C. T. Goode's Railway Rambles

It isn't often one finds a photo book that featuring pictures taken exclusively with a box camera, but by chance I came upon these two volumes by C. T. Goode [Charles Tony Goode] and thought they were worth sharing. If you Google this name it will become clear that the author's real passion is railways as he published a number of books on the subject between the 70s and the 90s.

Volume 1, published in 1988, is called Railway Rambles with a Box Camera and in the short and entertaining intro Goode writes:

 As far as I am aware, I think that I should be the first photographer to admit to using a box camera to take and display pictures in a collection, as it would not be done to state that one had used such a simple device in a sophisticated world of 'f's, zoom lenses and apertures, a world where the more complicated things are, the better....

...Even then [just after the end of WWII], to produce the box on a platform, peer into the inefficient little view finder and produce a massive 'click' did occasionally cause a stir...

...I do use it from time to time [still[]...The looks on the faces of others when the box camera is produced 'on location' have to be witnessed to be believed. It is as if one has suddenly rolled up in a suit of medieval armour!

Well at least in 2021 you are less likely to cause a stir shooting a box camera in public as more often than not people don't realise the box is a camera.

Volume 1 shows some historic steam locomotives. It is not meant to exhibit the capabilities of the Brownie No. 2 camera being used. That said, Goode does mention a few of the challenges of taking this subject matter with a box camera in his intro. 

He points out that he generally needed sunny conditions, or if the light was dull, he would take the photo anything up to four times on the same frame to get the correct exposure. Sometimes he would tilt the camera to the desired angle on some pennies and take a long exposure. He was also limited to taking either stationary or slow moving trains due to the low shutter speed.

 Volume 2, published in 1989 shows photos taken not of trains but of sites and stations and is a nice additional collection of photos taken on a simple box camera dating from c.1931.

 It was very refreshing to find photo books featuring snapshots taken exclusively on a Brownie box camera. It is inspiring to see the camera used this way to make a project on a theme and has me wondering what I might be able to achieve with my own box cameras. It has been a long time since I've been shooting with mine (largely due to the travel restrictions imposed by lockdown due to the current Covid 19 pandemic), and I could really do with a project to look forward to when we are free to travel again. Next year marks the centenary of the Ensign Cupid, and it might be nice to produce a zine or similar project that showcases what this marvellous and quirky box camera can do.

Pushing Catlabs Film with an Ensign Cupid

Today I shot another roll of Catlabs X Film 80, this time pushing it to ISO 200. I had another box camera that I hadn't tested yet so I thought I'd take it out and see what it can produce. The camera is a very early box camera made by Houghtons Ltd and couldn't be more different from the Ful-Vue. It is an Ensign Cupid, which was in production between 1922 and 1928.

The first thing you'll notice is that it isn't a box, in fact it has a very distinct T section. There is no glass viewfinder. Instead there is a huge fold-up frame finder with cross-hairs to assist with aim. Obviously this means you hold the camera at eye-level when shooting.

To cock the shutter you pull up the pin in front of the frame finder. There is a shutter lever to choose between Instantaneous and Time exposure and at the base of that is the shutter release button.

The achromatic lens helps to prevent aberrations. The camera shoots at roughly 1/40 at f/11. It's unique selling point, though, is that it shoots half frames so instead of 8 exposures you get 16.

So, naturally I was keen to see what this camera could do. It was shooting in the evening sun so I decided to push the film to 200 in development. The negatives were developed in HC110 (B) for 15 minutes. If you are curious about how to calculate timings for pushing or pulling film, check out my previous post, which has a link to a neat calculator created by my husband.

Here are the results:

So, for a camera that is nearly 100 years old I must say it's a delight to shoot and produces nice images. The lens stays remarkably sharp close to the edges and only gives a mild vignette. Clearly it also produces some impressive flare when pointed at the sun, though whether that is good or bad is personal preference. While the viewfinder looks comical I got pretty much everything I wanted in the frame, so it worked.

