The Plastic Lens ~ Words » 35mm

Plastic, Plastic, a little bit of digital…

Cameron — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:24:38 +0000

Superheadz Plamodel DIY 35mm Camera

Well, my entries here have been sparse lately, as I have been caught up doing lots of other fun stuff which I will talk about over the course of the next few posts. I have been taking lots of photos with the blackbird,fly as well as capturing my photographic excursions on good old fashioned 8mm film, as part of a project in collaboration with the excellent people from Powershovel/Superheadz. I hope my movie making skills are up to par, I suppose we won’t really know until the film is developed (in Japan) and transferred to digital media for editing, fingers crossed the material will be useful to my Tokyo friends. I’ve certainly had fun taking my family around different locations to photograph and film them, we have traveled to all the usual places I would go to capture the world around me through a plastic lens; the seaside, into the city and just generally mucking around at home as well…

In other upcoming projects I have planned, I will endeavour to construct the SuperHeadz Plamodel DIY 35mm Camera (pictured) before your very eyes in a video how-to. Phil and I discussed this camera in the Photogeek.tv podcast #84 and it looks quite interesting, as well as educational. I am fortunate enough to have one of these kits, so this should be a bit of fun and will test my D.I.Y. skills, as the instructions are in Japanese, but the diagrams seem very straightforward and understandable. I think it should go OK, but the proof of the camera is in the building. Whatever happens – any problems will be due to me, not the kit, I’m sure! Stay tuned for that one anyway, could be interesting!

The Digital Harinezumi from Superheadz

The little bit of digital I refer to in the post title is the Digital Harizenumi, a forthcoming piece of kit from Superheadz that looks to be the coolest blend of analogue ambience encompassed in a digital camera that I have ever seen. Looking a bit like a 110 film cartridge (only way cooler) this piano black camera produces some wonderful analogue like movies as well as shooting still images. Harinezumi translated to English from the Japanese is “hedgehog” and anyone familiar with the cute graphics of Superheadz will know the particular character this refers to! Sure it’s digital, but the results are so full of old-school character (and just sheer magic) from the videos I have seen produced by it, that I would be more than happy to use one! Here is one example movie in colour made by my friend in Tokyo, Nick Dangerfield and another using the cameras black and white mode by him as well. I just love them. I am sure you will be hearing more about the Harinezumi here as well as elsewhere…
You can get more of a taste at this link here: digital harinezumi! You can also read more about it at Nic Nichols site.

Scanning for Sprockets

Cameron — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:57:48 +0000

So you’ve got yourself a new BBF, or you’ve loaded 35mm into your Medium Format Toy Camera after I showed you how (or not, *heh*) or you may have bought a 35mm back for your Diana + camera or for your Holga. You have finished your first roll of film that you opted (in the case of BBF or dedicated 35mm back) to use in a way that will expose the image over the sprockets, and of course now you would like to see those cool sprocket holes in your resultant photos! – But SHOCK, Horror, Much Gnashing of Teeth! To your dismay the prints you pick up from the lab don’t show your sexy sprockets! Unfortunately most labs just aren’t geared up for those kind of exposures, they have set frame sizes for their prints and their machines won’t recognise non-standard frame sizes (the definition of which includes the full negative width ‘sprocket look’). They could probably find a work around to do it, but it would take time and effort, which of course equates to money in business. I get my film developed only (no prints) which is less expensive than develop and print. I just scan all my negatives these days, printing those I like. I take so many non-standard photographic shots such as panoramic, or exposures all the way to the film edge (sprockets) or square format (which isn’t really that non standard but try telling any modern lab that!) it is far easier for me to do this than put up with prints that don’t really reflect what I shot in the first place! So, you will need to scan your own negatives in, on a scanner capable of taking negatives. Remember, to get the sprockets in your scan, you will need a scanner that scans outside of the usual 35mm margins, which usually means one that can scan medium format film. There are many different scanners that will scan medium format negatives. Notably Canon & Epson make good models like the Canon 8800f, the Epson v500, v700 or if you look at the second hand market there are superseded models that will scan negatives well for a cheaper price.but it doesn’t stop there!

