The two plate carriers for the Thornton Pickard have been overhauled. Cracks soldered up and new aluminium plate inserts made, this being the first effort with the repairs. Seems to be improved leak wise, but then it wasn't that bright as it was overcast, so the jury's still out. The scratches though, have gone, yay! This was a hasty shot grabbed as the aeroplane was being wheeled away to take part on Shuttleworth's Navy day 3rd July, 2022, the TP being hand held for once with f/5.6 at 1/50th being the chosen exposure. As I am being contrary to my usual practice at the moment, this one has a wide border.

The Pecto 1 didn't have such a good day, as the idiot photographer managed to expose the same plate twice. Pillock.

The Pecto was given another try on 10/7/22 with these two scintillating ladies in their steampunk guises as my subject, who gave their permission for me to use the image, should it come out. The Pecto was used handheld for this image, with only reference to the waist level finder for composition, focus was set using the very badly calibrated focus scale. Sadly they were sat in front of a brick wall, which while it suits the industrial steampunk ideal, is visually distracting in photographs. The only way I'd have been able to avoid this would have been to go in tighter on them individually in portrait format where the background would have been minimized and what was remaining would have been blurred by the shorter depth of field at that distance. But I only have one serviceable plate carrier for this camera, and this was my one shot. In fact it's a minor miracle I got anything at all, after the exposure I could feel that all was not well. When I attempted to insert the dark slide it jammed quarter of an inch open. I hastily put the camera into the bag and zipped it away from the light. When I got it back the bag went into the darkroom and the camera removed in the dark, then the plate carrier removed. Somehow the dark slide had hooked the sheet out of the carrier and gone down behind it, flexing it into the bellows, where it got crushed as I closed the camera. My prompt action of hiding it in the bag and taking it to the darkroom prevented any fogging fortunately. Despite this there's not a scratch on the image. The subject lighting was tricky for the Pecto with it's very limited exposure control, although quite ideal for a better camera with strong backlight and diffused lighting coming through the parasols to softly illuminate their faces. As it was I used the largest stop the Pecto would give me and the instant shutter setting. Focus is a little off being slightly short but the modelling into the shadows and bright parasol undersides is pleasant. The dress on the right was created from a pattern published in 1898, exactly the same year as the Pecto 1 and is a delightful coincidence. What you can't appreciate here is the fabulous colours used though. They would make a delightful hand tint or autochrome I think. The other plate exposed prior to this was of a steam road roller and can be seen in the Camera's gallery.

When the Thornton Pickard Reflex was acquired it was fitted with an Aldis Butcher Anastigmat, not appropriate for the camera. Earlier this month a 6 inch focal length Ross Tessar Patent lens of the correct period showed up and after inspecting it I splashed out, although it wasn't ridiculously priced. It's a good clean well looked after lens completely clear of scratches. It needed some dust removing between elements and the aperture overhauling, but was otherwise in great shape. The lensboard needed adapting a little to accept the mounting ring, but judging by the numerous holes hidden by the flange this camera has had more than handful of lens changes throughout its career. First plate through the camera is shown here. I only have two vaguely serviceable plate carriers for the TP and this is supposed to be the best one, but a streak of light snuck in here. Thornton Pickard plate carriers are quite a bit slimmer than most, the clearance between the plate emulsion and dark slide is very tight, any ballooning of the plate leads to scratching and sadly this plate has a nasty group of them right through the windmill's sails. That aside, the Ross lens is way brighter than the Aldis. As you can see this is the whole plate, exposed at 1/100th at f11 and a quarter, no filter employed. This had to be exposed through a gap in a hedge whilst teetering atop a pile of horse manure, with the tripod legs gradually sinking into the depths. Owing to the location, the rear focus screen had to be used, rather than the reflex screen, as the shot was about to be taken, one leg sank into the dung so it had to be set up again, this meant the dark slide had to be re inserted and the plate carrier removed to recompose, this has added to the scratching on the plate. The joys of using old cameras. Currently I use thin plywood in the back to prevent the plate springs bending the sheet film, but am now making up aluminium plates to see if I can prevent this from happening again. If anyone has any spare metal Thornton Pickard quarter plate carriers, I'd love to have four more.

The windmill is Wilton Windmill, near Marlborough, Wiltshire UK.

