The Plastic Lens ~ Words » Powershovel

Pinhole Day and a Quick 1st impression of Harinezumi

Cameron — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:20:40 +0000

Pears WPPD 09

This years Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day (last Sunday) was less than optimal (for me) for a lot of reasons. The weather was shocking, we had power failures, my computer froze when the power finally came back on and I was suffering from the jet-lag feeling that comes from just finishing night shift and having to adjust your body clock through a 12 hour 180º shift within a day…
Apart from those factors, I had fun and actually managed to grab a few pinhole exposures that I thought were not too bad (not brilliant either however). My two cameras of choice this year were my converted Polaroid EE66 with Polaroid 125i pack film and my Holgamods Pinholga using type 84 packfilm. I started the day with little coffee cups and ended (as I seem to do) in the kitchen with some fruit…

I‘m having a lot (A LOT) of fun with the Digital Harinezumi.

Harinezumi by Harinezumi

This probably has a lot to do with how much it reminds me of using an analogue toy camera. When in still capture mode, you do not get a LCD viewfinder mode, you have to estimate what you are capturing (and anyone who uses toy cameras will know that their viewfinders are less than accurate) You also have the option of turning off the review mode of the camera so that you won’t know what you have got until you download the images to your computer (so I suppose that’s the digital equivalent of waiting to get your film developed).
In movie mode, they’re is no audio as such, there is a bit of white noise. I think it may have been fun if they had the option of the whirr of an old 8mm camera sound as well as the movies generated by the camera remind me of those and the results look very analogue, like some old family home movies from the 1960′s.

Macro Toes by Harinezumi

The colours are kick-ass funky and similar to some sort of weird cross processing type of thing going on…
As you can see from some of my initial test images, the macro function (two choices of focus here macro or normal) works very well. There is nice grain in lower lighting conditions, feeling more reminiscent to me of film grain than ‘digital’ grain. I could go on and probably will, when I do an ‘out of the box’ video review of this little electric hedgehog later on this week, but I remain impressed with what Powershovel & Superheadz have come up with.

Harinezumi!

Cameron — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:44:08 +0000

harinezumi ambulance -a frame grab from the digital harinezumi movie

OK, here are my first takes with the super cool & groovy Digital Harinezumi from Superheadz in Japan, the footage here was captured in very poor light conditions, mainly due to:
1. The first shots being shot at night in subdued lighting (as I was on night shift at the time) &
2. the rest of the shots being taken in very overcast conditions (which have been present since I got the camera)
Despite these factors, I am very pleased with the results so far. I really can’t wait to take this camera out in the sunshine to see more of what it can do.
Post production was in iMovie ’09 and most of the video footage is ‘as is’ the only filter is put on a 2 second segment at the ‘Ambulance Only’ doors where it goes B&W and static-like – some footage has been reversed, but that is about all as far as post production trickery goes…
The great backing music is ‘post’ by oco, from the ‘Lost Films’ compilation from www.powershovelaudio.com
I truly think that in this camera, Superheadz have created the first true digital ‘toy camera’ but also one that takes movies a well! A fantastic analogue-digital hybrid concept!

HARINEZUMI! from artpunk on Vimeo.

Loving The BBF

Cameron — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:53:02 +0000

A good old fashioned movie camera.

This post shows a video which was edited from a digital transfer from some good old fashioned analogue 8mm film. Taken with a Fuji Single-8 movie camera; no sound, 16 frames per second, fixed focus, point and shoot – probably the movie camera equivalent of a ‘toy camera’ with wonderful artifacts, colour and retro look to the finished movies.
This example is just a small snippet of some film I shot for Powershovel/Superheadz featuring my favourite plastic Twin Lens Reflex Camera, the blackbird,fly which anyone who has actually been reading this blog (and I know there are a faithful few, thank you!) will be aware of.
Thanks to my lovely family and many thanks to Nick and all at Powershovel/Superheadz.
I have edited the footage in iMovie ’09 and the backing music is ‘Laconic Granny’ by Kevin MacLeod

We Love the BBF from artpunk on Vimeo.

February, Fires and Other Things

Cameron — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:13:30 +0000

he last few weeks have been extremely hot and dry with high winds, culminating in the worst bushfires Australia has seen in recorded history on Saturday the 7th (now being called “Black Saturday”) where the temperature reached over 46º C and many fires broke out, involving vast swathes of the State and in some cases totally obliterating some townships. Nearly 2000 homes have been destroyed and over 180 people so far have lost their lives (the final numbers are not confirmed yet, but I suspect it will go higher) My family have been fortunate, despite living in area surrounded by many forests, national parks and wooded catchment areas and the like, danger has so far passed us by, but we remain on alert and have important paperwork, photos (and for me, cameras) packed and ready to go should we need to abandon our home in the face of a dangerous threat. Of course our children and our lives are the main priority, so we must be prepared to lose those material things, if need be. So far the weather has settled and we are just waiting for some rain, but early last night as we were preparing to get the kids to bed and relax when we received a few phonecalls in quick succession from concerned friends and relatives, as a fire had broken out just ‘down the hill’ from us. Thankfully it was contained with alacrity by our brave Country Fire Authority volunteers and other emergency service workers who have been tireless in their dedication to protect the community.
I suppose this leads me to ponder on the transience of ‘things’ and the importance of photography in our personal lives and the construction of our reality through our memories. Often the first material things people try to preserve in the face of disasters like fire are their photo albums. I know that looking through my photographs of my wife and children brings me great joy and sparks recollection of happy times that often get buried below the surface of consciousness by the ongoing events and concern of everyday life.

