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The #FrugalFilmProject, April 2025: A Morning Out in Aveiro

This month with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera) we had a morning in Aveiro. The actual plan was to test out a new (to me) Horizon 202 panoramic camera, but of course I had to bring along with me the Golden Wonder and a roll of Harman Phoenix. No redscaling this month, just a leisurely walk around the city.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZo6je

I was dropped off near the hospital in Aveiro, which is close to my favourite footbridge, the wonderful metal structure in the Parque Infante Dom Pedro. I sat on a bench near the footbridge and loaded the Golden Wonder with a fresh canister of film. Actually, I was lucky. On the spur of the moment, when selecting the canister of film from my little box I had added an empty canister to the camera bag ‘just in case’. That was a good idea, as when I opened the back of the Penti II it was empty!

https://flic.kr/p/2qZoTQ6

I loaded the fresh canister, and the empty canister, into the Penti II and closed it up. As an aside, the Golden Wonder is really tough to open and close. I’m not sure if the back plate is becoming twisted. I hope that it lasts the year. I took a walk around the bridge and photographed it from various angles, Also in the park is the bandstand that is a regular fixture of my walks around Aveiro and for the first time I went to the water tower to one side of the park.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZn52D

From the Parque I took a walk down to the canals near the centre of Aveiro, and then down to the Yacht Club. From there I walked to the circular footbridge, known in Aveiro as the Ponte do Laço, before heading for the railway station and the journey home. On the way I finished off the film in the Horizon 202, before unloading the camera and dropping the film at the lab. I still had a few frames left in the Golden Wonder, though, so I brought the camera home and used the last few frames in a walk around the nearby village of Águas Boas.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZo6na

For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 125. I normally rate Harman Phoenix at ISO 160, but this time I used 125 as it is the box speed of Harman Red, which I had loaded into the Horizon 202, and I was feeding a little lazy with the metering. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.

https://flic.kr/p/2qZorhQ

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#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

The bandstand in the Parque de Infante Dom Pedro in Aveiro.

The #FrugalFilmProject, March 2025: Some Redscale Around Oliveira do Bairro

This month with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera), we’ve something a little different. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed doing is making my own redscale film. If you’re unfamiliar, with redscale photography instead of taking photographs with the emulsion side of the film facing the subject, the film is reversed in the camera so that the image is taken through the backing layer.

Colour film is made up of three layers, each light-sensitive to a particular wavelength of colour: red, green and blue. The red layer is usually exposed to light after the blue and green layers, but with redscale film, where the light passes backwards through the film, what this means is that before it reaches the sensitive emulsion layers, light passes through the support layer and the red-sensitive layer first, leading to images with a strong red cast.

I had already prepared some Rapid canisters with Harman Phoenix for redscale exposure, which is simply feeding the film backwards into the canister (in a dark bag, of course). For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at 50. For a change, just lately, the skies cleared and the sun came out, and I had a great couple of hours wandering around Oliveira. The only thing I did find, though, was that the film was a short offcut from the end of a roll of Harman Phoenix, so there was only about 8 exposures on the roll.

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Welta

A closed newspaper kiosk in Oliveira do Bairro.

Out With The 1940s Agfa Karat Rapid Film Camera

At the beginning of February, I added one of the first Rapid format film cameras to my collection of Agfa Rapid film cameras, the Agfa Karat. Released in the late 1930s, although mine is from the 1940s, the film format was then known as the Karat system. The Rapid format in the 1960s was a reboot of the Karat in order to compete with Kodak’s instamatic film.

The Agfa Karat was in reasonable condition, a little scuffed but sound mechanically. The lens had a bit of fungus and haze on the elements, and I gave that a careful wipe with a cotton bud lightly soaked in alcohol. Not too much to get on the bellows, mind. The viewfinder is also hazy, but if I want to clean that I’ll have to remove the top plate. I’ll address that later.

I was thrilled a c.1940s Karat canister was included with the camera, and decided that I would use this as the ‘take up’ canister. I was a little nervous that after so long it might be damaged and scratch the film, but I reckoned, ‘what the Hell’, that’s half the fun. I loaded a length of Harman Phoenix film into a Rapid canister and dropped it into the Agfa Karat. The film fed into the vintage canister quite smoothly and, after resetting the frame counter to zero, I was ready to take the Karat out for a test.

The Agfa Karat is a fiddly little beastie to use. First you have to remember to open the camera to release the bellows and extend the lens. Then you set the aperture and shutter speed with dials and a tiny tab on the lens plate, then dial in the focus (the marker is on the side of the lens, not the top — though there is a handy little stop for infinity), then cock the shutter before you can take an image. Oh, and the shutter won’t fire until you’ve wound the film onto the next frame. Oh, don’t forget to dial in the frame counter to zero before you start.

All that being said, the Karat is a lovely little camera. Yes, the viewfinder is hazy, but the fabulous images showed that the bellows were light tight. And there’s a nice little touch where the shutter cocking lever pops into view through the viewfinder after you’ve taken a photo, so if you can see it before taking a picture it’s a reminder to cock the shutter. I’m not actually sure where the light leaks present in a couple of the frames came from. Was it light getting into the nearly 80 year old canister or something else? I was not sure. Suffice to say, the Agfa Karat will be a regular addition to my outings in the future.

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#Agfa #AgfaKarat #Canister #Cassette #Experimental #Karat #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage

The cityscape of Aveiro taken with the Agfa Karat Rapid film camera.