Cameras currently loaded. Praktisix, Hunter 35, Finetta IV, Minolta Repo and Zenit 3M

It's been a while. I hate myself. For being powerless against this monstrous atrocity from a country I previously admired using a twisted version of reality as justification. I struggle, but want to start taking photographs again.

So this abstract image represents how I feel. A vortex, a swirl, both reflection and refraction. My own twisted version of reality.

As viewed by anyone else it was luminous, inviting and beautiful but this dark evil swirl was created by photographing the refracted sunlight directed through the bottom of a curved Vodka bottle onto grey card, but massively underexposed. Appropriately I used the KW Praktisix, made in East Germany at a time it was occupied by Soviet Russia. There is no post manipulation, this is how the negative prints.

A liitle down the page is an image in December 2021 that was taken as this picture was being made. I made several images with the Kodak Six-20 Mod. C that day. The very first frame out of the camera is covered in dust. This often happens with old bellows cameras, unfolding for the first shot of the outing sucks in a lot of air, disturbing any dust hiding within, which promptly sits on the film producing the dark spots you see in the sky. The weird marks in the sky are an oddity only visible on the first frame, not sure what caused those. I made this exposure with a slow shutter speed to blur the waves, but was already at 1/25th and f/22, so unable to blur further. A handful of other images have been added to the Kodak Six-20 Mod. C gallery.

Right now, the Kodak Retina II, Halina A1 and Praktiflex have films in.

Grateful thanks to "q3k" who donated three bits of film via the film fund this month, it's not just the donation that counts, it serves as added inspiration to continue the efforts.

The humble Hunter 35, donated back in 2012, found iself in the workshop to have various issues sorted out and is now loaded with film too. You can see it's journey through the workshop documented in Project 14

Both of the equally humble Ensign Ful Vue cameras from the 1940s also received an overhaul and the associated web pages updated, including adding a downloadable manual for one.

A final job this month was to clean and calibrate a Kresta slip on rangefinder to use with the Hunter 35, having been sat in the display cases for may years it was all but opaque, but it's clean and ready for action now.

I picked up this sea shell, whilst walking along the beach at Netley during December 2021. After the original occupier had shrugged off this mortal coil, the shell became home to these Keel Worms (Pomatoceros triqueter) who in turn died leaving behind their calcium cases. I thought it would be worth a little macro photography. There are several cameras in the collection that are ideal for this sort of thing, so naturally I ignored them and used the Reflex Special. The two lower images just show the shell beside a vintage Kodak 35mm tin for scale and the plate exposed in the Thornton Pickard, showing the enlargemt on the negative. The subject is actually light and airy, but I saw something altogether more dark and sinister and have interpretted it accordingly! Very Ridley Scott and Alien, methinks.

Also this month I took out all the cameras from cabinet one and tested the shutters. Several had died, so I have started the task of bringing them back from the dead. Firstly fettling the finickitty Fenettas, actually this was good, as I have the Finetta 88 working far better than before and the Finetta IV shutter is also much improved. The Kodak Retina II was also very poorly and came apart to have the rangefinder optics cleaned and the very unhappy Compur shutter looked at. It refused to close the shutter leaves and was dismantled entirely. The escapement train in the slow speed mechanism was in a bad way, so I transplanted the left over one from the Rolleiflex restoration. Despite being made 20 years before the Retina's shutter it went right in and works pretty well. During this process a previously un-noticed date scratched into the compur's speed selector ring was found, June 1946. Whilst this can't be regarded as definitive, it would seem about right.

Oh, and I fixed a link on the workshop page that had been directing visitors to the wrong project for months, oops. Sorry.

Firstly, thank you to Mr. M. Hind for a donation to the film fund this month.

Friday 10th Dec. saw a fabulous sunny day blossom in the UK after many days of grey. A quick outing to Durdle Dor with a bunch of the cameras ensued. Here is our Kodak Six-20 model C from 1932 having its turn. Also on the trip were the Halina A1, Thornton Pickard reflex and Praktisix. Nothing processed as yet as I wasn't able to finsh any rolls off. Not confident about the Praktisix either. First roll back after coming back from repair in Germany and it's clearly not advancing the film correctly and the frame counter isn't working either. Usual thing, if you want something done right, do it yourself.

It just remains to wish everyone best wishes for the season, irrespective of your religion, culture, ethnicity or orientation. Be kind to one another, stay safe and healthy.

