The Plastic Lens ~ Words » expired film

Four Corners Store

Cameron — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:54:41 +0000

When I was younger there used to be a chain of grocery stores that went by the name of the Four-Square cooperative chain. These days I don’t see many of those stores around due to the big monopolies of the large supermarket chains. I’m happy to announce that a different kind of ‘four’ store, the Four Corners Dark Store is now open for business. You may recall me mentioning that nice fellow Nic Nichols in previous posts, well he now has a resource on his Four Corners dark site for analogue and toycamera lovers alike. I quote “the new Four Corner Store, our online shop for some of your quirky Toy Camera needs. We aren’t a big giant store, we are a little corner shop who has built up a nice inventory of Cams, Film and Accessories. Have a look around, and feel free to comment on things you’d like to see- we’ll be adding new products every week. Hope you enjoy!” Check it out!

Demekin Results

Cameron — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 08:10:45 +0000

The film was over 20 years expired, 100 ASA and the shooting conditions were pretty overcast most of the time, but I am happy to say that I picked up the developed first roll from my demekin fisheye camera (made by Powershovel/Superheadz in Japan but available (along with other great products) in Australia from Via Alley
I am even happier to report that about 50% of my shots resulted in some sort of recognizable image! Let me clarify that statement in that it is not unusual to have a few ‘misses’ with the first trial of any new toy camera, given unfamiliarity with the way the camera works and responds in certain lighting conditions etc. Throw in the fact that the film was decades out of date and I’m surprised I got as many shots out of the roll as I did.

Chimney & Clouds - taken with the demekin fisheye camera

In true noob style, forgetting I was using a fisheye camera with a 146 degree field of view, I even managed to get my finger in one of the shots! (see example image called ‘olympicfinger’ you can see more examples by navigating forward or backward through the images once you’ve brought up the lightbox viewer). It’s hard to really judge the camera from this one roll given the variables I have mentioned, but I can at least comment on my personal experience using the camera for the first time and my initial impressions. Please take the example images provided in the context previously stated (over 20 years 100 ASA expired film, overcast conditions and first use of an unfamiliar camera) – so, my impressions? Well, I found the camera great fun to use (or should I say ‘play with’) and it is certainly a conversation starter. Even though the camera controls are very simple, I did mange to get the winding/shutter operation a bit wrong to start with, I wound on to the number 1, but when i went to take my first shot, the shutter did not seem to ‘click’ and I wasn’t sure if I had taken a photo or not – it turns out you have to wind until the film will not advance anymore and you here an audible sound (faint, but detectable) as the shutter cocks – then you can use the shutter release to take your shot, it should ‘click’ then (just like a real camera – heh).

olympic finger - taken with the demekin fisheye camera

I guess I am just too used to using my medium format toy cameras where you just wind on until the exposure number is in the window and which don’t need the shutter cocked by the film advance. Apart from this one small user interface problem (which was totally down to my inexperience with the camera) it worked fine. As mentioned you have to be careful not to get your fingers in frame, as the camera pulls in a wide field of view, because tha camera is small, the way you hold it could well have some stray fingers waggling in the front peripheral areas of the camera.
When I get some fresh 110 film (also available from Via Alley in Australia), I will be able to review this camera (and the Ikimono – stay tuned for my review of that) more thoroughly – as it deserves.

Silly Season

Cameron — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 03:52:49 +0000

etwixt Christmas Day & New Years Day there exists (for me) a kind of limbo, a miasma of half asleep apathy and inertia. It could be the effects of all the food and drink, not to mention the mad running around we have done, or perhaps the residual effects of the recent night shifts I completed…most probably it is a combination of all of the above.
We are the fortunate ones, with family and friends who love us, ample food, drink and a roof over our heads. The photos I share here are taken at my brother and sister-in-law’s place on Christmas night. I used an old Polaroid Vision camera with the second last pack of my expired 500 integral film stock. The colours from the expired film gave every shot a very sepia tone. I have tweaked the ‘curves’ a bit to enhance the resultant image here, because although I like the expired effects of SX-70 Integral film, the expired 500 or Spectra film just makes the shots washed out and brown…
The first shot (ensure you have javascript enabled in your browser and you will be able to click on the thumbnail and browse to more images) shows some of the family children caught just after the sugar rush kicked in, the second was the wonderfully surreal sight that greeted me when I looked out at my brother’s back yard, where (as you do), he has a small boat floating in a small (but slightly larger than the boat) kids pool. The last image is a capture of the side of my nephew & niece’s cubby house, which I liked for it’s abstract qualities, sort of like a Leger with Klee’s pastel tones.
I think I may have to set a particular theme for the last 10 Polaroid Vision (500) exposures I have left. I am really going to miss Polaroid film when my stash dries up.

have been involved in two podcasts in the past week, the first was last saturday morning when I joined in a chat with (traveling East) Susan Burnstein in Los Angeles, Ed Wenn in Great Britain and Don Brice in Adelaide, for the last filmwasters podcast of 2008. I was drinking wine at 9 in the morning after a nightshift, so I cannot really recall what we talked about, I will have to wait until Ed puts it online to refresh my memory. (I do remember offering to pose nude for Don’s last stash of Polaroid large format film, oddly enough) Then on Wednesday I joined Phil (in Footscray, Melbourne) and Michael (in Tasmania) for the Christmas Photogeek podcast, I talked a load of rubbish in that ‘cast too. Am I a podcast slut or what?