Dacora 120 roll film camera results

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Dacora 120 roll film camera. Photograph gallery.

The Dacora was bought around 1956. From the outset it seems to have scratched the films but for this image of my Mum taken around 1957 it seems to have behaved itself. The black dots near the top of the picture are caused by lack of development of the negative. This was caused by insufficient agitation during development allowing the chemistry to become exhausted at the point it contacted the apron in the old Aro developing tank. I know this, as I made exactly the same mistake myself when all Grandad's developing equipment was given to me many years later.

Stonehenge 1973

This is the first photograph I took, taken around 1973, when I would have been 9 years old. It's not included here for it's compositional subtleties, but more for its historic nature. This is, of course, Stonehenge, in the days you could casually walk amongst the stones. The Dacora scratches more negatives than not

Home Farm was in the village of Middle, North Stoneham, Hampshire. Middle was absorbed into Eastleigh, and erased from the maps. Home Farm was abandoned, fell into disrepair and eventually was bulldozed. This is one of the buildings at the farm gradually succumbing to the elements in 1978. This was one of those rare occasions when the Dacora let the film through without chewing it up horribly.

Three images taken at Central Gliding School, RAF Upavon in Wiltshire in the Spring of 1980, when I was taught to fly a T.31 Cadet. The first picture shows Slingsby T.31 XE800 resting between sorties at RAF Upavon. This image was terribly scratched originally, but was painstakingly retouched, as it was the only full image I had of one of the gliders during my time at RAF Upavon. The second image shows the basic instrumentation. I seem to recall this was XE800 too. At right, is me about the time of my first solo in WT901, in 1979, this negative was also mercilessly scratched and had to be extensively retouched.

In time I graduated to powered aeroplanes and trained on the ubiquitous Cessna 152. This Reims built example, G-BGFX, was all but new when I first soloed it on 13/2/82 at Eastleigh airport. Although the Dacora was a poor camera, it did at least record a few moments for posterity.

I recorded this model I made in 1980 of the Pemberton Billing PB9. I managed to get the focus spot on with the right had image. The model was never flown as I couldn't afford a motor for it. It moved with me several times before winding up in the attic. A few years back I removed it and it's now in the care of the Southampton Hall of Aviation, where it serves as a reminder to the first aeroplane created by Pemberton Billing, who subsequently founded the Supermarine works, that in turn went on to create the Spitfire.