Image courtesy of N. Baraize.

The Reflex Korelle also had an outing, taken for a ride in Jodel DR105, G-AXLS, cheers John G! Taken through the canopy in less than smooth conditions, here the Korelle has snapped the "Needles" off the western tip of the Isle of Wight at 1/100th sec. at F/8. A punishing subject with all that flat grey sea waiting to betray any unevenness in the recently re-tensioned shutter. The left side now looks to be getting a little darker, a reverse from the previous film, so I have gone a little too far and can take half a turn out of the second curtain tension.

Cameras that have had additional images added this month are:

Agilux Agiflex, Braun Paxette II, Butchers Cameo, Kochman Reflex Korelle B and the Pentacon Praktica VF.

So the main activity at the moment is restoring photographs, a mind numbingly tedious and time consuming task it is too! Every slide is given a thorough dust off and then scanned. No two slides have faded in the same way, it entirely depends on the colours in the slide and how far it was into the storage system, those closer to the front faring worst. Restoration involves digitally editing the colour channels of the slide until it looks about right.

Here is the same slide after restoration.

Thanks go to M. Pendrith and an anonymous donor called "someone" who have made donations to the film fund recently. I currently have earmarked this for a colour 120 through the Agiflex, a colour film through the Praktica VF (a bit of a gamble that one!) and processing for a film through the Paxette.

Owing to the ongoing slide restoration project, I only have a film in the Korelle B at the moment.

The first test film through the KW Pilot Super was developed and a handful of results posted. Well I'm not convinced that the Pilot deserves the "Super" it acquired when developed from the Pilot 6. As suspected - the weight of the glass mirror, shutter tray and rotational mass of the speed selector makes holding the thing still enough all but impossible. From my perspective I was happy enough that the shutter actually worked in a sensible manner and that the speeds suggested by my method for timing shutters held good for this one too. The camera is mechanically as good as it was ever likely to be, the lens less so, eighty years of use and abuse have done it few favours - but the Laack Pololyt wasn't anything special before the scratches eroded whatever quality it once had. Even so it's fun to use, and will see a bit of use yet.

Re-acquaintance with old Travel Companions.

With the major restorations out of the way it's time to start the rolling maintenance tasks. This Gomz Sputnik missed out on a deep clean as it was acquired in the Old Arbat Street market in Moscow during July 2003. It was pressed into service there and then. After seven years being carted around the globe it worked it's way to the back of the camera drawer and sat there still loaded but unused. The last film from it was showing signs of uneven exposure within the stereo pairs, with the left hand side rather overexposed. It finally went into the workshop this week. The problem was the slave shutter opening early, giving a longer exposure. The focus was very stiff with dried grease, so that was all cleaned out and greased again. A thorough clean and focus adjustment, sees it ready for a test film again.

Also the Praktisix has worked to the head of the queue. Some years ago it was tasked to take a photograph using the built in timed release. This jammed the shutter, the mirror wouldn't release and the camera was put aside in the display cabinet for another day. That was around 2005. I had it out of the cabinet recently to see if I could get it working and with some cajoling the first curtain released, but the mirror remained jammed. The second curtain was stuck and when I did get it moving, the tell tale wrinkles from becoming stiff were all too evident. The lens has also dried out and is solid. As this camera is quite complex I have elected to send it to Germany to be repaired, leaving on 1st Feb. and the gentleman in Germany informed me it arrived safely on 5th. In due course I will write up my experience in project 13, tempting fate?

Pampering a Pulverized Pilot.

