Another Eye-Level Box Camera: Kodak Brownie Cresta III

 I had a recent trip to Inverness and took with me another box camera, just in case there was anything nice to shoot while I was there.

After my failure with the Agfa Clack I decided to give another camera a go that is also shot at eye-level, a Kodak Brownie Cresta III. This plastic wonder may not look like much but it has one of the most reliable shutter mechanisms in my whole collection and its plastic Dakon lens gives lovely results. 

It dates from the first half of the 1960s and has a choice of two apertures, f/11 and f/16 (though these are labelled EV12 and EV13). It also has a close up lens that pulls into place with the lever on the side which allows you to focus as close as 4 feet. Its single shutter speed of 1/40 puts it on a par with the plastic Ensign Fulvueflex, another camera that many might dismiss as a toy but actually gives rather nice results.

As it happens, the weather was rather nice in Inverness and my husband and I had a hour before we had to move on, so we decided to take a walk along the Caledonian Canal. I am very happy to say that my pictures came out a lot sharper on the Brownie than they did on the Agfa, and most of the roll had some nice pictures on it.

One interesting thing did crop up, though. Apparently, at some point during lockdown, I loaded this camera in the vague hope of getting some nice shots near my home. I guess the conditions weren't great and I only managed to get 4 shots, after which I shelved the camera and awaited better conditions. I guess they were a long time coming because I couldn't remember for the life of me when I loaded the camera, or what film it was loaded with when it came to our Inverness outing. Peering through the film window revealed rounded numbers, which were a tell tale sign of Catlabs X Fiilm 80, a film I am very fond of. Now, either because the camera had been shelved for so long or because the film unravelled a little on loading, the first couple of shots had light leak. It probably happened during loading as I took the same shot of a sand castle three times, so I must have suspected the first frames wouldn't come out. The third shot was mostly unscathed and is pictured here:

Sand Castle

That's a surprising amount of detail in the sand from a plastic lens. 

Anyway, as I couldn't remember what the first 3 frames were, or the conditions in which they were taken, we decided to semi-stand develop the film, a process I will explain in more detail in the next post. For now, it will do to say that the film responded very well to this approach and we got some nice snaps.

Old Tractor Factory

Boats on the Caledonian Canal

More Boats on the Caledonian Canal

Swans

Bell Tower

Caledonian Canal

Wait For Me, Dad

Clachnaharry Railway

Railway Cottages

So we've ended up with some pretty vintage looking shots. I think C. T. Goode would have been very proud of my Clachnaharry Railway shot!

 I don't know how long the film sat in the camera but the sky shows some imprinting of the film backing paper on the image in many of the shots. I've had this happen before when a camera has sat loaded but unused for some time, so it's best to avoid that if possible. It hasn't ruined the shots though. Shall we just claim it adds character?

The Cresta III is a lovely camera. Highly recommended. A great box camera for beginners that's easy to use and doesn't involve any tricky waist level composing. British made Brownies are also good choices as they tend to take 120 film. Lots of other Brownie models take 127 film which is harder to come by and expensive.

Catlabs Test Shots - First Results

I wouldn't normally have considered yesterday's weather ideal for box camera photography. It was overcast, drizzly, and generally looked a bit miserable. It was EV 12 and didn't look that inviting. It was ideal, then, for my ISO toggling experiment. I grabbed a roll of Catlabs X film 80 and loaded it, not into a Ful-Vue, but into a new addition to the collection, a Ferrania Zeta Duplex.

This Italian box camera dates from the early 1940s and is very different from the Ensign Ful-Vues. For a start, it doesn't shoot squares, it shoots dual format 6x9 or 6x4.5. Its viewfinders are absolutely tiny. It has a choice of two apertures, f/11 and f/16, and it shoots at 1/50. Its main selling point however is its smiley face.

I'd never shot one of these before and I must say, once you're used to the huge viewfinders on the Ensigns, composing with those miniscule little lenses on the Ferrania was seriously challenging. Otherwise the experience is very much the same. Hold it still and press the shutter release.

Seeing as it was EV12, I decided to push the film 2 stops to ISO 320. I developed the film in HC110 (B) for 19 minutes. Here are some of the results.

Sheep Pen

Bridge

Bridge looking the other way

Twisted old trees

Trail of seaweed

Low cloud

Splash

Rocks

Waves

Silhouette

Clouds

Pretty delighted with the results. Catlabs X film 80 is a lovely film and there is no perceivable grain, even when pushed to 320. I shot these pictures in the late evening and by the last couple of shots the light was getting very low. The clouds shot above was the final frame, which I took by holding the camera against a signpost and then making two exposures. Upping the exposure levels a shade in post processing recovered a lot of the data, though the foreground is still pretty dark. Pleased with how the clouds came out though.

The lens in the Ferrania produces images with extremely soft edges. They certainly look like they were taken on a vintage camera.

Very happy with my first results.