The #FrugalFilmProject, June 2025: Oh, I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside (Part II)

After last month’s mixed results from the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame Rapid camera), I loaded the it with a canister of Harman Phoenix and we went to Costa Nova. It was the perfect opportunity to have a fabulous lunch at the Marisqueira Costa Nove, and to play tourist with the unique buildings that form the ‘seafront’ along the estuary of the river in Costa Nova. 

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

The typical buildings here, some over 100 years old, are painted with different coloured stripes on a white background. But there are plenty of other styles of building in the ‘terrace’ that forms the row of houses. Some typically art deco, some which look like from the 1950s, and some of quite indeterminate ages 

https://flic.kr/p/2rbHW7g

Nowadays,  the modern buildings in Costa Nova are covered in tiles marking the stripes, but these are kept away from the original row of houses and I believe planning permission or renovation needs to follow strict rules. This makes the houses quite expensive, and if you’re looking for one of these houses you need deep pockets.

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

As I had not completed the film, I used the rest of the frames on a trip to Barra. 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. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 100, because on a test with the Pentacon Electra 2 I got some really nice results with Harman Phoenix at ISO 100. This wasn’t too successful, though, the images were still a dullish brown and with quite high contrast.

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

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

The #FrugalFilmProject, May 2025: WTF?

I’ve been a bit tardy with posting my May entry for the Frugal Film Project. The weather in our region was unpredictable for the best part of the month, and the forecast was unsettled. But the last week of May the rain stopped, the skies cleared, and we had a few days of really nice weather.

https://flic.kr/p/2r93rbo

This also coincided with a need for a trip to Coimbra, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to take the Golden Wonder (a.k.a the Welta Penti II, half-frame camera) along with me. I loaded the Penti II with a fresh canister of Harman Phoenix, and we took it through the back streets of the old town of Coimbra, and also down the main street. At the end of the trip I still had a few frames left, so a few days later I took the Golden Wonder on a trip around Costa Nova and Vagueira. 

https://flic.kr/p/2r8WPbb

As usual, to measure the exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. I dropped the film off at the lab a few days later, and within a couple of hours the images dropped into my inbox. I opened them for a first look. WTF? What. The. Actual. F? The subjects came out great, I’ll say that for the Golden Wonder, what you point it at, the cameras sees perfectly, but the light leaks? I do love my light leaks, I always think that they give character to the images, but in this case it was a bit much.

https://flic.kr/p/2r8WPae

I originally thought that the lab might have scanned the roll with the wrong colour profile, and asked them about it. In reply the lab sent a snap of the film with the comment that it was ‘burned’, and looking at the film I was amazed that they got anything from it at all! Further along the roll the images looked like the film had light leaks, but the first few frames were almost solarised. 

https://flic.kr/p/2r92hYB

For those not aware, solarisation is where the exposed film is exposed to light so that certain tones are reversed. It is also referred to as the Sabbatier Effect (although this is a slightly different phenomenon). Often the edges of objects on film show the most pronounced effect, and this can clearly be seen on some of the early images from Coimbra. The later images, near the tail end of the film, show more normal looking light leaks. 

https://flic.kr/p/2r93YGb

I was a little frustrated with the results, it’s not often that we go to Coimbra, but on reflection I really like how some of these came out. I’m sure I’ll never be able to produce this effect again, of course. 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/2r93YF9

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow the ‘Snapshot’ WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline.

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

The camera and the shot

📷 Minolta XG-M with Sigma 600mm F/8
🎞️ Harman Phoenix 200

Taken one sunny afternoon at Rudyard Lake.

This film has some really lovely warm tones in the afternoon sunlight.

#filmphotography #35mmfilm #harman #harmanphoenix #believeinfilm #boats #sailing

This dude found a cheat code for RA4 reversal. A pre-soak kills a chunk of the filtration requirement. I'm wondering if that would also help with RA4 printing #HarmanPhoenix (it essentially counteracts the assumption of an orange film based).
I've never used slide film because I can't print it, but between this and some other tips (oreflash, and low contrast dev), there's a chance.

#Darkroom

One more for tonight. This is taken from a tunnel in #GoldenGatePark
I think I want to come back here and take pictures with a variety of conditions.
#KodakBrownie #HarmanPhoenix

I scanned this roll twice. Once on a cheapo Wolverine/Saturn, once on a pretty nice backlit flatbed Epson (pretty high end, I think; not actually mine, it's at a museum where I volunteer).
Surprisingly, in some cases the cheap scanner did way better. But I wasn't really using the flatbed quite right--I scanned the whole roll (cut just once to fit) in one shot. Probably doing one at a time gives it a better chance to get levels right. (I was using VueScan).
In this case both were decent. The left one is the cheap scanner, the right one is the better one.
#KodakBrownie #HarmanPhoenix

Sometimes the colors come out more interesting than the colors the IRL scene had!
#KodakBrownie #HarmanPhoenix

#CalTrain's South County Express ("the train to Gilroy") really deserves color film.
#KodakBrownie #HarmanPhoenix

I tried color film with the Brownie. This is Harman Phoenix, which I found out after the fact is a bit artsy/experimental.
#KodakBrownie #HarmanPhoenix
The friendly folks at Foto Express in San Jose complimented me on getting good results with this film, as others have had issues. Definitely not because of any mastery of the craft on my part!
It sounds like people have tended to get underexposed results. The point/shoot/hope-for-the-best nature of using a Brownie helped me to err on the side of overexposure and that turned out to be a good thing here.

