The Plastic Lens ~ Words » Video

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.

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.

Pinhole Day Coming to a World Near You Soon

Cameron — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 13:37:24 +0000

t’s been a while since i updated the words part of the site, sorry. Things have been a bit busy & weird around here (something not that unusual) but I hope to be back to updating the site with interesting new material, cameras, reviews (including some cool Superheadz cameras) and videos of…stuff (It’s a very useful word, stuff)

In the meantime, this is an older video I made, the last of three from the 2008 Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. Considering the 2009 WPPD is in less than 2 months away (Sunday April 26th people) I thought it was about time I posted this one! You can view the first two WPPD vids here and here. I have been considering making a new pinhole camera for this year but am not sure if I’ll have the time, as I have a few things on my plate (good things). Time will tell anyway.

I’m hoping you’ll notice an improved quality to the next videos (tutorials and reviews) that I upload to the site because I have invested in a different camera with higher video resolution, so that may make a difference!

A Pinhole Rose (Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day part 3) from artpunk on Vimeo.

Blackbird,fly – Loading Film

Cameron — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:40:19 +0000

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.

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.

A Visit to the House of the Plastic Lens

Cameron — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:19:03 +0000

fter a hectic and busy time juggling work and various end-of-year things (my children’s school fete, end-of-year concerts, catch-ups and other socially oriented activities) I realised I had neglected the old blog. Here is something I have been meaning to put together and upload for a while; a short visit to my house to look at my camera collection for your amusement…
(apologies for the crap quality of the video, once I eventually upgrade my computer to one with better graphic/video processing I am hoping the quality of these things might improve)

A Visit to the House of the Plastic Lens from artpunk on Vimeo.

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.

Susan B

Cameron — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:00:19 +0000

In many ways this blog owes a lot to a nice person named Susan Burnstine, who takes dreamy etherial photography with her homemade cameras and has a great site outafocus as well as her professional photography site. In 2005 I got hold of one of her cameras, a little gem of a thing with the funny name of Empire Junior and it opened my eyes to the fun and creative possibilities of simple, no frills medium format photography and led me down the plastic path. I’ve outlined these beginnings in a very early post on this site.
Anyway, Susan has been profiled with a great short video documentary on Fine Art Tv which gives some insight into the why and how she makes the wonderful photography she does. I highly recommend it – you can check it out here:
Susan Burnstine – The Dream Passenger

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.