The #FrugalFilmProject, February 2025: Oh, I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside

I’m getting more familiar with the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera), so this month, when we went to Vagueira for lunch, it was the perfect opportunity to try some half-frame Rapid film on my favourite buildings. I already have some Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix, and I’m getting much better at loading the Golden Wonder, so before lunch was the perfect opportunity for a walk around the sea front. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. This day was a bit overcast, though. The weather has not been good for those lovely high contrast images and blue skies that just ‘pop’, but I wanted to see how Phoenix behaved on a dull day.

Before heading for the sea front I wandered around the market square, taking photos of the stunted wind-blown trees and the famous (in the local area, anyhow) sculpture of the sardine on a fork. I should add that as before, the crappy 35mm cassettes I use to transfer the Rapid films to before taking to the lab have horrible light leaks. Mind you, I do find these appealing.

I wandered along the sea front then walked back to the restaurant around the ‘block’ (like many US towns and cities, Vagueira is made up of square blocks of buildings). At tge corner of one empty block was a wonderful little metal kiosk. Long abandoned, the rusty white kiosk probably sold ice cream, or the popular Portuguese fried delicacy of Tripas. The front and back windows were covered by venetian blinds, so old they were sagging. There were still a few frames left on the roll, so I used the rest of the frames up around Aveiro.

I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. Next month will be more of the same, but hopefully I’m going to try some half-frame redscale with Harman Phoenix.

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

Further down the rabbit hole: The Agfa Karat rapid film camera

Back in September of 2024, I picked up my first Rapid film cameras, some cheap Agfa Iso-Rapids. These basic, Agfa Clack-like cameras were supposed to be the end of it, but then I decided that I needed a few more Rapid canisters — which led to a couple more Agfa Iso-Rapids and the Ricoh 35K Rapid — and soon after I came across the Golden Wonder, my precious little Welta Penti II, that I decided would be perfect for the Frugal Film Project this year

Surely that was enough, I thought. But then I discovered there was a Rapid camera in the Lomo Smena range, and so was added the Lomo Smena SL to my rapidly growing (pun intended) sub-collection. And just last week I added another Agfa Iso-Rapid and a Agfa Silette Rapid F camera because I wanted more canisters and it’s cheaper to get a camera with a canister in it than buy the canister alone. And that’s it, I have enough now, right? After all, I’m only using my Rapid film cameras for the Frugal Film Project, I don’t need any more, right?

Wrong, I was browsing around the ‘Bay a few days ago. Not looking for anything, really, just at my ‘watched’ items: there’s a broken 3D Nimslo camera that is way overpriced, and a couple of first generation Lomo Smena Rapid cameras that I’m keeping an eye on just in case my SL doesn’t deliver the goods. And then, way down the listing under the ‘More Like This’ tab, was a listing for an ‘AGFA KARAT APOTAR 1:3.5 F=55mm’, for the not unreasonable price of 18€ plus shipping from Germany.

It was described as, ‘Used and functional item with few to normal signs of wear. These are signs of use which arise in the context of normal or careful use,’ and the condition was described as, ‘ [Category] C … strong used and full working.’ There were plenty of images, including one close up through the back of the camera hinting that the lens was nice and clean. Not too bad for a 1940s era camera. Did I mention that it was 18€?

But did I really want an original Karat camera? This was from the age before Agfa rejuvenated their Karat system as Agfa Rapid for the 1960s market to compete with Kodak’s instamatic film cameras. So yes, I did.

As a bit of background, in the late 1930s Agfa began production of their Agfa Karat film cameras, a range of cameras that used 35mm film but instead in a proprietary spoolless metal canister, not the 35mm cassette that Kodak and many other manufacturers were using. These were 12-exposure cassettes and in each camera two canisters were used, one which held the unexposed film and another to receive exposed film that was simply pushed into it.

I made an attempt to date this camera, but the best I could manage that it was post-WW2. The pre-War Agfa Karat, which was the series model 3.5, was introduced in 1939 and featured a Compur Rapid shutter and a four-element Solinar 50mm f3.5 lens. In 1941, because of the Second World War, camera production was stopped and did not resume until about 1946. The post-War model 3.5 Agfa Karats featured an Apotar three element 55mm f3.5 lens and a Prontor shutter. According to CJ.s Classic Cameras, the serial number of HH5820 suggests that this Agfa Karat (3.5 v2) was the penultimate Agfa Karat model made, and since the Agfa started making Karats that used 35mm film cassettes and not Rapid canisters from 1948, it’s likely that my particular model was from around this time.

The first cameras were nice looking art deco style cameras with slightly rounded bodies, but in the pre-War years Agfa simplified the bodies and post-War released an Agfa Karat with a cheaper lens, the Agfa Apotar 3.5/55 three element lens, which is the one I have. The Karat has aperture settings from f3.5 to f32, and a range of shutter speeds from 1s to 1/250s, plus B. By around 1948, with the release of the Karat 36 model, Agfa had abandoned the Karat film system in favour of using regular 35mm cassettes, and they were not to make cameras that used canisters until the 1960s, with the renamed Rapid system.

I was a little concerned that the Agfa Karat was in worse condition than the seller had listed, for example, what if the lens was gummed up and it wouldn’t focus, but when it arrived it was a little scuffed up but in sound mechanical condition. The lens, as it turned out, was not as clean as I had hoped, with a bit of fungus and haze on the elements. This will certainly need some attention before I can take it out.

What I was thrilled to find, though, was a Rapid canister inside the camera. No, that’s wrong. It was not a Rapid canister from the 1960s onwards, but a genuine Karat canister from the 1940s. It’s in lovely condition, with a matt black coating and a smooth finish to the touch. I’m not sure if I should consider this an addition to my collection of Rapid canisters. I reckon that if I try to add film to it that film might get a little scratched (I’m going to try it, though).