Further and Further Down the Rabbit Hole: The Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid

Every time I say to myself, ‘I have enough cameras now,’ somehow another one always seems to grab my attention. I wasn’t looking for another Rapid camera, but then a Voigtländer Vitoret D popped up during a random browse on eBay, something, ‘Inspired by your recent search ‘. It was reasonably priced, and with several days to go before the auction came to an end no-one had made any bids. I added it to my watchlist and left it alone, popping in to see what was happening from time to time.

With a few hours to go before the end of the auction there were still no bids for this Rapid camera. I had checked the reviews of the seller already, which were positive, and the condition of the camera was described as, ‘beautiful, fully functional condition (tested) with only minor signs of wear’. With this in mind, I put in a minimum bid, and waited until the auction was closed. There were no further bids, and the Voigtländer Vitoret D Rapid was mine.

The Vitoret D is a manual focus camera made by Voigtländer and introduced c.1962. There is a ‘normal’ 35mm version, but my model is the Rapid version that uses Agfa Rapid film canisters. It has a rounded body, which dates it to before 1966, when a modified model was released with squarer body corners. It comes with a 40mm f2.8 Color-Lanthar lens,  with apertures between f2.8 and f22, and a Prontor 300 leaf shutter, with speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s and 1/300s (+ B).

According to the description, the ‘optics are clean, with no dust, fungus, or fungus residue. The shutter speeds run smoothly and even at long exposures. The leather trim is not worn.’ So it should be in good condition. The Vitoret D Rapid has an uncoupled selenium cell in a window to the right of the lens, and you can see the suggested exposure reading on a little window on the top of the camera, where in a normal camera the rewind knob might be. I’m not sure if this works properly but I can use the camera meter app and set the camera manually.

On its arrival, I could see that the Vitoret D was in lovely cosmetic condition, with few signs of use and a lovely clear lens. However, on checking the shutter speeds and apertures, although the faster speeds of 1/125s and 1/300s sounded fine, the slower speeds of 1/60s, 1/30s, and B, lagged terribly. This is something I will raise with the seller. The apertures were fine, though. 

https://flic.kr/p/2r6bVLW

https://flic.kr/p/2r6icmK

https://flic.kr/p/2r6hDvd

Naturally, I was keen to see how the camera performed, so I loaded the Vitoret D with a canister of Harman Phoenix and set off for a walk ‘around the block’. For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160, which is the speed I normally use with Harman Phoenix. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Phoenix kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. However,  there were also a lot of light leaks, and in some instances the image was more light leak than subject. Despite these faults, I really like the camera, and will certainly try it out again. 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/2r6grHv

https://flic.kr/p/2r6bVNe

If you are on Mastodon, you can now follow this blog directly. Just go to Mastodon and follow my WordPress account at @keithdevereux.wordpress.com. All new posts will be automatically updated to your timeline on Mastodon.

#AgfaRapid #Canister #Experimental #HarmanPhoenix #Rapid #RapidFilm #VitoretRapidD #Voigtländer

New #photography blog post:

One Day I'll Get This Stuff Scanned Right
#filmphotography #mediumformat #harmanphoenix #120film #Germany #cologne

https://rosehlacroix.wordpress.com/2025/05/15/one-day-ill-get-this-stuff-scanned-right/

Niva, Mar '25

Developed and scanned by filmstore.cz

#Photography #FilmPhotography @FilmPhotography@a.gup.pe #Prague #Praha #HarmanPhoenix

Tram, Mar '25

Developed and scanned by filmstore.cz

#Photography #FilmPhotography @FilmPhotography@a.gup.pe #HarmanPhoenix #Tram #Praha #Prague

Snowed over, Feb '25

Developed and scanned by filmstore.cz

#Photography #FilmPhotography @FilmPhotography@a.gup.pe #HarmanPhoenix

Last snow, Feb '25

Developed and scanned by filmstore.cz

#Photography #FilmPhotography @FilmPhotography@a.gup.pe #HarmanPhoenix #CandidPhotography

A few more from the Folder Week Phoenix roll that came back looking more Phoenix-ey. The larger medium format negatives do seem to tame things compared to 35mm, but the film's idiosyncrasies are certainly still apparent.

📷️ Mamiya 6 K
🎞️ Harman Phoenix 200

#folderweek #filmphotography #harmanphoenix #Austin