Seen here is the KW Pilot Super that was acquired a few months back in a job lot of fetid photographic relics. This has entered the workshop for the initial survey, consuming much thought as it has been modified very early in its career. Initially I thought it was just the addition of a flash socket, but I am beginning to think it was for something else. All the components used in the modification are fairly heavy duty and would appear to come from aviation stores. Whoever did the the work was skilled, but it doesn't look like the work of a photographic technician. The remains of the marking out can still be seen, as is the number 4, which hints that there are at least three others. The marking out of the holes to be cut and new holes drilled and tapped suggests that what had to be done was planned in advance, rather than a one off ad hoc conversion. A great deal of effort was expended that entailed dismantling the entire camera. A neat rectangular hole was made and a relay contact arranged to connect when the mirror reached the top of its travel, a corresponding copper contact was riveted to the mirror platten, suggesting that a decent current was expected to flow. This would have created a considerable amount of swarf, but not a trace has been found, confirming that the camera was totally dismantled when this work was done. At the end of the exposure, the circuit remained live, no attempt has been made to break it when, say, the second blind reaches the end of it's travel. It may have been used as a sequence camera, each one triggering the solenoid of the next in sequence, or it may have been a remote camera that lit up a bulb on a control board to let the operator know that camera number 4 had tripped. It could have been used for flash too, with the proviso that the shutter be cocked before connecting the flash, otherwise it would go off instantly you connected it. When this work was carried out the depth of field and extinction meter data plate that was riveted to one side was removed and the rivets hammered flat, the extinction meter was also deleted and the holes neatly disguised. From the wear, it saw considerable use in this form.

After some thought I have decided to retain the modifications in this case, although the option to return it to stock remains should an extinction meter show up. So for now the intention is to restore it to the condition it appears to have spent its working life. Now completed and can be seen in Project 12.

The first thanks for 2021 go to Mr. C Flynn for his donation to the film fund. Technically this arrived at the tail end of last year, but I'd already closed the December news page by then.

Revolting Rolleiflex rescue.

The focus of our attention this month is the rescue of the rotting Old Standard Rolleiflex, documented in Project 11. Being able to spend this amount of time was brought about by our enforced Covid19 lock down here in the UK. Good progress has been made as shown in the newly painted die cast zinc shell seen here after having the Rolleiflex logo painted back in and the second coat of lacquer being allowed to harden off for a few days. The mirror came back from being re silvered and there just remains the parts that are being re nickel plated to be returned from the plater's until all the restored sub assemblies can come together once more.

You can see the progress in Project 11.

It was subsequently finished off and a test film has gone through it already, some of the results can be seen here.

20th anniversary clean

This Ilford Advocate joined the collection in December 2000 and has always been a favourite. It was last out and about in 2008 and was about to be taken out again but I decided it had become a little dusty. The display cabinet is not exactly air tight and dust is drawn in every time it's opened and closed. So it's currently on the bench having a deep clean and service, so far nothing found to be wrong, just the focus helix grease is a little dry, the viewing optics cloudy and things felt a little slack. Checking around I noted that the Science Museum website notes that the casting material is unknown. So I dismantled the camera from the rear casting and removed all fittings. By displacement I gained a 7mm rise in a parallel plastic bottle with internal diameter 80mm, to give a volume of 32.672 cubic centimetres. With such small a volume and the meniscus to deal with, there's likely a bit of error in there. The weight was 85.5g on a calibrated digital scale. This gives an average material density for the rear casting with its enamel finish of 2.62g/cm3. Pure aluminium would be 2.6. The only logical choice of casting metal would be one of the die casting aluminium alloys, typically in the 2.7 range. Given the method to obtain the volume this is well inside the expected error and there are no metals in this density range that would be more likely used. The camera has since been re assembled

Also into the workshop went the Rollei 35S. This fabulous little camera was suffering from a cloudy viewer, so had its lid whipped off and the viewfinder optics given a spruce up. A bit of historic damp had eaten away the wiring to the light meter too, so that was repaired, but the battery is long dead, so it will still be used as a manual next time it ventures out.

Thanks go to Mr. M. Teadham this month for a donation to the film fund. Thank you very much. As yet, not allocated, but I suspect that half of it will go on some rapid fixer as I am down to my last half bottle.

Well that's 2020 done. Not your average year. Stay well and safe everyone, a few more months will see us through.

Tales of terrible tamperings and rivet rot.

Winter has arrived along with further Covid19 restrictions in the UK, so I bought a box of the nastiest most rotten wrecks some ebay seller ever offered to keep me amused. The one that seduced me most was a KW Pilot Super, a camera that has been on the hit list for a while. There's also an early "Old standard" Rolleiflex and a Zeiss 520 Ikonta A, both worth saving. A bonus was a Halina A1 which donated it's nameplate to our example and a very tatty Box Tengor, which will be disposed of.

The Halina was robbed for parts then combined with spares from the parts bin to produce a Frankenstein edition, now on Ebay!