Introducing and trying out the Agfa Karat was supposed to be all one post, but I reckon that I have a little bit more work to do with this camera than planned. One thing that I most certainly will have to do is to clean the lens, so the next post will be a summary of the cleaning of the camera and the lens and the first test ‘in the wild’ with the Agfa Karat.

#Agfa #AgfaKarat #Canister #Cassette #Experimental #Karat #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage

A brief interlude: The Agfa Silette Rapid F

From 1953 until 1974 Agfa released a family of 35mm cameras known as the Silette series. A basic manual focus viewfinder camera, these came in various forms and with different features. In the early 1960s, Agfa released a Rapid film version in competition with Kodak’s introduction of instamatic film. In fact, they released three Rapid versions, the Silette Rapid I, the Rapid L, and the Rapid F.

All three Rapid cameras had the same characteristics as their 35mm counterparts, but instead of a cold shoe for an external flash, the Rapid F (and Silette F) had a small translucent window and a flip up lid into which a flash bulb could be plugged. The flash bulb was powered by a Pertrix No. 74 battery, which nowadays is no longer available, but otherwise the camera was wholly mechanical. The Agfa Rapid F has a 45mm f2.8 Agnar lens and a Parator shutter with speeds of 1/30s – 1/250s (plus B and a synchro flash speed, but I’m not sure what this is). It has a four leaf iris, with apertures from f2.8 – f22.

Being a Rapid camera, the top plate of the camera is plain with the wind-on lever on the bottom left of the body. One wind of this will push the film one frames width from the full Rapid canister on the left to the empty canister on the right.

On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw and the film counter, which counts down from 12 to one. When the count reaches 1, the shutter is disabled and you can only wind on to finish the film. The position of the ratchets that catch the film sprockets to move the film suggests that a leader of about 40mm of film is left outside the canister.

My particular model, the Agfa Silette Rapid F, was picked up for 20€ from the ‘Not Passed’ category of the Kamerastore website. Although it has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, the only thing that was wrong with this camera was that the little translucent window for the flashgun was missing. Otherwise, it was perfectly sound.

The aperture selection, shutter speed selection, and zone focusing are all set on the lens assembly. Selecting the shutter speed and aperture is quite straightforward, but the focusing confused me for a second. On the focusing ring, at the top and bottom are two arrows. Rotating the lens moves little icons on the top of the lens, a church and a mountain for infinity, a group of people for middle distance, and two heads for portrait/close up. At the same time, at the bottom of the focusing ring are shown distances in metres and feet. Choosing the right symbol, or setting the distance, should give reasonably close focus.

As I have several Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix film for the Frugal Film Project, I took one of these to use with the Agfa Silette Rapid F. Loading the Rapid F was simple enough, just a question of making sure the wind-on ratchets lined up with the sprockets of the film and slowly advancing the film so that it fed into the empty canister. Then I closed the back of the camera and shot two frames until the counter was at zero.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I took the Rapid F to Águas Boas. I took a range of images, long distance, middle distance, and close-up using the symbols on the lens and also the distance markers. To measure the exposure I used an app called Camera Meter. After exposing the film, I decanted the 35mm back into a 35mm cassette and took it to the lab.

The first thing to say about this camera is that it’s really nice to use. All the movements are smooth, and a single wind of the lever moves the film from one frame to the next. The only thing that confused me early on was the focusing with the symbols, but even that became intuitive after a while. I was a little unsure whether the film was feeding properly into the empty canister, but there’s a different ‘feel’ to the wind on lever when film is present in the film gate and when it is not. I noticed that with the Lomo Smena SL, too.

The images came out really well, although with the high contrast Harman Phoenix emulsion some of the highlights were really blown out. I’ll put that down to my faulty exposure reading rather than the camera. On the whole, I was really happy with how the Agfa Silette Rapid F performed, and it’s certainly earned its place as a backup camera to the Welta Penti II ‘Golden Wonder’ and the Lomo Smena SL.

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #Silette

Down the rabbit hole: The Agfa Rapid film system

At the moment I have nine Rapid canisters. One is an expired Rapid film from the 90s, and another is always in the Welta Penti II for the Frugal Film Project (FFP). Five more are filled with Harman Phoenix film for the FFP, so that leaves me with just two canisters to play with, and one of those might end up in another camera as a take-up canister, so that leaves one. Dammit, I need more.

This sudden passion for using Rapid canisters seems to have come from nowhere, but now I can’t really think about using 35mm film in any other way. Originally it was a format that I hadn’t tried before, or even thought about, really. But then I received my first parcel of Agfa Iso-Rapid cameras and something … clicked.

The average length of a Rapid film is about 60cm, perfect for 12 exposures (or 24 exposures in the Welta Penti II), which is much easier to use up in a single session than a 36 exposure roll of 35mm film. It’s also really easy to decant 35mm film from a cassette to a Rapid canister in a dark bag, and also to try new techniques with film. And that’s what really appeals to me. I can cut a length of film from a 36-exposure roll and try out something new, or switch between emulsions, and I’m not having to use a whole roll in one go.

For example, with Rapid canisters trying out redscale film is simplicity itself. I just take a 35mm film cassette, turn it over so the emulsion side is facing outwards, and push a length of film into the Rapid canister. Easy. I’m also keen to try other techniques with Rapid canisters, like EBS (Expose Both Sides) photography, where I can load a length of film into a Rapid canister and expose one side of the film then decant the exposed film back into the original canister, but reversed so that it exposes the other side of the film.