Pushing Catlabs to 200 worked nicely with these images.

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.

Take the shot twice...

One way to get round the issue of exposure when lighting conditions are too dark is to take the shot more than once. This can work but obviously there are some risks. For a start, you need to guarantee that the subject, and more importantly the camera stay completely still for both exposures (unless of course you have a creative reason to want to include some motion blur or "ghosts" in your images).

In the shot below, which was taken on a Balda Baldixette, the camera moved slightly, giving a double vision effect.

In the next shot, the train station came out nice and sharp, but the car moving through the frame appears twice.

It should be stated that these shots were pretty experimental. I had a box camera that day loaded with ISO 25 film, and was hoping for brighter conditions that never came. I didn't have a tripod, so taking multiple shots handheld was never going to produce great images. However, they do illustrate that this method can produce decent photos, just as long as you can steady the camera.

Don't underestimate that plastic lens...

Now I must admit, I didn't expect amazing results from the Fulvueflex Synchroflash. When you read about it online it seems history has judged it a bit of a poor decision on Ensign's part, not really consistent with their brand. Right enough it's the only Ful-Vue camera to have a plastic lens and feels cheap to the touch. It's significantly lighter than the others.

However, when I developed the roll of film I shot on this camera I saw this:

 

The film was Kodak Ektar 100, professional grade film that excels at taking landscapes. Loading film of this calibre into essentially a toy camera felt a bit wrong at the time, but I was clearly too quick to judge the Fulvueflex because, well, look! The picture is gorgeous.

Here are some more of the roll:

So there you go. The Fulvueflex demonstrating that it isn't fancy expensive kit that takes great photos. It also performed very respectably at my wedding last month, so I'm no longer hesitant about grabbing this camera as I leave the house. In fact, on a recent trip to Bristol, this was my go to box camera as I was flying and mindful of my weight limit. I look forward to seeing the results.

Box Cameras and Wedding Snaps

Captured on the Kodak Brownie Cresta III, Fuji Pro 400H

A few weeks ago my partner and I got married in a beautiful ceremony at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. Instead of the usual photo-booth option for the wedding guests, we decided we'd share our passion for vintage cameras and set up a box camera station, where guests could use box cameras to take snapshots of the day. It went down a storm. The novelty of shooting film again would certainly have been a memorable part of the day, and the best part was uploading the images a few weeks later for all to see their handy work.

It was impossible to predict  beforehand what sort of weather and lighting conditions we'd have, so we just went for ISO 400, one of the more versatile films that can handle most conditions. We had a mix of Fuji Pro 400H and Lomography 400, and both performed well.

Garden snaps, captured on the Kodak Brownie Cresta III, Fuji Pro 400H

Most of the wedding guests hadn't shot a film camera for a very long time, and for many a waist level viewfinder was totally new territory. For the most part the pictures came out well. There were one or two instances where people forgot to wind on, resulting in some interesting double and triple exposures. Nevertheless, we have some lovely snapshots to remember the day. The cameras used were:
Ful-Vues model 1, 1.5, 2, and Fulvueflex Synchroflash, Kodak Brownie Cresta III, Ilford Envoy, and an Agfa Clack. 

Here are some of the results.

Captured on the Ensign Fulvueflex Synchroflash, Lomography 400.

Captured on the model 1 Ensign Ful-Vue, Fuji Pro 400H

Triple Exposure, captured on the Ensign Fulvueflex Synchroflash, Lomography 400

Double exposure, captured on the model 1 Ensign Ful-Vue, Fuji Pro 400H

Double exposure, captured on the model 1 Ensign Ful-Vue, Fuji Pro 400H

Captured on the model 1 Ensign Ful-Vue, Fuji Pro 400H

Captured on the Kodak Brownie Cresta III, Fuji Pro 400H

Captured on the Ensign Fulvueflex Synchroflash, Lomography 400

Captured on the Kodak Brownie Cresta III, Fuji Pro 400H

Captured on the Ensign Fulvueflex Synchroflash, Lomography 400