Box camera article

Muggins

Muggins

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If I may indulge in a bit of shameless self-promotion...

About as far from RFs as it is possible to get, but it's a broad church here and I know I'm not the only box camera user. I had this published in Amateur Photographer back in February, and it's now on their website:

https://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/second-hand/how-to-buy-and-use-kodak-box-brownies-141790

I have to admit to being far more excited by this than any of the (very few) academic papers my name appears on!
 
Congratulations on getting the article published, its a great intro to box cameras. I'd love to see more photos shot with the cameras!
 
I enjoyed that! These cameras were still around when I was a kid and I still have a couple of them now.

- Murray
 
Nice read.

I've shot a quite a few different ones over the last few years. Though I confess it has been a while since the last one. I'll probably feed some film through an Agfa Trollix box camera soon, that I picked up in March.
 
Congratulations on the article!

I have a few Kodak box cameras around here somewhere (stowed away in a box).
 
Thanks, everyone! I had to look up the Trollix - what a little cutie!

As pics were requested, I'll add a few:
This one made Amateur Photographer! by gray1720, on Flickr

And the camera:
Coronet Portrait box camera by gray1720, on Flickr

Amateur Photography spring meeting in Oxford by gray1720, on Flickr

And the camera (2nd right):
Coronet collection_1 by gray1720, on Flickr

One taken with a No2 Kodak:
Steam power! by gray1720, on Flickr

From the No 0 Brownie (127):
No 100 steaming by gray1720, on Flickr

The No 0 Brownie (on right):
No 0 Brownie by gray1720, on Flickr
 
Well done and I have to say it's nice to see photographs taken by the cameras. A lot of reviewers don't seem to try the cameras out and so - I blame the internet - the reviews are all the same.



Regards, David
 
Congratulations on the article. It was nicely done.

I started out with box cameras. I think my father figured if I messed them up he hadn't really lost anything. I don't think any really survived a house fire 30 years ago. I have acquired several since then but just don't get around to using them. I have one I really want to get back in service. It has a curved film plane and uses 616 if I recall. For sure bigger than 120, but the same idea of simplicity of use. Problem, with the curved film plane I would need a mask I could lay over the film plane to use 120. Someday. Sigh.

Again, nice article.
 
Thank you again! I picked up a box camera (the one on the left in the pic of the Coronets, in fact) when I was in the Scouts in the mid-80s, but it must have been about 2003 when, in the course of an entirely unrelatted conversation, I discovered you could still get film for it. I shot a roll, developed it myself, and was hooked. I love the simplicity of the things, it's hard to get much more stripped down.

I really must put a film through the Coronet Popular 12 again - I thought the Dynamic 12 (great names for Bakelite cheap & cheerfuls!) must have had the lens removed and reversed, the edge distortion was so funky, but when I shot it's brother camera, the distortion was even funkier - Lomography would get their knickers in a knot if they saw it.
 
What I love about box cameras is the range of craftsmanship they display; some can be beautiful like the Baby Tengor by Zeiss Ikon and others can be dead crude like the Ensign E29 which is held together by nails and yet does the job.

Confession; I bought the E29 because I wanted a 129 spool for another camera (Ensignette No 2) and was so fascinated by its crudity that I kept it. Put it next to to my old Sanderson (same maker) and you get a real culture shock.

Talking of Ensign I often wonder if the Ful Vue is a TLR or a box camera; the pre-war one was certainly a boxy camera yet had the TLR VF.


Regards, David
 
David Hughes said:
What I love about box cameras is the range of craftsmanship they display; some can be beautiful like the Baby Tengor by Zeiss Ikon and others can be dead crude like the Ensign E29 which is held together by nails and yet does the job.
Click to expand...

Indeed - I bought a job lot of four with (a small proportion of!) my payment from the article, and the one I'v sorted out so far I restored to function bby prying it apart with a butter knife and sticking the stray bit back down with PVA. Old School!
 
Excellent and enjoyable!

No mention of CLAs, bokeh, shutter dials turning the wrong way or even sensor replacement...is this the way forward?
 
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