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fter a few enquiries and the fact that I have been meaning to put together and upload this for a while but just never got around to it, here is an otherwise boring (insomniacs if you need a cure look here) visual tutorial on how to load film into your BBF (blackbird,fly) camera, I hope it is of use to someone out there.
As I said, I have been planning on uploading a guide to loading film into the blackbird,fly camera for a while, but life (and having fun taking photos!) sort of distracted me. The reason I initially planned to do this has not changed; when I first got the prototype version of the camera I was initially very unsure if I was actually loading film into it correctly – and this is someone who is used to loading film into cameras, so I could only imagine how approaching the job would be for people not as familiar with film photography!
The trick with loading film into the bbf is patience and practice. When I first got the camera I found it quite fiddly as my fingers are fat sausages in relation to the fine workings of the camera, so I felt quite clumsy (which I am anyway) but even I got there in the end.
(loading film into a Horizon panoramic camera is far more of a challenge IMHO)
Please note – if you find that you are winding the film on after loading and the film advance knob does not ‘lock’ in place then this means the film leader has not properly engaged in the take up spool and you will need to open the back and try again.
(After each exposure the film will advance a certain amount and then the film advance knob will stop winding on, indicating that the camera is ready for photography and the shutter needs to be released before the wind on knob will advance again)
Loading Film Into the BBF from artpunk on Vimeo.
18 Comments
Screw the camera…I’m concentrating on that goddamn dreamy voice of yours. I think I heard your nose whistling instead in the new podcast. I blamed Don. Haha. That’s a great video. Perhaps someday I’ll invest an interest enough to purchase one. Honestly, I would rather have a groovy Swiftshot Box camera. It’s nearly identical to the Fly series with colors and such. Now there’s a camera you should review. Hello…
LOL Beck, you’ll make me blush! It probably was my nose whistling, I’ve had an on and off cold the last month thanks to Melbourne’s interminable hot one day, cold the next weather this summer. Thanks for the heads up on the Swiftshot Box camera, I will check that out. Happy New Year Beck.
The Swiftshot is an Auzzie made camera and very cute. I’m sure you or Marky have fondled one before. Groovy little gems.
http://www.camerasdownunder.com/
Thanks Beck, it must have been Skorj who has fondled one, in my ignorance I had not heard of them before (and me an Aussie and all!) Shame on me. Coincidently I discovered the site you linked to after reading your first comment and doing a search for these gems. It does differ from the bbf in that it is a MF camera and thus will be necessarily larger, but I agree with your assessment, very groovy!
great post! i always enjoy the stuff you upload to the flickr group. i have found that some films, primarily the lomo brand, don’t like to wind properly and the sprocket holes don’t engage well with the take up spool. i usually have to bend and roll the film a little prior to loading to get it to be happy on the takeup spool’s little sprocket teeth. otherwise the film’s innate tension will snap it away from the teeth before it begins to roll.
do u have any videos on how to properly load film in a horizon kompakt camera?
@ FJOIV – thanks! I have found some films I have used (most notably with older/out of date film that tends to be brittle) that occasionally I have had some problems with small parts of the film breaking off (at the sprocket holes) either during advancing the film and/or rewinding. This has happened regularly in other cameras, most commonly in the supersampler from lsi, where the film tensioning seems to be greater than in other cameras.
It has not been a big problem though, and has only happened a couple of times with the bbf. You just have to make sure you clear the inside of the camera of little bits of film that may lodge somewhere and interfere with the camera mechanism or cause ‘hickeys’ on your next roll.
@ JAY – that may be a project for later on. I have thought about it, as personally I find the horizon camera the most difficult camera to load film into. (I have the Horizon Perfekt, but the loading is the same as the Kompakt I believe)
Thanks Artpunk for the video. I enjoyed the background music as well as the tutorial. I appreciate your generosity to the plastic camera enthusiast community. Thanks for sharing your time and creativity (and patience!).
thanks very much appreciated…
only downside is the soundtrack makes it sound like a porn movie !
~simon
Thanks a bunch. I got one for Christmas from my girlfriend, and I guess I was trying to wind the film up too tight. Apparently less than I was doing is fine. Thanks for the video.
Excellent video..almost as good as the edits below..LOL!
Diane
great video..I was about to throw the whole thing out the window..but because of your oh so professionally done video I think I have it…no..really…it saved the camera!
hello! im having problems rewinding my film back.. is it possible for you to upload a video?
Thanks! This was really helpful. The manual was pretty confusing.
Hi, so I recently got a BBF, but without instructions. Any ideas where I can find some details on how to use it?
Hi Garret, I’m not sure where you got your BBF from but if it was new it should have had the instructions in the box. I can scan in mine and make them available as a pdf if you like (give me a few days)
How do I unload the film from my BBF???
Has anyone fixed a busted rewind crank? Mine fragmented tooday
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