First into the workshop is the Ikonta, seen here. Now this poor old thing (as per the others) has suffered appallingly, but the Ikonta A is the cutest of the breed, and it makes a change to have the Derval shutter, as nice as the Compur shutters are mechanically, the Derval is prettier. The Ikonta has severe rivet rot. I invented this term for the Kodaks of the 1920s that rot around the rivet heads, the different metal of the rivet causes a small electric current where it passes through the aluminium back, any moisture present completes all that is needed for accelerated oxidation. You will see this as bubbling under the leatherette covering. However Zeiss cameras suffer from it spontaneously, rather than just around the rivet heads.

Unchecked, this will eventually eat right through the aluminium. Things hadn't quite got that advanced with this one, but the pits were about quarter of the way through when I removed the covering. The Derval shutter has been overhauled, during which I discovered some terrible tamperings, at some point someone lost the detent spring and associated ball bearing, and inserted a crude bit of rod instead. Ugh. Amazingly, at the bottom of my tub of bits I found a spring and a ball that fitted. It's now a happy Derval. The rest of the camera is being de-wreckified as the lock down continues.

Thank you to Mr. J. Henry (again) and Mr. B. Hermansson for their donation via Buy Me a Film this month. This has been used to buy ten rolls of Foma 120.

The Rolleiflex and the Pilot Super are even worse. The Rolleiflex is so bad, a project page has been created for it. This will be updated as it progresses, as it's likely to be a fairly protracted effort.

Here it is when it arrived, really it's beyond saving, but we are in Covid19 lock down so it will give me something to do. The right hand image shows the shutter speed and aperture setting window as it was being dismantled.

First off, thanks to Mr. M, Teadham and Mr. J. Henry who made donations via the film donation links this month. This has been used to process two colour films for the Agiflex, out of the 24 frames, 23 came out, one I simply forget to shoot. Not all are worth publishing, but I have thinned them down aggressively for the results page. But here's one showing one of my favourite local sites.

Given that the Agiflex was dead on arrival and needed a total strip and new shutter, the camera has settled down nicely to be a reliable performer.

A new arrival this month is another Agilux camera in the form of an Agilux Agifold, this being the first rangefinder version c1950. Cosmetically it was fine as it was but the Agilux shutter was sick. A good clean sorted it out, but it did take a while as it had some surface rust on the various levers and cams. It's not ready for using yet as the rangefinder needs adjustment and the focus checked as all the lens elements were separated during cleaning, but a page has been started for it along with the usual 360 degree view.

A first outing with my homemade telephoto lens for the Ruby Reflex Special was an abject failure. The plates picked up some contamination whilst stored in a transit bag and came out with large blobs all over them. Also revealed was a failed velvet light stop on one of the two "serviceable" plate carriers and some nasty reflections inside the homemade lens barrel which bathed the entire plate in scattered light, this is due to the use of a parallel tube - driven by lack of availability of anything else and simply not enough room. Back to the drawing board for that one, but one image showed promise and I think I can probably insert a light baffle to solve the reflections.

A bit of a change this month. Amongst the myriad bits of old photographica that I have acquired are many negatives. This image of the Reichtag in Berlin was taken around 1946 by a late relative who was part of the occupying forces. The Reichtag was in the British sector. Already damaged by fire before the start of World War 2, it was well and truly ravaged by the time this image was taken in 1946. I've long wanted an excuse to publish it, but haven't been able to definitively identify which of the various family cameras was used for this image, but it was possibly the Ansco No.3 VP.

It's not possible to photograph the Reichtag from this position today, as you'd be in the middle of a hedge.

Turn right and walk a few metres from the position above and you will be in this position for the Brandenburg gate, again taken in 1946 possibly with the Ansco. Apart from the 120 roll film 6 x 9cm format, the image has been taken at waist level, the two pedestrians' eyes are obviously above the viewpoint. The Ansco only has a waist level finder. The original is clear enough to read the sign on the pillar that reads "You are now leaving the British Sector". The gate is liberally spattered with allied bomb shrapnel damage, small arms fire holes, heavy gauge machine gun impacts as well as the large shell hole near the sculpture near the top. The sculpture of Viktoria is blown to pieces, and slumped over her chariot. Later the Berlin wall would sweep in front of the gate making this view impossible for another few decades, the gate itself being in East Berlin. The wall finally fell in November 1989.