The only fiddly bit of the whole process is decanting the exposed films from Rapid canisters back into 35mm cassettes before taking them to the lab. I’m not in a position to develop films myself, and I don’t really want to leave my precious and rare Rapid canisters with the lab in case they disappear. This is one reason why I’m never likely to try film soups, although that is a technique that has long fascinated me, since labs are reluctant to accept films that have been ‘souped’ in case the treatment affects the chemistry in their machines. Understandable, really.

Aside from that, though, I’m absolutely enjoying my new experiences with the Rapid film system. Just this past week I ordered two more cheap Rapid cameras from the Kamerastore. One was another Agfa Iso-Rapid IF, and the second an Agfa Silette Rapid F. Each contained one Rapid canister, so now I’m sure that I have more than enough canisters to keep me going, not only through the Frugal Film Project but for future experimentation, too.

I also have a lovely little collection of Rapid cameras to play with. Obviously there’s the Golden Wonder, the lovely little golden half-frame Welta Penti II with its unique plunger wind on mechanism, and the basic square-frame Agfa Iso-Rapid IFs, that I still have to use.

But I also have the Lomo Smena SL that’s a fabulous Rapid version of the Smena 8M, and now the Agfa Silette Rapid F. There’s even the Ricoh 35K Rapid camera, but I’m not sure that one is working properly, so it’s on the back seat. So I reckon that this year is going to be Rapid film year, and I’m really looking forward to it.

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Canister #EBS #Experimental #ExpiredFilm #ExposeBothSides #FrugalFilmProject #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale

A collection of Rapid film cameras and canisters

Filling in the gaps: The LOMO Smena SL (1968-77)

I know, I know, I said I’m done getting any more cameras, but I have needs, and sometimes those needs must be satisfied with … another Rapid format camera. Actually, what happened is that I want a second Rapid format camera to go with the Golden Wonder, so that I can have a bit of fun with full-frame Rapid photography and not be limited to half frame. Yes, I have a load of Agfa Iso-Rapid IFs, and the Ricoh 35K Rapid (though I’m l convinced the wind-on mechanism is not working properly), but I’m looking for something a little more advanced. And that’s where the Lomo Smena SL comes in.

It all started with a random website search. I was looking for information on Rapid films, how long they are (turns out to be 60cm, that’s 24 inches in old money) and one of the search results was a reference to the Lomo Smena Rapid. The what, I thought. It turns out that the last of the Lomo Smena range, the Soviet era consumer 35mm cameras, was a Rapid film camera.

The first generation, Soviet marketed Lomo Smena Rapid camera (via Wikimedia)-

There were two models, the first generation ‘Smena Rapid’, made from 1968-70, and the second generation ‘Smena SL’, from 1970-77. They were both parts of the Smena range, which includes my beloved Smena 8M and the Smena Symbol, and all featured the classic Triplet T-43 4/40 lens and a range of shutter speeds from 1/15s to 1/250s (plus B). Now that certainly had appeal, since it would give me a Smena 8M equivalent camera that takes Rapid film. Just what I was looking for.

The next issue was tracking one down, and I suspected that it would not be an easy job to source one of these beasties, since using 35mm film in Rapid cameras seems like a bit of a niche subject, given the sheer volume of 35mm cameras available. So I started a search for ‘Lomo Smena Rapid’, and the first Google result was for a ‘Máquina fotográfica LOMO Smena SL (1968-77)’ from my local camera store, Cano Amerelo, in Porto.

I couldn’t believe it. Was it that easy? The camera was described as, ‘fully functional and in good condition with slight signs of use, especially superficial scratches on the outer body. Clean, scratch-free optics’. Well that was good news. Looking at the images of the camera it did seem a little beat up, and certainly well used. But if the lens was sound and the shutter speeds and aperture were working, that’s good enough for me.

The only caveat was that, ‘film cartridges are not included. You will need 2 that accept a maximum of 35mm film up to 12 exposures, therefore it is not convenient for use but only for decoration’. But I have plenty of Rapid canisters now, so that certainly wasn’t an obstacle.

When it arrived it was exactly as expected, though the body was really worn. The shutter and wind-on lever worked as expected, and the shutter opened and closed with a pleasing ‘click’. Now all I have to do is test it with film. The weather is a little unsettled this week, with storms Garoe and Eowen pouring rain upon us for most of time. But I found some Lomography ISO 100 colour film in the cupboard (expired 2022, I reckon) so I’ll take some of that and decant 60cm or so into a Rapid canister when the weather improves.

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cmeha #Experimental #Lomo #Rapid #RapidFilm #Retro #Russia #RussianCamera #SmenaSL #Vintage

The Lomo Smena SL, a Soviet Rapid film camera.

The #FrugalFilmProject: Out in Aveiro with the Golden Wonder

A couple of weeks ago I introduced my camera and film choice for the Frugal Film Project, the Golden Wonder, a.k.a the Welta Penti II, and Harman Phoenix 35mm film. Last weekend I managed to decant several strips of Phoenix into Rapid canisters, and so it was time to load a canister into the Golden Wonder and make a trip to Aveiro.

It was the first time loading the Welta Penti II, and definitely the first time using Rapid canisters, so I was a little apprehensive. What I did was to insert a little bit of film into an empty Rapid canister so the empty and full canisters were joined by a thin strip of film. I then loaded these into the back of the Penti II (making sure the little wind-on tab poked through the sprockets) and gently pushed the plunger to make sure everything was engaged.