It can be a tricky thing scanning in the sprocket holes. Most scanners I know of have a special mask, or cartridge like thang that you have to place your cut negatives in. Most likely these were not designed for the cool sprocket effects you can get with the bbf, so these masks often will cover the sprockets area.

One user has modified his 35mm negative mask (on his Canoscan 8400F – same as mine) as seen here to enable it to scan in the sprockets, but I didn’t want to physically modify my mask, so used the 120 mask and placed the negatives in that, stopping the negative from touching the flatbed by using rubber bands across the body of the mask to hold the negative above the surface of the glass. Or if you like you can get out the hobby knife and stiff cardboard and fashion your own mask like this one I made (as illustrated) …

But wait! There’s even more!! It still doesn’t end there!

If you select the whole area of the negative including the sprockets to scan, those extra black areas can drive the scanners ‘auto’ settings a bit crazy! I know they do with mine…

I have a Canoscan 8400F and I have to ‘trick’ it into not auto-adjusting the levels to some weird blue cast by (in preview mode) selecting an area on my negative just inside the sprocket holes (see example image). Once that is done I use the ‘set’ option on the Canoscan 8400f to set tonal values for the selected area, the tones will stay the same when you re-size the selection area…. then you can readjust your selection margins for scanning to include the sprocket holes and scan. These particular options when using the Canoscan software are only available in the advanced mode of the scanner. I hope (if you have a scanner other than the Canon model referred to here) these options translate to whatever scanner/software combination you are using.

Note – You have to ‘set’ again after any ‘reset’ however, as the scanner will reset anytime you move your selection boundaries unless you specifically set it. Does that make sense?

**UPDATE! Finally (and with the help of the new Quicktime X screen recording capabilities) I have made a video tutorial on using the scanner interface to scan in your sprockets (and also avoid that weird blueness that can afflict your scanned negatives)

35mm Back for the Diana +

Cameron — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:18:36 +0000

received my last order from the Lomographic Society on Friday; a 35mm back for the Diana + cameras, with most of the English instructions missing due to a misprint. I had also ordered a Diana + Edelweiss edition that was broken (lens assembly completely detached from the body, dangling by the wires for the flash) before I even got it out of it’s box. I will be interested to see how the LSI address my concerns, but I have been feeling that the business side of the lomography community/family has changed from being customer focussed to being totally profit driven now, with a good deal of cynicism thrown in for good measure. A few of my friends and online contacts would argue this has been the case for a while but I have held out until recently, believing (hoping) they still cared more about analog photography and the people still practicing it than just the money…
Oh well. Because my manual had missing information, I had to ask online for the missing pages (thanks cannibal.animal) as I didn’t want to bust anything when fitting the 35mm back. I thought some people might appreciate a visual walkthrough of the process of fitting the back to the Diana + camera. Kai’s ‘out of the box’ review of the 35mm kit which I mention in the video can be found here.

Mounting the 35mm Diana + back from artpunk on Vimeo.

360 photos

Cameron — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:33:22 +0000

My mission is to try and shoot 360 photos in 14 days (well the little piece of paper said 7 days, but I let them know that I couldn’t possibly manage that in between family commitments and other essential things like going to work, sleeping and eating) I have already taken two rolls worth of Agfa 400 asa 36 exposure rolls of 35mm film through the BBF for Superheadz which leaves… um, let me see… 288! No worries! Gee I’m glad I’ve got a couple of days off coming up! When I first got my nice cameras from Superheadz however, I did manage to load one of them with one of my own rolls to make sure my second personal roll from the original prototype was mainly fuzzy due to my mistakenly leaving it on “b” for most of the time. Which it was (surprise, surprise)! Click on the image of my eldest with the blue blackbird, fly to enlarge it (and see more from my first personal roll from the *new* bbf if you have javascript enabled) For the next few days I think I’ll be shooting film for Tokyo…

Yet another BBF post

Cameron — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:27:48 +0000

Sorry to keep banging on about the BBF blackbird,fly but according to Woopra (which I now have up and running thanks to my friend Philip putting the idea in my head to use it) the majority of visits to the words part of this site lately have arrived here because of referrals or searches regarding this camera. Yesterday a package arrived from Superheadz my friends in Tokyo, and yes! it was my BBF camera with some more film to shoot for them (some of which I have exposed today) last night I thought I would make an updated review video of the camera, because I really wasn’t happy with the first one. I split it into two parts, this first one dealing with the basics of the camera and mask options, the second part deals with loading film into this camera which I shall add later on.
The first ‘teaser’ review can be seen here: BBF – The Teaser and I first talked about this camera (with detailed close-up photos) here: Blackbird,Fly.
So apologies regarding my boring presentation skills, but here is another BBF review and at least the camera has heaps of personality!

blackbird,fly – an updated review from artpunk on Vimeo.