n a lighter note, the French publisher Editions Allia has kindly sent me 5 complimentary copies of the booklet of Andalusian Poetry featuring my Polaroid abstract on the cover. This is my first Book Cover!!

ic Nichols of Four Corners Dark has an interesting interview with hideki ohmori of powershovel you know Powershovel, the cool people behind the blackbird,fly camera – this is part one, so I am looking forward to reading the next installment – update: pert two is here: interview with hideki ohmori of powershovel part two. Thanks Nic! Speaking of the BBF, the latest issue of Lightleaks magazine (Issue 22) has a review of this fine camera by C. Gary Moyer (as well as many other tasty lo-fidelity photographic content)

Camera Cabaret

Cameron — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 01:39:59 +0000

After posting my BBF video, (which is hosted on Vimeo), a fellow named Gianfranco Chicco made a comment on it there. He is on sabbatical in Tokyo and has visited Powershovel’s Camera Cabaret recently.
Camera Cabaret is the Powershovel/Superheadz Ina Babylon shop in Shibuya, Tokyo and looks (from Gianfranco’s video) to be chock full of interesting analog cameras and other cool doo-dads. He interviews one of the guys (Jun) who works
in/manages the store and they talk about the new blackbird,fly from Superheadz (What? You’ve not heard of that yet? Get outa here!) Gianfranco was loaned the camera for a while so it will be interesting to see how his images turn out. The video is a great virtual tour of the Camera Cabaret for those of us who aren’t able to get to Japan in the near future, so thanks for sharing Gianfranco!

Camera Cabaret from Gianfranco Chicco on Vimeo.

**Please note! ~ anyone asking about the availability
of the blackbird,fly outside of Japan might like to check out this link!

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.

BBF – the teaser movie

Cameron — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:45:05 +0000

Below is a ‘teaser‘ video of a great new plastic camera that is in development by the company Powershovel, in Japan. I have mentioned Powershovel on this blog before, they are the driving force behind many great artistic projects that involve music, books and photography and behind the company Superheadz Ina Babylon who market all kinds of cool cameras that use film and often alternative formats.
Powershovel sent me a test camera of theirs under development called the BBF (initially it was going to be called the ‘blackbird, fly’ but a company representative tells me it has decided to market it as the BBF now) As seen in this post the camera is a plastic TLR (twin lens reflex) that will be capable of taking different format exposures on 35mm film. As far as I know this is the first ‘toy camera’ TLR that is exclusively designed to take 35mm film and it will also have the option to use two different masks in the camera, the sizes of these masks will be 24×36 and 24×24. The test camera I was supplied with had the 24 x 36 mask which is removable so you can actually get exposures to the edge of the film complete with sprocket holes!
Anyway on to the ‘teaser’ of the camera as well as a few example photos I shot with it at the end. Apologies for the low fi video quality. The video itself shows that the camera has ‘N’ & ‘B’ shutter selection, a hotshoe (which works as expected) and two aperture settings (sunny/cloudy). Also illustrated is the waist level head-down viewfinder familiar to any one who has used Twin Reflex Cameras like the Lubitel, Yashica, Seagull etc. Different framing lines are obvious for the different masking options I presume.
This was a fun camera to try out and I was sorry when I sent it back, I wanted to ‘play’ with it more, but time was a factor. Remember the BBF is not available yet and is still under development, so the final product may be slightly different with different features. I am led to believe it should be released in August or September 2008.
The lovely background music for the video is a piece called ‘Soup’ by a Powershovel musician, Ken Takehisa and is available on the release ‘Lost Films Vol 1″ from the Powershovel site powershovel audio

BBF a new camera from Powershovel/Superheadz from artpunk on Vimeo.

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.

Superheadz Shots back from Japan!

Cameron — Sat, 24 May 2008 08:24:56 +0000

These shots actually came back at the start of the month, as promised, but I’ve been so distracted by other stuff that I haven’t gotten around to discussing them yet. If you click on any of the thumbnails a larger image should pop up. As mentioned in this previous post I was given 5 rolls of 400 asa 35mm to expose using the Holga 135BC camera sent to me courtesy of Powershovel and Superheadz Ina Babylon. Once exposed they were sent back to Japan for development. I have revisited many familiar themes for me with much of the photography in the collaboration due to the fact that the film was being sent back to Japan, so I took images of Melbourne and my family life and so forth to give them a taste of my corner of the world. The Madly Waving image shows the ‘B’ shutter option in use, my daughters and a friend happily obliging in my request to ‘stand as still as they could for a couple of seconds but just wave their hands madly’! Zebra Face shows how the threaded cable release in the shutter release can be used for silly self-portraits. The only shots I didn’t take that I would have liked to try were night exposures, but I’m sure this camera would have been fine with those too, making use of tripod, ‘b’ setting and cable release. The vignetting with this camera is evident in most of the shots I took, less obvious in brightly lit exposures but still giving most of the shots characteristics reminiscent of most of my favourite medium format plastic cameras. I may have mentioned in the last entry I wrote regarding this camera reminding me of the Lomo LC-A, but with softer feeling images due to the plastic lens I suppose. The images in this post are just a few of the shots that Powershovel have since developed, printed and returned (both prints and negs) to me. it was a surprise to receive these images after two months, as I really wasn’t sure how they would turn out. I was pleased to see that most of the shots I took were adequately exposed and sort of interesting. It was a challenge to explore different creative possibilities for approximately 100 shots! I hope Powershovel and Superheadz can use my contributions to their project in some constructive way. Speaking of projects, I’m hoping to take part in a new plastic camera project with Superheadz very soon. More on that later! Origato!

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)