Of course, at this point I realised that I had the canisters in backwards. The empty canister should be in the right side, where the little tab is, and the full canister on the left. I flipped them around, closed the metal pressure plate, and remembered to dial the frame counter back to zero. Then I closed the back, fired off two blank shots to push the film leader into the empty canister, and I was good to go.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67ur

Out in Aveiro I wandered around some of my favourite haunts snapping away as I went. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. I had used this rating previously with the Lomo Smena 8M, and it gave lovely high contrast colour photographs with a vivid blue sky, and on this cloudless day I hoped the sky would ‘pop’.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PZm

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PYK

The Golden Wonder is a great little camera. It makes a subtle ‘click’ as you fire the shutter and a solid ‘clunk’ as the plunger is ejected ready to wind on the film. I only took about half of the roll in Aveiro, so to finish the film I took a walk in the woods behind our house to document the new electricity poles that gave been erected.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG66vM

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67ss

Actually, to say ‘woods’ is incorrect now. Swathes of the majestic trees that once formed the woods have been cut down to make way for the new pylons, and the lane that once threaded through the woodland is now a forlorn tarmac strip that winds across a desolate landscape. Even the electricity poles are bright, and new, and quite soulless. It’ll be a while before I feel happy in these woods again.

When I originally decanted the Harman Phoenix film into the Rapid canisters I added a few cm extra film for the film leader. However, it turns out that the 60cm length of Rapid film might actually include the film leader. When I was wandering around the woods, I noticed that the film counter had reached 24 exposures and I still got a few more frames from the camera. Next time I will stick firmly to the 60cm length, and see what happens.

https://flic.kr/p/2qFZjwc

Rather than taking the Rapid canister to the lab, which are quite expensive, I have a collection of reusable 35mm cassettes, so it was quite easy to transfer the film from the Rapid canister to a 35mm cassette (in a dark bag, of course). When the images came back from the lab there were light leaks on some frames but not others. I reckon this was from the poor like seals on the reusable cassettes.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PUS

Most of the images were great. I managed to nail the focus, always the thing I fear most, and the colours of Harman Phoenix just popped. It is a high contrast film, though, and sometimes I didn’t account for the contrasty conditions when taking the photos. I’m thinking here of the boats on the canal especially.

https://flic.kr/p/2qFZjtb

Also, the emulsion can give a reddish brown cast, and where the original image was reddish brown the whole image becomes just one confused mess. I’m thinking here of the photo of the trunks in the demolished woodland. But if I start thinking about the subject and the shadows, I might get better results from this fabulous colour film. Actually, next time I might try exposing it at box speed (ISO 200) on a dull or cloudy days. There’s certainly a lot of them just lately.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67g5

I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. I had great fun with the Golden Wonder, and playing with Rapid canisters was a wise choice. Next month will be more of the same, hopefully by the seaside, but in March I’m going to try some half-frame redscale with Harman Phoenix.

#HarmanPhoenix #Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

A diptych of two scenes from Aveiro taken with the half frame Golden Wonder.

Three more Rapid film cameras (this time bought just for the cassettes)

I’m getting quite into using Rapid cassettes just lately. So much so that I was dreaming about it the other night. I’ve chosen a half-frame Rapid camera, the Welta Penti II, as my camera of choice for the Frugal Film Project, and I have enough cassettes for that, but I think I need a few more cassettes so that I can have several films being used in several cameras at the same time.

Including the expired film Rapid cassette I have five in total, but I’m keen to get more. First of all I checked out that popular auction site, eBay, but getting individual cassettes is quite expensive, from 18€ upwards, including shipping. That was a little too steep for me, so I took a different tack.

I obtained my original Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras from the Kamerastore website for the princely sum of 8€ apiece, and among these collected four Rapid cassettes. I therefore took a look at the other Rapid cameras on the website and found three more that were advertised as having cassettes, a Ricoh 35 K Rapid, which included two cassettes, and two more Agfa Iso-Rapid IFs, which had one cassette each. Thus I could get some cheap cameras to play with for a lower price than going to eBay.

Of course, all the cameras were in the ‘Not Passed’ category, they were, ‘Untested … and found to have flaws that will affect typical use.’ For example, in the Ricoh 35 K Rapid, ‘The bulb doesn’t work and there is some oil on the aperture blades,’ but it came with two Rapid canisters, and ‘otherwise it is in good working condition!’ The Agfa Iso-Rapid IFs had some haze on the lens and viewfinder, but otherwise were also in working condition. Both came with one Rapid canister each.

The Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras are basic little fixed focus point and shoot cameras from the 60s and 70s, a bit like an updated Agfa Clack but with that typical boxy 60s styling. They have two shutter speeds, 1/40s for cloudy weather or flash sync, and 1/80s for sunny conditions, and three apertures of f8, f11, and f16.

The Agfas were in nice condition, though the viewfinder was hazy in one and the other had a hazy lens. I removed the lens assembly from the hazy lens camera to reveal a primitive looking aperture/shutter assembly, very close to the Agfa Clack in design. The lens was a single-element lens and was very easy to clean with a cotton bud.

The Ricoh 35 K Rapid is a different type of camera altogether to the Iso-Rapid cameras, although it still uses Rapid films. It’s a manual focus compact camera made by Ricoh in 1964, and it’s heavy. It’s made of a lot of metal and features a glass three-element 40mm f2.8 lens. A much more sophisticated camera than the Iso-Rapid cameras, it has shutter speeds from 1/25s to 1/200s (plus B, though this doesn’t work), and an iris aperture from f2,8-f16.

It also features primitive DX coding, which will show the speed of film loaded. Agfa Rapid cassettes featured a little metal tab, and depending on the design of this tab could tell the camera the type of film loaded. In the wind-on side of the camera is a small metal pin that sticks out and when the Rapid cassette is inserted connects with this tab. On the top of the Ricoh is a little wheel which shows the ISO and DIN of the film, and the aperture that you should be using.