Apologies

Cameron — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:34:46 +0000

To those who were asking about the BBF and where they may get it outside of Japan. I’m sorry for both the delay in answering your questions and for other things, which I take full responsibility for and will come to in due course.
I have returned to work after a nice break, so my updates to theplasticlens will be dictated by my fatigue levels after shift work and other responsibilities like family which come before writing here.
Let me update you now and explain my previous remark about other things ~ I feel that my enthusiasm over the prospective release of the new toy camera, the twin lens reflex 35mm BBF (Blackbird, Fly) from Superheadz may have generated a lot of (deserved) enthusiasm and anticipation regarding the camera with quite a few people wanting to get their hands on one. After receiving a few queries regarding distribution outside of Japan I contacted my friends at Powershovel/Superheadz about this. The good news is that unlike the Tolne, (which appeared as a blip on the Toy Camera radar screen and then was not to be seen again), the BBF will be being released and yes, it will find a market outside of Japan. The slightly disappointing news for those outside of Japan who would like one now, if not yesterday is that Superheadz don’t have ordering for these markets in place yet, but they do have plans for releasing it via third party stores such as (perhaps) Urban Outfitters and places like the MoMA shop in the U.S.A. (edit – and ICP in New York – www.icp.org by the end of October) – for Europe they are still considering options… edit ~ I have since heard of two outlets; Incognito www.incognito-uk.co.uk & The Photographers’ gallery www.photonet.org.uk, sometime in mid-October.
They are also looking into a way of providing online ordering for outside countries, but are not able to say when that will be active yet, probably in the new year.
So once again, my apologies for generating premature expectations, for some reason I had thought that Superheadz did have distribution points outside Japan, but that was my mistake, sorry, but rest assured, if you are patient (or if you have a contact in Japan), you will be able to get a BBF eventually!
*note – please see my latest update regarding online ordering outside of Japan.

Blackbird, Fly

Cameron — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:07:35 +0000

Powershovel, the forward thinking Japanese company that involved a few lucky photographers (including yours truly) around the world in a photographic collaboration using the Holga 135BC (as mentioned in previous posts) has kindly invited me to trial a new toy camera they have in development, a plastic 35mm Twin Lens Reflex called the Blackbird, Fly. As with the Holga 135BC collaboration, I received the camera and 5 rolls of 400 iso film to shoot with. This time I will be returning the camera as well as the films however, as it is a prototype and the camera is still in development phase. For those who would like to have a closer look at this camera, I have uploaded a few images (click on the thumbnail) of the very light, very cool, very black (I’ve seen photos online of one with an orange front panel) Blackbird, Fly camera. Soon I will upload some example shots from the camera as well as a brief review of my experience using it. I understand this camera will probably be released sometime in August (but don’t quote me on it)! *update – I have been informed that the camera will be marketed as the BBF camera now.

The 35mm Diana + Result

Cameron — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:39:17 +0000

Well, I have had my first roll developed from the 35mm film in the Diana + experiment and have learned a couple of things:

1. I needed to wind on a little more than I first thought for at least the first half of the roll, perhaps one & 1/4 turns of the winder rather than the (approx) one turn that I first suggested (I corrected my original video tutorial post) – having said that, the resultant overlaps produced some interesting results.
2. I must remember that the exposed area is cropped top and bottom from my 120 exposures, and should compose my shots accordingly.

I found the results quite interesting and will definitely be doing this again. Click on the thumbnails to see more (& larger) shots from the first 35mm Diana roll.

