Paul Studios, Eastbourne. Rebuilt AGI ARL S/A Mark II (Small Aircraft, Aerial Camera) 120 roll film ,results gallery.

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I wasn't expecting much from the ARL conversion, given the appalling state it was in when donated. Anything would be a bonus.

The camera is a little limited as it is fitted with a 4.2" (105mm) focal length lens, a focal length of 75mm would normally be the standard for this 6 x 6cm format. This harks back to when it was an aerial camera, the conversion kept the original Hall Brothers lens.

As it was originally intended for aerial use, it seemed appropriate to test the camera out on aerial subjects. So the very first image taken is this Spitfire sculpture mounted on a tripod arrangement outside of Southampton Airport. Formerly Eastleigh Airport, this is where the first Spitfire made the type's maiden flight back in March 1936, a whisker over 90 years before this image was taken in May 2026.

Taken directly into sun has caused a few issues and the shutter speed was 500th sec. I was expecting possible capping issues as the spring rollers were quite rusty as received and I had no idea if the tension remaining in them was evenly distributed. The image is remarkably sharp but there is a certain amount of scattering from the fairly extensive scratching on the objective and balsam degradation on the rear group.

Here is the lifeboat station at Bembridge, Isle of Wight, Southern UK. Again pretty much into sun, but from under the shade of overhanging trees. After this I was away and left the camera with a film loaded for several weeks. I half expected light leaks as it was left in the display cabinet....

But no! No sign of leakage at all. An invitation to West Tisted fly in provided the opportunity to take the old ARL out to play aeroplanes again. Sadly no opportunity to arrive by air presented itself. So by road it had to be. Here a De Havilland DH82 Tiger Moth taxies in after arriving to join the impressive line up of DH types attending. Again, into sun and there is a little flare at the junction between highlights and shadow, but otherwise the camera seems to be behaving well enough.

A closer in shot to really stretch the flare limits, bright sun hitting doped silver wings angled to perfectly bounce the sun directly into the camera. The flare from the flying wires supporting the left upper wing is very obvious. But who cares, this old camera is working well after being allowed to rust and rot away.

G-AVIL is an Alon A2 Aircoupe and a representative of one of my favourite types, an obsession started when I photographed the sad remains of G-ATRY, with my first camera, the Dacora. (That image can be seen here).

The Alon A2 was the last incarnation of an earlier type known as the Erco Ercoupe, dating back to 1937. G-AVIL was built 30 years later in 1967, originally registered in the US as N5471E after nine months in the US it came to the UK in January 1968 and is in very nice condition.

Another view of G-AVIL parked up at West Tisted in July 2026.

Up to this point I had made no attempt to recreate the cable tensioning arrangement for the camera. It's prone to failure in all incarnations of of the AGI base camera, as well as the Kochman Reflex Korelle inspiration. Although a simple enough system it's quite fussy, and the camera is easy enough to use without it by twisting the shutter speed selector to cock the shutter. The annoyance being that two operations are required, first to transport the film using the wind on lever and then cock the shutter manually. The wind on lever also goes loose, as the spring tension required to return it is lost with the broken cable.

All but one of the twelve frames from the roll were usable, I selected six here.

As the camera seemed worth it, after this roll, the cable cocking system was recreated.