One pleasant discovery with the Ricoh was the ‘found film’. I nearly missed it when I first checked out the camera, but sticking just 1-2mm out of one of the Rapid canisters was a little tab of film. Clearly a roll left behind by its last owner, this is always a wonderful find in any new camera, and one that doesn’t happen very often with products from the Kamerastore.

Actually, you can see the tab of film in the item photos on the Kamerastore website, but if you’re not familiar with what you’re looking at it’s easy to miss. Guessing from my expired Rapid film that this was taken any time up until the 90s, I’m hoping that the roll hasn’t been used for practising with and has remained untouched. I’ve transferred the film to a 35mm cassette, and next time I’m in Aveiro I’ll pop into the lab and see if they can develop it.

I also spent an hour or so this week decanting (I read that term somewhere and just liked it) some Harman Phoenix film from 35mm to Rapid cassettes. I had pre-planned my technique but it was much easier than I had expected. With a little force the films generally slide smoothly into the Rapid cassettes. Of course, I had to Redscale a couple of the film strips, too.

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #Experimental #FrugalFilmProject #Harman #HarmanPhoenix #IsoRapid #Phoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #Redscale #Ricoh35K

Three 1960s Rapid film system cameras. In front are four Rapid cassettes.

#FrugalFilmProject, an introduction to the Golden Wonder: The Welta Penti II half frame camera

After a week or so fiddling with the Welta Penti II I’ve selected it as this year’s camera for the Frugal Film Project. I’m going to experiment with half-frame. Not just any half-frame, of course, but half-frame with Rapid cassettes. It’s an odd little camera, and not a purchase I’d originally planned to make. On the Kamerastore website I came across a Lomography 75mm glass lens for the Diana F+, which I had been after for a while but was always too stingy to order from Lomography.

To make the shipping cost more palatable I took a look at the ‘Not Passed’ items, and right near the top was this little golden beauty. Intrigued, I clicked on the entry and discovered that it was a Penti II, a half-frame camera introduced by Welta in the 1960s. Although it uses 35mm film, the Penti II uses Agfa Karat rapid film canisters. Well, that was enough for me, and I pressed ‘Buy’ straight away. Of course, being in the ‘Not Passed’ category it has, ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, in this case, ‘fungus inside the lens and viewfinder [and] the exposure meter does not work.’ I wasn’t too worried about the exposure meter, this is also a manual camera, though the 3-element lens might be a challenge to get into and clean.

When it arrived it was really ‘love at first sight’, the Penti II is just so cute. This is an all metal camera, and it shows. From its gold stippled facade and lens to the black trim, it’s all metal, cold to the touch and heavy. When you’re used to lightweight plastic cameras, to turn the Penti II over in your hands is an experience. It also has a really unique method of winding on the film. Sticking out of the side of the camera is a metal rod (gold, of course). When you push the shutter button the metal rod pops out, and when you push the rod back in this winds on the film and cocks the shutter. The only thing to remember is to hold the camera in a way that when you fire the shutter the rod doesn’t hit your hand.

The Welta Penti II was a successor to the Welta Penti launched in the late 1950s. It is a 35mm half-frame camera that uses Rapid film cassettes, not normal 35mm cassettes. Released in the early 1960s until about 1967, the Penti II featured selenium cell metering and was equipped with a Meyer-Optik 30mm f3.5 Domiplan lens. With apertures between f3.5 and f22, and shutter speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, and 1/125s, the user would dial in the combination of aperture and shutter speed that would move a mark visible in the viewfinder. When the settings mark matched the position of the selenium cell mark your exposure was correct. Of course, the selenium cell in my Penti II doesn’t work, but fortunately I can use the camera manually with a meter.

On the top of the camera is the film counter, which needs to be dialled in manually when loading the film, and a cold shoe which holds the flash. On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw. And that’s it. There are no wind-on or rewind knobs, just the metal ‘plunger’ protruding from the side, because when the film is wound on it’s just fed from the full Rapid cassette to the empty one by the action of pushing the plunger, which also cocks the shutter for the next exposure.

Normally, Agfa Rapid film came in 12 exposure cassettes, which means that a typical Rapid cassette would give 24 half-frame images in the Welta Penti II. Originally VEB, the manufacturer of the Penti II, made Agfa Rapid cassettes, so it was natural, when producing their own cameras, to use the Rapid system, which they called the ‘Schnelladekassette’, Speed Loading, or SL cassette. Nowadays these cassettes are no longer available, although you can pick up expired films and empty Rapid cassettes from eBay or vintage camera retailers. Expect to pay a premium, though.

I managed to source some dirt cheap Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras from Kamerastore (we’re talking 8€ here), and fortunately between them these contained four cassettes, so I’m up and running. Filling a Rapid cassette from a roll of 35mm film is quite straightforward, though of course you’ll need a darkroom or a dark bag. A 12-exposure roll of film is about 60cm long, so I place a 30cm ruler in the dark bag and cut the end from a roll of film to make it fit into the slit of the Rapid cassette. I’ll slide the end of the film into the Rapid cassette, then in the dark bag use the ruler to pull a length of 30 cm of film from the 35mm cassette and feed this into the Rapid cassette. Once the first 30cm is inserted, I’ll repeat the process then add a few more cm and snip the film. Back in the daylight I’ll cut the end of the film in the Rapid cassette so that it’ll slide nicely into the empty cassette in the camera.

