Voigtländer Bessa 1 Folding Camera

The Bessa I wasn't the first Voigtlander to have that name there was an older pre-war Bessa too which I have an article on here: Link
This particular Bessa was manufactured between the late 1940's up until the late 1950's and is a well made camera that uses 120 film and can give either 6x4.5(with insert) or 6x9 size negatives.
The Model I has a simple finder that lacks a built-in rangefinder, the camera I purchased has a small finder that mounts in the shoe on the top which in practice is pretty easy to use- you just transfer the distance to the lens.


The Lens is a Vaskar F4,5 which is a triplet design, some cameras came with the Skopar F3,5 which is a Tessar type which probably gives better performance optically.
To open the camera just press the button near the wind knob (pictured below) and pull the drawbridge until the mechanism clicks.


Loading the film is pretty easy just place it in the cradle and pull the backing paper to the spool on the left, turn the wind knob and close the back.
The back has two windows, the right hand being the 6x9 and left one for 6x4.5. A centre knurled disc operates a guard which should be closed to stop stray light and has an 'x' to show it is closed it should be kept closed unless you are advancing the film.
The Bessa appears to have a neat anti double exposure device which makes it impossible to fire the shutter without winding. After winding the shutter needs to be manually cocked with a lever before you can take a picture.
So how does the camera fare in a real shooting situation? Although much slower in operation than the Bessa II (coupled RF version) or indeed most SLR cameras it can be used quite quickly set to either the hyperfocal distance or even infinity and stopped down to F11 in practice its just wind and cock shutter then shoot.
The following is a shot just set at infinity 1/250 at F11


Vaskar lens at F11 Fuji Neopan 400 in Rodinal 1:100


A 100% crop of the frame showing the impressive sharpness of the 3 element Vaskar

I must say I was surprised by how good the Bessa is, the three element Vaskar is a good picture taker, and although the camera is slow in operation compared to modern cameras once you get a shooting routine things are relatively straight forward.

All of which is nice but why bother using one in this century? After all bellows cameras belong to the same era as Bakelite radios, Flash Gordon and the Great Depression why should a modern photographer bother?

The best answer I can give is the biggest advantage of folding cameras is that when folded they are relatively small for their negative size and can be stored in coat pockets or shoulder bags or placed in a car glove-box for that 'unmissable' travel shot.

Below is an illustration of the size of the camera when folded in my smallish hand.

So in all I find the Bessa a far more practical camera than say my Fuji 6x7 RF despite its age and if you can find one with bellows that are in a reasonable condition it should give years of service.

It could be that the folding camera is due for a comeback? In 2008 Voigtländer introduced the Bessa III retro?- you bet, but also a lot more practical that you'd think.

Words and Pictures © Mark Antony Smith

Kodachrome: A celebration of a legend

Kodachrome was born in 1935 the product of two musicians Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes giving the phrase to Kodak employees 'Kodachrome made by God and Man'

Initially for 16mm movies with 35mm Stills following a year later. The film was the first really easy to use (no filters or glass plates) colour film which made it popular with serious amateurs and professionals especially with the then relatively new Leica cameras.

But the main reason for its success was its wonderful colours. Here courtesy of Simon97 are some images made before the second world war at the world fair in 1939:

Most peoples vision of the 1930's is a dull grey these wonderful images show otherwise rich bright colours and tones that would become part of the post war portrayal of the American dream

Kodachrome in the 1930's was expensive; the equivalent of about $50 per roll in todays money which meant that it was used mainly by enthusiasts for important subjects like weddings, travels abroad and family occasions.

Over the next few years the film cemented its position as the number one colour film also being used by National Geographic to bring the colourful Kodachrome world right into the homes of ordinary Americans and people worldwide.

During the 1950's and 60's Kodachrome was at its peak in popularity, used to record many of histories defining moments; The conquering of Everest, Kennedy's assassination (16mm cine film) pictures of stars like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot- Kodachrome was the colour of the 1950's and 60's.

During the 1960's the speed of the film was increased with the introduction of Kodachrome II the film became much easier to use for the average enthusiast 'snapper' of everyday family life, a Super 8 cine film was introduced at the same time.

By the late 1970's early 1980's people started to move away from slides and slide shows to the easier and faster colour print films for documenting family holidays; 1 hour mini-labs were starting to become common and professionals started using E-6 films like Ektachrome and Fujichrome.

