child's leg. I am guessing this may have been the result of polio.

I found this image in some negatives that I bought a while back in St. Joseph, Illinois. So far I haven't found out much about them other then they seem to have been taken mostly in the 1940s. I think they may have been taken around St. Joseph, Illinois. I posted some of these photos back when I first started this blog.
Found Film Negatives from the 1940's & 1950's 
More Found Film and some World War II History
Fixing 1940's Found Photos
Family Reunion at Crystal Lake Park
Found Film Negatives from the 1940's & 1950's

I think this stroller may be one of the Taylor Tots. Taylor Tots were a popular stroller that was made from the 1920s up to the 1970s. I believe that the metal plate beneath the child's feet can be removed to make the stroller into a walker.

Looks like this kid might be heading off the edge of the porch on his stroller/walker. At least it looks like the woman in the photo is moving toward him to stop his progress in that direction.

Hope someone finds the photos of old strollers interesting. I can't say that I remember much about strollers from my youth. I can remember pedal cars and tractors.  Also tricycles and bicycles. However I don't remember ever using a stroller. Still some people must have memories of them since they are a fairly popular item for collecting and restoring.

Ica Icarette, Marksman 120, and Lost Portrait.

I saw this camera at Crossroads Consignment in Champaign IL a couple weeks ago. The price tag said "Rare Ica Icarette $110".  I am used to seeing claims of rarity made by dealers for common items, however in this case the claim may be valid. The Icarrette was made by Ica starting in 1920.  In 1926 there was a big merger of German camera makers after which Zeiss Ikon made several models of Icarettes. In my admittedly non-exhaustive search for info on the Icarrette I was not able to find anything on the pre-1926 Icarrette. So it is likely that if this is a pre-1926 Ica made Icarrette, then it may actually be somewhat rare.

From what I can find it appears that Icarrettes were good cameras. Later models were made that used several different roll film sizes.  The early ones also had the ability to use plates. Most had a Tessor lens and a Compur leaf shutter with, a good for the time, top speed of 1/250.  Anyway the Ica Icarette seems like a much more interesting camera than I would have thought at first.  I will definitely give it another look if it is still there the next time I go to Crossroads.

The Marksman 120 is a typical box camera from the late 1940's.  The most interesting thing to me is that it was made by Zenith Camera Corp. in Chicago.  Postwar Chicago seems to have been a preferred site for making cheap cameras. Zenith, Metropolitan Industries, and Spartus are three Chicago based makers of cheap cameras that come to mind. I think the Marksman 120 was priced at $25. 

I believe this is a Crayon Enlargement.  Crayon Enlargements were popular up until WWI.  What they did was make a photo enlargement which was used as a guide for the finished portrait. Here the portrait is a colorized photo of a soldier from WWI.  From the number of these portraits that I have seen over the years, they must have been very popular with WWI soldiers. I didn't catch the price on this item, however I would guess that it is a hard item to sell, since demand probably isn't high and supply is.

Kodak Cameras using 120 film

Kodak introduced 120 film in 1901.  At the time 120 was considered a small format roll-film.  That is not surprising since in those day you could get roll-film that was 5 inches wide. Up until 1932 Kodak made at least 19 cameras that used 120 film. There may be a few more, however these are the ones I found.  The 1933 No. 2 Special Brownie appears to be the last camera that Kodak made for 120.

In 1932 Kodak introduced the 620 format.  620 film is the same width as 120, however it uses a slimmer spool.  From the 1930's until the 1950's, 620 was the most popular film format.  Still 120 survives until this day and 620 was last made in 1995.  Unfortunately, with few exceptions, some Brownie Flash Hawkeyes for example, Kodak 620 cameras will not work with 120 film.

So if you want to use a non-135 Kodak camera with a film that is still easy to get, you have to go back to the days before FDR. With the exception of one of the No. 2 Brownies I have never used any of these cameras. Still the idea of using one of these vintage cameras with an easy to get film has some appeal to me.  So I made this list to help me when the time comes to seek one out, and am sharing it here.  The info about the box cameras may have some short-comings.  What I have found about identifying these cameras is confusing to me at least.  And I didn't want to spend much time sorting it out since it is the folding cameras that I am most interested in. The now value is the original price in today's dollars.

Hope the table doesn't cause any problems. Blogger seems to lack a tool to make tables.  I normally don't care to use inline styles as I have done here, however it seemed easier than figuring out how to add a style sheet to a blogger page. 

CAMERA NAME	FROM	TO	Then	Now
No. 1 AUTOGRAPHIC KODAK Junior Camera	1914	1927	$23.00	543.47
No. 1 AUTOGRAPHIC KODAK Special Camera (Bakelite side panels)	1915	1920	$56.00	$1,310.14
No. 1 AUTOGRAPHIC KODAK Special Camera (Model B) (Back overlaps sides) Focus by thumb-turned gear. (Only produced for a few months)	1921	1921	$79.00	$1,042.86
No. 1 AUTOGRAPHIC KODAK Special Camera (Model B) (knurled screw focusing)	1922	1926	$74.00	$1,040.81
No. 2 Beau BROWNIE Camera (5 colors)	1930	1933	$4.25	$60.13
Boy Scout BROWNIE Camera	1932	1932	$2.00	$34.50
No. 2 BROWNIE Camera	1901	1904	$2.00	$47.74
No. 2 BROWNIE Camera (Aluminum, Model F)	1924	1933	$2.75	$38.00
No. 2 BROWNIE Camera (5 colors)	1929	1933	$2.50	$34.55
BROWNIE Special No. 2 Camera	1933	1934	$2.25	$40.90
No. 2 Folding AUTOGRAPHIC BROWNIE Camera (Changed from square to round ends in 1917)	1915	1926	$12.00	$280.74
No. 2 Folding Pocket BROWNIE Camera (Model B)	1907	1915	$5.00	$119.34
Century of Progress World’s Fair Souvenir 1833–1933 Camera	1933	1933	$4.00	$72.71
No. 1 KODAK Junior Camera	1914	1914	$11.00	$259.92
No. 1 KODAK Series III Camera	1926	1932	$26.00	$347.10
No. 1 Pocket KODAK Camera	1926	1932	$17.00	$226.95
No. 1 Pocket KODAK Camera (In 4 colors: blue, brown, gray, green)	1929	1931	$18.00	$248.73
No. 1 Pocket KODAK Junior Camera (Black and 3 colors)	1929	1932	$9.00	$124.36
No. 1 Pocket KODAK Series II Camera	1922	1932	$22.50	$310.91