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What's new? April 2013 The first experimental image with the Kodak No.3 Folding Brownie has been added. This is was with a paper negative, using photographic printing paper as the medium. It responds in quite a vintage way and looks promising. Some of the Collection cameras have been on their travels again, although a planned outing for the Foth Derby to Istanbul fell through, when the photographer was taken ill. However the Foth was subsequently despatched to Kyrgyzstan, along with the KMZ FT-2 and the Praktica BC-1. The photographic results from this trip have yet to be processed. March 2013 Another new arrival this month, is a bit of a rarity, a Foth Derby - saved from certain death using funds from Google ads - just so you know that there is a point to them. The Foth is currently in many tens of pieces, as the shutter curtains were rotten and a new set is being made up. The fund also paid for the processing this month of images for the Zeiss Ikonta B, Ricohflex Million and the Seagull 4. This spending spree has pretty much cleared the account! February 2013 Crikey, another new arrival! A Kodak No.3 Folding Brownie was purchased from the adverts fund... so there is a plus side. One had long been on the sought after list, but the red bellows often inflate the prices unrealistically. Fortunately the new arrival was acquired reasonably and has now been through a deep clean and for a camera that has just celebrated its 100th birthday, it looks pretty smart now. The lenses in particular are a joy, being absolutely clear of any marks. This wasn't the only new arrival, there were two further donations, both will need a visit to the workshop.... a decision on their future awaits, as both have undiagnosed problems. January 2013 A new arrival this month in the form of a donated Praktica Super TL. Quite happy about this as the Nova series Prakticas have always been a favourite, since a Nova B was my first 35mm camera. The build quality of them betrayed their Zeiss origins too. The new arrival works nicely too, though it has yet to have a film put through it, November 2012 Ah, work, work, work. An old boss of mine maintained that "if your hobbies get in the way of work, give up work". An unrealistic though, oh so tempting, solution I'd freely admit. So quite a few late nights at t'mill, a few more later ones attempting to drag some extra life out of my kitchen, by scrubbing it relentlessy as opposed to putting in a new one. Despite this, I did put a recently acquired Ensign Selfix 220 through a deep clean. It shares the same basic chassis with the Ensign Auto-Range 220, both being in the Ensign range around 1939. Given the Lens serials, it looks as though the Selfix is a bit older. The self energising Shutter is a bit harsh, so I am expecting a few tribulations keeping it still enough to get a decent result. Anyway, to celebrate it leaving the workshop, I've decided to make it random camera of the month, on the foyer. The Seagull TLR has been out and about a bit and the Ensign Selfix 820 is currently loaded too. October 2012 Well I've been a bit quiet on the old website this year! A number of factors. Breaking an arm in Turkey riding a motorcycle took a while to sort out, and may explain my seeming inability to get horizons level in my pictures these days, but that problem seems limited to the camera that was unfortunately on board during the same accident...so maybe it was battered a bit too. Also the website gets very few visitors these days, so there seems little point spending a lot of time updating it, if no one is dropping in. Those wise in these matters suggest that I should have aFacebook link, and a tTwitter account set up for the museum. But forgive me, I'd rather be out using my old relics than chatting about it. Having said that... if you are into Tweeting and Facebooking..or whatever it's called, please feel free to wax lyrical about my humble site, gawd know the old place needs a few visitors. Seriously, I need links, but I dan't want to do the cynical putting up a Twitter account just to drive visitors. If you think the site is worthy of a tweet or whatever, please tweet away! Some cameras have been active, the Signal Netter has been out and about, as has one of the Ikontas. The Ensign 820 is currently loaded along with the Lubitel 166B. Much more fun though was the fact that today was my 49th Birthday, I celebrated the fact by scrounging a ride in a 1943 Boeing Stearman. as luck would have it... I didn't have a camera with me! January 2012 Well the first positive results of the adverts on the site meant that the trip out with the Icarette was funded by the small advertising revenue we get, so whilst I apologise for the ads, it did pay for the travelling and development costs incurred for the two new images on the Icarette's results page. The second Zeiss Ikonta joined the website pages too. Joy of Joys, the project to be the first camera site to have 360° views of all (well nearly) exhibits is completed, I hope it proves useful to someone. We have expended about 180 hours on the project. Time to take it easy now...... December 2011 Well December saw a push to do more of the rotating pages. I had been putting off doing the cameras without centrally placed tripod bushes... but it turns out that the majority of our cameras have offset ones. So rather than prevaricate further, a solution had to be found. Somewhat annoyingly, the solution I arrived at was significantly better than the original method chosen, and would easily do