Kodak Instamatic 104

This Kodak Instamatic was at the street with its original box. I gave the seller a 2euro coin and bought the camera. It works fine but I must find an empty 126 catridge to put some 35mm film in it to use the camera. If I also find a used cube flash to put it in the flash slot I will have a second shutter speed.

A yoghourt toy camera

This toy camera was offered as a promotional gift with flavoured yoghourt for children. I found it at a street seller with its original box. I gave 1 euro and the toy was mine.
It's all plastic made with a fixed lens, fixed aperture and a fixed shutter speed.

It had a chinese noname 200 ASA film in it, with 12 exposures. From the viewfinder it looked that the lens was around 45mm but from the pictures it seems it's an 28mm!
There is vignetting, lack of sharpness and overexposure.
Here are the results:

Yashica minitec, Point 'n' Shoot

A small simple point'n'shoot camera. It has an 32mm/f3.5 lens with autofocus, autoexposure, auto flash. The flassh cannot be switched off, but has a red eye reduction setting.
I loaded it with an Agfa 100xrg expired film and put some black tape to make the camera read for the DX code of 25 ASA. I found out later that the camera cannot read under 100ASA.

The pictures came out underexposed by two stops and with low contrast, but the lab scanner successfully scanned the negative. It seems that the camera takes well exposed and very sharp photos.

Samples:

I also took some multiple photos to make joiners.

Original scene panorama from 3 pictures joined with Autostitch  

Hand joined images.

Joined with Autostitch

and one frame scanned by my scanner. It was unable to pick up the color from the faint negative.

Argus A2 camera

The Argus A camera is the first 35mm camera made in the USA, by Argus, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Mine looks like the A2B model manufactured between 1945 and 1950. I cannot locate the serial number to be sure. I bought it from an antique shop for 15 euros.
It is a manual exposure camera with a built in extinction meter which I couldn't figure out how it works. It has a fixed 50mm collapsible lens. After extending the lens, focusing is done by turning the lens barrel until a click is heard.
If I come to understand how the film advances I will give the camera a try.

More from the Horizon 202 panoramic camera.

The camera has a bubble lever to keep the camera horizontal. That way horizontal lines in the middle appear straight while all other lines appear curved. If there are moving objects, the ones moving to the right of the camera look elongated while the ones moving to the left appear compressed.

The camera needs a small tripod to hold it in order not to get the fingers recorded in the picture.

One panoramic view of the monument

and one showing the surroundings

a vertical (and slightly croped) one

moving cars at 1/60th sec

at a mall



Horizon 202 panoramic

This is a rare find from the street sellers. It has a swing lens that turns from left to right, exposing the film little by little as the lens turns. It is a manual exposure only camera with two speed sets, a yellow one for low light (1/8, 1/4, 1/2 sec) and a white one for daylight panoramas (1/60, 1/125 and 1/250).
apertures range from f2.8 to f16. I would like an f22 and a 1/500sec speed but it is ok like this also.

I loaded the camera with a Kodak 200 ASA film and went to action. The camera takes 22 elongated 24x58mm pictures and need special scanners to get digitized. I was very pleased with the results. The angle of view is an enormous 120 degrees, needs attention not to include the fingers in the picture. It seems like the viewer takes part in the action.

Monastiraki square

A white banding visible is caused by internal reflections.

Minolta Riva Twin 28

A point 'n' shoot camera with dual lenses. A wide 28mm and one add on lens that makes the focal length increase to around 40mm. Not very usefull indeed. I bought it for 2 euros from a street seller.

I loaded a roll of Kodak Tmax 400 ASA and hoped for the best.

I was not very succesfull. There is a button to switch off the flash but candid images came out blurred, the autofocus was fooled many times, framing with the viewfinder was way off and the sky was burned out constantly.

and a two picture stitched panorama; the motor winder helps keep the camera fairy steady on the eye.