As we moved into the 1990's Kodachrome had fallen out of favour, faster versions like the 200 ASA version and the introduction of 120 roll film versions aimed at professionals couldn't stem the tide and by 1998 Kodak started to close some Kodachrome labs and centralize their operations. Ten years later there was only one lab left to process the film and just a single speed in Kodaks product portfolio KR64.

The ultimate demise of Kodachrome was inevitable and started long ago, as a photographer I can only thank Kodak for keeping it going so long as I've been able to document my own children's early lives with a medium that has a proven longevity. I personally would have liked to see a '75 year birthday' but I expect Kodak are putting all their available efforts into the new modern 2 electron films they have recently introduced.

The end of an era, but I've a feeling that those slides will outlive most people reading this.

Kodachrome: born 1935 -expired 2009 aged 74 after a long and productive life. It leaves a treasure trove of social history and has touched the lives of millions of people worldwide.

All images and text © Mark Antony Smith 2009

Found Negatives

During my little jaunts I sometimes come across interesting photographic items. Recently while at a car boot I found some old negatives lying among a pile of old cameras. They were 127 Kodak Verichrome Pan negs


They look to have been taken sometime in the early-mid 1960's and I think they were taken in a northern English city posibly Manchester or Liverpool, I really like the young lady holding her hand over her face-she has a mischievous look about her.
I think the woman on the far left is the relative/girlfriend of the photographer as she shows up in the next frame


Who knows where this frame is, but its certainly not a northern English town.

Lovely shots, when I find photos like this I often wonder what happened to the people

Kodak 'Retires' Kodachrome

Some sad news today, after 74 years of production Kodak will be retiring their iconic Kodachrome film:

The Kodak announcement

I'm not sure why it is that Kodak have chosen to end the film after 74.5 years thus missing a golden opportunity for a 75 year publicity of the bringing of colour film to the masses.

Surely delaying the announcement and having a 'Happy Birthday Kodachrome' year in which they could run competitions, have online galleries - a celebration of their achievements. They could have then deleted it at the end of the year letting the film go with a bang rather than just fading away in a very un-Kodachrome manner.

I feel its unfortunate that they have deleted it just six months short of the 75th birthday. I guess Kodak had to decide on whether there was going to be a new coating, stocks having dwindled in their supply chain and they now feel that they are going to concentrate on their newer technology films like Ektar 100.

Kodak have a tribute on their blog A Thousand Words

My Tribute will follow....

Early Colour Processes: Autochrome

In a previous post I have explored the early colour methods using RGB filters to make colour images.
In this post we'll be looking at the first commercially viable colour process- Autochrome.

Autochrome was the first generally available process for colour photography and was invented by the brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere and was first commercially marketed in 1907.
The plates were made by mixing potato starch grains which were dyed three colours red/orange, green and blue violet. These were then coated onto a glass plate with the gaps filled by 'lamp black' a type of graphite, they were then sealed with a varnish after which a orthochromatic monochrome emulsion was added.

You can see from the image above the emulsion 'relief' on the reverse side of the plate. the following image shows the plate just held up to the sky.


The image is actually quite dense, when originally shot a slide like the one above shot indoors may have taken several miniutes to expose, even outdoor shots in sunlight may have taken a few seconds.
The colours are wonderful though, to think this slide is one hundred years old this technology must have been fantastic at the time.


Above is a close-up view of the grain structure which has been described by some as pointillist, but I quite like it- Autochomes certainly have a unique look!
The slide in this post was bought on ebay for a few pounds and is a lovely slice of photographic history. The original may have shifted slightly in colour or the orange-red look may have been characteristic of the slide at the time of development.
I have attempted to 'correct' the following image using the wonders of modern technology, not sure if I like it any better...



One thing is for sure Autochrome was a wonderful process.

Phenix DN60

It isn't everyday that a new film camera is announced, so here is the latest in a dwindling breed.

The Phenix DN60 which boasts specifications of a mechanical shutter with a top shutter speed of 1/2000 sec and 1/125 flash sync and film speed of up to 3200 ISO.

It has the Nikon F mount so can use most Nikon lenses, it also has depth of field preview and what looks to be from the photo at least, fairly good construction with a metal top plate and lens mount all for £190.