any camera. Rats! So as of 31st December some 118 cameras have had the rotating treatment totaling 4248 images. These pages aren't that popular as they take a while to load, but for the patient they do give a view that, currently, no other vintage camera website is offering. One of the Zeiss Ikontas left the workshop and joined the website. It only remains to wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2012. November 2011 With the injury easing off slightly and a batch of additions arriving, it's been time for some work. Firstly all the TLRs have been photographed in 360° spinning views. Additionally three cameras have joined the museum pages, a Kodak Colorsnap 35, Ricoh Ricohflex Million and a Lubitel 166B. All had a deep clean on arrival. There are two inmates in the hospital, both Zeiss Ikontas, one seriously battered and one reasonable. September/October 2011 A slight problem.... during this year's annual trip, this time to Turkey, I had a fall in Saffronbolu, a broke my right collar bone rather comprehensively. This has curtailed just about everything, as even taking photographs is too uncomfortable. Normal service will be resumed when everything is back where it belongs. But I will change the random camera.... August 2011 A project to photograph some of the collection in 360 degree view was started. This is a very home cooked affair... as with everything else . A budget of precisely nothing at all has been allocated, and so it must be achieved with anything that can be found lying around. Not all cameras will be treated this way, but hopefully those that have features that cannot be seen in the standard image will be done. For viewing, broadband is essential, as the 36 images at 10 degree intervals add up a fair bit. This is purely experimental right now, and if the download speeds are too dire, will be abandoned.. So far, A Paxette, Kodak No.3 Autographic, Mercury II, Zeiss Nettar, and a Nagel Recomar have received the treatment. A further batch were added on 14th August, Olympus OM10, Selfix16-20, Nagel Vollenda, Kiev4A, Bencini Comet, Bolsey 35B, Bolsey 35B2, Cameo, Canon AV-1 and Ensign Commando. A further batch were added on 31st August, Exakta Varex IIa, Pentax ME, Pentax K1000, Nikon F401, Mamiya Prismat, Praktica BC1, Pentax Spotmatic SP and Sputnik. March 2011 Sample image for the Fornidar, have been added. March 2011 Sample images for the Pecto, have been added. February 2011 Yikes it's been quiet. The only real activity has been to load a couple of plates into the Pecto but only one was exposed, so I am awaiting an opportunity between freezing weather and driving rain to give it an outing. For those that drop by frequently, you will see that I have "sold out" to commercialism and put adverts on the website. Now I confess, I have always been opposed to this and the site has been completely altruistic up until now. Sadly the cost of hosting the website has quadrupled and came to the cost of many films. Hopefully the adverts will enable the site to continue, and I can spend the money on processing and film instead. A number of redundant items have gone onto ebay this month to help bolster the funds too. But none that were actually displayed on the website. October 2010 Shhhhh....... Don't tell anyone. A Pentax K-x DSLR joined the collection! To compensate, another sample image was added to the FT-2 Gallery 5. September 2010 The updates don't come so frequently these days huh? In September the Nikon F401 and the Krasnogorsk FT2 were taken on a motorcycle tour of Colorado. The Nikon took the place of the usual Pentax K1000, as it is fitted with a 35-70mm zoom as standard and would be more flexible for the limited amount of storage space available on the bike, a couple of images joined the results gallery for the Nikon. Also some images for the Zeiss Ikon Icarette have been added. April 2010 Four results images added for the 1914 VPK and Voigtlander Brillant. The Mamiya Prismat died, halfway through a roll. The Exacta is currently loaded along with two or three others. February 2010 A handful of the collection cameras made a return trip to our old stomping grounds in Vietnam, the newly arrived Pentax ME, K1000 and Leica II. Two further cameras joined the collection in February, a Pentax 110 Super, which has yet to clear the workshop and a delightful Zeiss Ikon Icarette, which was fast tracked as there was early evidence of corrosion and fungal attack which needed to be "nipped in the bud". This was completed rapidly and the result is a delightful specimen. January 2010 Little to report! A few new arrivals, two of which have joined the museum website, a Finetta IV and a Pentax ME. The arrival of the latter accelerated the retirement of one of our trusty Pentax K1000s, the ME taking its place. The Voigtlander Brillant, Exacta and Mamiya Prismat are currently loaded. October 2009 Well the website has undergone a significant rebuild
to allow for the wider screen resolutions available. When first designed
back in 2000, the site was fixed width at 700 pixels. A growing audience
now have broadband and much higher resolution screens, so it was high
time to reflect this. However, I decided to keep the familiar look to
the site and have resisted the temptation to go overboard with rollovers.
The increase in bandwidths and line speed has allowed the size of images
to be increased, so some cameras have been re-photographed. Of academic
interest is the switch from "Page Mills" to "Dreamweaver"
as the authoring software. |
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