35mm Film In Your Toy Camera

Cameron — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 07:41:28 +0000

Here is a fairly straight forward tutorial video showing how to simply adapt a toy camera (a Diana + in this case) that usually takes 120 (medium format) film to take 35mm film. Even though I’m using 35mm in my Diana + here, this should be achievable in just about any medium format toy camera you might have. Why do it? Because you can and because you get some cool image to the film edge looks! addit: (see some resultant photos from the first roll).
To work out how far you need to advance the film there is a handy guide at photon detector – remember if you have the 4×4 mask in your Diana + the turns will be for the Diana, Agfa Isoly guide. Without the mask (i.e. with 6 x6 exposures) work off the principle that you will need to advance a little bit more between frames. As the film is wound on you need to turn the advance a little bit less each time as the film bulks up on the take up spool. * Please note that my estimation of 3/4 to 1 full turn as stated in the video is inaccurate and will result in overlap – with a traditional Diana and a Diana + with the 4 x 4 mask in work on 1.1 turns at the beginning of the roll reducing this to approx 0.8 turns towards the end of the roll. In a Diana + without any mask (ie 6 x 6 exposures) work on 1.6 turns going down to 1 turn. Also, I needed to tape the leader of the 35mm film onto the take up spool, something not obvious or mentioned in this video (sorry). Have fun!

35mm Film In Your Toy Camera from artpunk on Vimeo.

Holga 135 BC

Cameron — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:38:58 +0000

It sounds like a B grade epic theatre type movie about old testament life, but the 135 BC is a new Holga camera that takes 35mm film. The bc stands for (I think) bent corners which refers to the vignetting you get on your photos, probably produced from the curved corners mask inside the camera body. *addit (April ’08): the lomographic society is now selling these cameras and marketing them as the Holga 135 BC black corners and that makes sense too. Mind you I notice they (lomo) are bundling them with 200 iso film in some cases, I would suggest that 400 iso film is a better option.
The deal was this – Powershovel sent a few lucky people worldwide a 135 BC camera with 5 rolls of film. You shoot the five rolls of film within a certain time, post the film (undeveloped) back to the nice people at Powershovel and keep the camera. Later on, the developed negatives and photos from the 5 rolls you shot will be posted back to you.
I had fun using this camera. It has a typical Holga lens mounted on the front of a plastic 35mm camera body, the difference between this lens and the lens found on the 120 format Holgas is that this is labelled as ƒ = 47mm instead of the 60mm of the 120 format cameras. Also the shutter release is on the top of the camera itself and it is threaded to take a cable release with standard shutter speed selection is ‘B’ and ‘N’ (1/100sec according to the documentation). With an uncoupled film advance multi-exposures are possible and with the “b” setting long exposures are easy too. A tripod thread is there to attach a tripod to steady your camera for your long exposures and a hotshoe for flash photography. The viewfinder is centrally placed right above the lens. There is an aperture switch on top of the lens housing, identical to the Holga 120 cameras for cloudy/flash or sunny. I thought the aperture may have been slightly smaller with the sunny setting, there seemed to be a smidgen of square masking at either vertical edge of the aperture, but it wouldn’t have affected the ƒ-stop by that much.
The main challenge for me using this camera was thinking in non-square format, as that is the usual mental/visual compositional template lately – but that really wasn’t too much of an issue. Another (perhaps greater) challenge I faced was not seeing the results of different shooting conditions with the camera, as I had to send the undeveloped film (results unseen) back to Japan at the end of the project. Being a control freak I just had to get an idea of what conditions produced what visual result on the negative, so I ran a roll of film of the same speed as the project ones (400 asa) through the camera after the first roll I took for Powershovel.
I was pleasantly surprised by the look of the shots. With the black corner vignette effect around the edges, they reminded me of Lomo LC-A exposures, but the Holga has a lot less latitude as far as different lighting conditions and slower film speeds of course. The provided lens cap fits so snugly to the front of the lens that in a couple of exposures I had forgotten to actually take it off. This never happens with my Diana cameras as you have to set the subject distance by rotating the lens within the confines of the plastic lens barrel, whereas with the Holga lens you rotate the whole barrel for distance settings.
All in all it was a fun experience, but it will be strange to see the negs a couple of months after I actually took the shots! In the meantime, here are a few from my test roll (click on the thumbnails to bring up larger images)