I had never heard of Phenix but apparently they are the biggest manual camera maker in the Far East more detail here at their importers First Call Photographic

Kodak Ektar 100

Kodak Ektar 100 according to Kodak: Featuring ISO 100 speed, high saturation and ultra-vivid color, EKTAR 100 offers the finest, smoothest grain of any color negative film available today.
Quite a boast, how does it achieve this speed/finest grain?
The answer is it borrows a technology from Kodaks Vision movie film stock called "2 electron sensitisation" This doesn't mean that it is just a re-packaged movie film far from it. Kodak has been working on the problems associated with the Vision line like poor keeping qualities and more efficient chemical scavengers in order to make the technology suitable for stills use.

What is 2 electron sensitisation?
Here is how the development team explain it:
"Here we describe a new concept for increasing the efficiency of photographic systems, two-electron sensitization, which makes use of the chemical potential stored in the oxidized dyes. In conventional photography, subsequent reactions of the oxidized dyes are not controlled and may in fact include counterproductive return electron transfer reactions (recombination). In the two-electron sensitization scheme, an appropriately designed electron donor molecule, X−Y, that is added to the photographic dispersion transfers an electron to the oxidized dye to give a radical cation, X−Y•+. The X−Y•+ then undergoes a fragmentation reaction to give a radical, X•, and a stable cation, Y+. The radical X• is chosen to be sufficiently reducing so that it can inject an electron into the silver halide conduction band. In this way, the oxidised dye, which is a strong oxidant, is replaced by the radical, X•, which is a strong reductant. The two-electron transfer scheme has the potential of doubling the photographic speed because two electrons are injected per absorbed photon. Photographic data demonstrate that increases in sensitivity by factors approaching 2 can be obtained.".

Phew! so what does that mean for your photography? Simply put the film should have finer grain and slightly higher sensitivity than films without the 2 electron method.

Photographic tests
The following four images were taken mid afternoon, the top chart is in part shadow the bottom is in almost full sun.
Four photographs were taken in quick succession, the meter reading was taken from a grey card placed in the centre and a Minolta spotmeter F was used to find the correct exposure.


The film was taken to a local chemist and put through their 1 hr Fuji minilab. If you want a larger image just left click the pictures.
As you can see each image has a white paper in it with the respective exposures N (meter setting 100ISO) +1 with the lens opened 1 stop, -1 lens stopped down from normal by 1 stop, and -2 which was stopped down 2 stops from the normal frame.

At first glance an impressive result, the spread between +1/-2 is quite acceptable for normal photography if you have a simple camera without meter or use sunny 16 'guess' exposure method this film should give you enough latitude.
Looking at both the negatives and minilab prints along with the scans it is noticeable that at the -2 setting the shadow detail is beginning to block up, if you look in the shadows of the vine under the top chart texture and detail is not as well defined as in the N frame.
At the other end of the scale the +1 frame looks very good so good that I wish I'd taken a +2 frame as well.

I have read many suggestions that this film should be rated at a lower speed than 100, in my experience that has not proved to be the case. I think it would be best to work at box speed initially and do your own tests with cameras and the conditions you use to find your own personal speed index.

Colours are quite saturated especially in the red and blue parts of the spectrum, but somehow seem to give good skin tones, quite a difficult thing for emulsion engineers to achieve or so I'm told.
The following image was taken on a very dull day in winter.


The above scene is the sort of thing Ektar excels at, giving nice 'punchy' colours without overcooking, the magenta bike is pretty accurate as is the shade of pink in the girls boots.

Grain is very fine especially for a colour negative, I have printed a couple of shots to 8x12 inches with no apparent grain, when I get the chance I'll try to print one larger optically to see how far the grain holds up.
The 2 electron sensitisation really gives fine grain, I'll bet we see it introduced into a few more films before too long- Ektar 400 and 1600 would be nice!
Here is a final shot of a garden landscape the colours are pretty accurate as this was taken on a bright cloudless day, the sunlight in the UK can be pretty yellow and the shadows long on sunny winter days.



I have now used 5 rolls of Ektar and can say Kodak have a winner on their hands here, since I started to write this they have announced that Ektar 100 will now be available in 120 format which personally I use much more than 35mm.
I think Kodak have shown with this film (and the updated T-Max) that they are committed to providing film users with high quality materials- film is not dead!

© Text and images Mark Antony Smith 2009