To load the film in the Penti II, I take the empty cassette and slide a bit of film from the full cassette into it. Just a little bit, one cm or so. Then I’ll insert the cassettes into the back of the camera and make sure that the sprockets are catching on the wind-on tab before closing the pressure plate. Oh, before you close the back remember to reset the frame counter to 0 using the little knurled knob. Then close up the camera, wind on the film until the counter reads ‘1’ by pushing the plunger and firing the shutter a couple of times, and you’re good to go.

The weather is a little unsettled at the moment, with heavy wind and rain much of the time. But next week promises to be better, so hopefully I’ll be able to get out with the Golden Wonder and put it through its paces.

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Welta

The 'Golden Wonder', a Welta Penti ii half-frame camera.

Some Rapid cameras arrived today, bought just for the cassettes. Inside one of them were two cassettes. Peeking out of the cassette was a little bit of film. I think it's colour film, should I get it developed?
#Agfa, #Rapid, #AgfaRapid, #Cassette, #Expired, #IsoRapid, #RapidFilm, #ExpiredFilm, #Experimental,

A Rapid film canister on a grey background. Sticking out of the cassette is the end of a roll of film.

Another view of a Rapid film canister on a grey background. Sticking out of the cassette is the end of a roll of film.

On being a lurker and the Frugal Film Project 2025

I’ve been a part of the Frugal Film Project for a couple of years now. The idea behind the FFP, or #FrugalFilmProject as it is known on social media, is to use one camera and one film stock for a whole year and then to post images each month on the Group’s Facebook page. What makes it ‘frugal’ is that the camera you use should cost less than $75 (about 72€) including shipping, and you should use the cheapest film stock available.

The Agfa Clack surrounded by a pyramid of Fomapan Retro film

The first year I chose my wonderful little Agfa Clack, which I used with Fomapan Retro film, and last year was a generic 9×12 folding camera from the 1920s and Instax Wide film. Both years I started well, but in July we go on holidays and by the end of the vacation, which are often a month or more now that we are retired, the momentum to continue was lost. I did well to get through the year with the Clack, but with the folder after our holiday I never managed to get out with it as often as I would have liked. Or at all, really.

A view of Vagueira taken with a generic 1920s folding camera using Instax Wide film

I became a bit of a ‘lurker’ on the Frugal Film Project’s Facebook group, liking images that people were posting, making the occasional comment, but not really participating. With a new year of the Project coming up, and with people showing their new camera/film combinations, there have been a few comments made about lurking. Some people have said that dropping out for a while doesn’t really matter and that anyone not contributing should stay on the group and they will return in good time, while others have indicated that if they can’t participate they’ll leave the group altogether, which would be sad.

The Welta Penti II. My camera of choice for the Frugal Film Project 2025

For my part I enjoy being a part of the FFP. It’s a way to really get to know a camera/film combination, and it’s a lot of fun, not just to take part each month but also to see what others are doing. So this year I will try to complete the Project with a camera that I can use all year round, including taking with me on holiday during the summer. My Frugal Film camera for 2025 will be the ‘Golden Wonder’, a new (to me) Welta Penti II, a 35mm half-frame camera from the 1960s.

Two Rapid cassettes. In the background is a roll of Harman Phoenix film

The film I’m going to use for the year will be Harman Phoenix 35mm film. ‘Wait a moment,’ one might ask, ‘at 13€ or so a roll that’s not really very Frugal is it?’ Aha! Here’s the thing. The Welta Penti II uses 35mm film, but not in a regular 36-exposure cassette, in Agfa Rapid cassettes, which are 12-exposure spool-less cassettes. So the idea is that I’ll be able to fill three Agfa Rapid cassettes from each 36-exposure roll of Harman Phoenix. That makes it cheaper already, I only need to buy four rolls of Harman Phoenix to last me the year. Not only that, but the Welta Penti II is a half-frame camera, so I’ll be getting 24 exposures from each roll. Now it seems a much more Frugal option.

The rear of the Welta Penti II showing two Rapid cassettes in place

The Welta Penti II was a successor to the Welta Penti launched in the 1950s. It’s a 35mm half-frame camera that uses the Agfa Rapid film system, which is a sealed cassette slightly smaller than a normal 35mm film cassette. Released in the early 1960s, until about 1967, the Penti II featured a selenium cell metering system and was equipped with a Meyer-Optik 30mm f3.5 Domiplan lens. With apertures between f3.5 and f22, and shutter speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, and 1/125s, the user would dial in the combination of aperture and shutter speed that would move a mark visible in the viewfinder to match another mark set by the selenium cell. When the two marks matched your exposure was correct. Of course, the selenium cell in my Penti II doesn’t work, but fortunately I can use the camera with an exposure meter app to get the correct exposure for my films.

A close-up of the lens of the Welta Penti II

I chose Harman Phoenix as it’s a slight colour shifting film under the right conditions. I’m a big fan of colour-shifting emulsions, like Lomochrome Turquoise or Purple, but I felt that I might get a little jaded with posting Turquoise for the whole year. Using short lengths of a ‘normal’ colour film is also a good way of trying some experimentation. I’ve already tried redscaling Harman Phoenix and got some great results, and I quite fancy trying multiple exposures by reloading an exposed film into a Rapid cassette, and even EBS photography, exposing both sides of the film. Hopefully this will rekindle my enjoyment of the Frugal Film Project, I’m getting excited by the prospect already, and since the Welta Penti II is a pocket-sized camera there’s no excuse not to take it with me during the summer.

https://flic.kr/p/2qzrMXc

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #Experimental #FrugalFilmProject #HalfFrame #HarmanPhoenix #Penti2 #Rapid #RapidFilm #Vintage #Welta

There’s something about collecting and playing with old cameras that is hugely satisfying. Even better is getting a camera working again that hasn’t been used in decades, or using film in a camera that hasn’t had film made for it in a long time. I’ve a few cameras like this; the Kodak Handle, where I created a film mount for it to work with Instax Square film, the Polaroid Big Shot and a mount for Instax Wide film, and the Ikkosha Start 35k with its homemade 35mm Bolta spools. I also have a couple of longer term ongoing projects, like the Kodak 1A Autographic Jr 118 folding camera and the Vest Pocket Kodak camera that I hope to use with 35mm film spooled into homemade 127 spools.

But one format that has passed me by has been the Agfa Rapid film system. For anyone unaware, Rapid film was developed by Agfa in the 1960s as a competitor to Kodak’s instamatic film. Instead of having the film inside a sealed plastic cassette, the Agfa Rapid system used two small 35mm canisters which when loaded into the camera would pass film from one to the other. The full cassette would then be taken to the lab for development and the now empty cassette switched over to be the take-up cassette, if that makes sense. The advantage over instamatic film was that using 35mm the negatives were a little larger. The downside was that Rapid films were a maximum length of 12 exposures, or 16 24x24mm frames in cameras like the Agfa Iso Rapid IF..

A while ago, a whole batch of Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras appeared on the Kamerastore website. They were all in the ‘Not Passed’ category and marked as ‘untested’ but were priced really competitively at 8€ each. The Agfa Iso-Rapid IF is a fixed focus compact camera with three selectable apertures (f8, f11, and f16) and two shutter speeds, 1/80s for sunny conditions and 1/40s for cloudy days and flash synchronisation. There is also a wind-up flash reflector into which flash bulbs are inserted. This is powered by a battery that fits into the bottom of the camera, but otherwise the Iso-Rapid IF is a wholly manual camera.

The snag with the Rapid canisters is that you need two of them, one containing the film and a second empty cassette that acts as the take-up cassette. The Rapid cassettes don’t have a spool inside, like 35mm cassettes, and the film is simply pushed into the canister. When the cassettes are loaded into the camera the film is wound into the empty ‘take-up’ cassette. Back in the day, once the take-up Rapid cassette was filled it was most likely sent away for development, and odds are that nowadays most Agfa Rapid cameras will either contain one cassette or none at all.

So I looked at the Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras on the Kamerastore website. All of them were in the ‘Not Passed’ category and were ‘Untested or tested, inspected, and found to have flaws that will affect typical use.’ In the descriptions most were simply described as ‘untested’ or, ‘can’t be tested, Agfa Rapid cassettes aren’t produced anymore’. However, three cameras looked promising. Two were described as having working shutters, although the speeds had not been tested, and the third included a Rapid cassette although the lens was described as the elements having separated.

I took the plunge and ordered these three cameras. I assumed that each of the cameras, apart from the one that specifically stated that it included a Rapid cassette, would not include a cassette, so I looked around for another. There were plenty of Agfa Rapid cassettes online though they were quite expensive, but then I came across a sealed expired Agfacolor film for the same price as an empty cassette. Even better, the seller’s site was in Portugal. I ordered a cassette, and within a few days it had arrived, actually before the cameras came.

When the cameras arrived, on two of them the shutter button was on the front of the camera, next to the lens. On the third camera, which also came with a nice little camera case, the shutter button was on the top. The camera with the case was the one that was described as having a separated lens, and opening the back revealed a single Rapid cassette. I was delighted with that, now I had two cassettes for the next part of the experiment.

I thought I should take a look at the other two cameras, since the plan was to take the cassette from the camera with the separated lens and use this with one of the others. They were both in nice condition and the shutter buttons and aperture selector worked nicely. On these cameras the aperture is just a drilled circle, just like the Agfa Clack series of the 1950s. Opening up the first camera revealed a surprise, the camera contained a Rapid cassette! I was delighted with this as it meant that I could practise with a blank film and still keep my expired film intact. Turning my attention to the third camera, I opened the back and … it contained two Rapid cassettes! So now I have gone from zero cassettes to five cassettes, and of course I was stoked.

I’m not going to have much time these next few weeks, so in the next part of this post, whenever it appears, I’m going to try and load a blank test film into the cassettes to see how they operate. If this is successful, I will then try to load some unexposed film into the cassettes. Looking at the details online for these cameras it looks like they were designed for ISO 200 film, and indeed the Rapid Agfacolor that I have is ISO 200. Checking my collection of film stock, it looks like the only native ISO 200 film stock that I have is a few rolls of Harman Phoenix. Mind you, I also have some Lomochrome Turquoise knocking around and with its wide 50-400 ISO range, so that might be fun to try.

https://keithdevereux.wordpress.com/2024/10/01/bringing-an-old-film-format-back-to-life-part-1-and-a-pleasant-surprise-the-agfa-iso-rapid-if/

#Agfa #AgfaRapid #Cassette #Experimental #Expired #ExpiredFilm #IsoRapid #Rapid #RapidFilm

@Venenum_Analog Brauchts für die #Silette eigentlich #RapidFilm oder nimmt sie normale #135film Kleinbildpatronen? Sie sieht hast so aus wie meine #AgfaOptima200sensor , nur (noch) mit Ragnar und Parartorverschluss, statt wie bei meiner das gruselige Apotar mit Belichtungsautomat.

Hach, wat herrlich! 😀

Pic of the day: Agfa Isomat Rapid and Fuji Neopan 100 film.
#FilmPhotography #BelieveInFilm #RapidFilm

#RapidFilm

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