Our Zeiss Icarette dating from 1931, before any of the above had happened, was taken to the exact same spot as above to record the scene as it was in 2012. The pillars still bear the scars in the form of the uneven colouration, even though the damage has been repaired.

So that's my excuse for publishing the two interesting old family negatives above.

An image gallery for the Leica III has been added too. As I don't have an appropriate lens for this camera, it generally borrows the lens from the Leica II, but for this gallery I elected to put a Jupiter lens on, borrowed from a Zorki 4K. As the subject material was mostly around Ukraine, it seems fair enough.

Currently the Paxette, Brownie F and Zeiss Ikonta 520 are loaded.

A handful of results for the Zorki 1 have been added. Sadly it has a shutter issue, the second curtain is tripping too early, and is sluggish allowing the first curtain to run away, the result is seen here, with the very dark edge on the left side. I may be possible to sort it out, but the camera is still original and I think I would prefer to keep it that way, rather than renew the curtains in this case. All the same, dark edge included, I quite like this image., and it was the very last one on the roll. Isn't it always the way.

The Leica III has been returned to the cabinet after finishing it's outing, but as the camera was using a coated lens, it was shooting colour reversal in this case. As a general rule, if the lens is coated, I shoot colour, if not - black and white but it's certainly not a hard and fast rule. Still awaiting the processed films back, as I can't process E6 here.

I also adopted a Kodak Brownie Model F this month.

Right now, only the Icarette has a film in it.

The Thornton Pickard Reflex continues to be favoured despite only having two vaguely serviceable plate holders, as betrayed by those four scratches running through the sky. It was a long drive, over 450 mile round trip to expose just two plates on a day when this Avro Lancaster was having one of it's running days. The other plate was fogged. NX611 is a Lancaster B Mk VII, dating from April 1945, which means the Thornton Pickard Reflex was already twenty years old when this Lancaster was shiny and new.

Although NX611 is not airworthy, it is regularly moved under it's own power and as each item comes up for overhaul it is completed to airworthy condition, such that one day it can leave the ground once again. It's a spectacular achievement and in a very period setting, please visit the LAHC for more information and support their efforts.

Two recent arrivals have joined the museum after clearing the workshop, another Russian Leica copy - a Zorki 1 and a development of the same camera, a Zenit 3M.

Apart from the Thornton Pickard, other cameras currently loaded are the Leica III, Zorki 1 and Zeiss Icarette.

Entering the workshop this month is this particularly snotty Robot II, dating from the immediate post war period. It's almost identical to pre war models, presumably making use of the same tooling. The lens serial dates it to 1944, although the camera was certainly made later.

This poor thing is in atrocious condition, corroded throughout and the lens heavily fungus etched. The man made covering can't be saved. It is however making weak attempts to work, and a film found inside it produced some very weak images that showed it was working into the 1970s. It did have both N and T type film canisters within it.

It's going to require an extensive effort to make it presentable, even the badge has corroded to powder on the back. I have published the image here to make it public and so force myself to complete the job. The end result will be little use other than a paperweight though, as the Schneider Kreuznach Xenon lens is severely fungus etched, the surface looking like the sea under a microscope. Quality control at Schneider Kreuznach in 1943/44 was a bit lacking too, as there are two objective lens bubbles inside the f/11 arc.

A full year after new shutter curtains were made for the Thornton Pickard Reflex Special a handful of negatives were exposed in it to test the shutter. The film used was the last of some Ilford FP4 quarter plate cut film, that has lived in the fridge since 1984, one of which is at left. The remainder were on Efke stock. Efke are now sadly defunct.

You can see the camera being rebuilt in Project 6.

The Parvola, rebuilt earlier this year, has had an image gallery started for it now.

The Ensign Focal Plane Reflex has had it's image gallery updated after several years on the shelf.

Further contemporary images from Grandad's DRP have been added to its image gallery too.

This is the sad looking Ihagee Parvola as it arrived last month. A great deal of effort was expended on it as it needed a lot more attention than first thought. The Compur shutter was taken apart completely, for when I got the front off - I have never seen so much debris inside a still working shutter. Quite amazing it was still releasing at all. All the leaves needed taking out and cleaning and both cocking and release pivots were bent. The tatty plating has been left though. There's a little bit of blooming on the lens front element which isn't harmful and the lens is in good order. The leather had been painted at some point to disguise the poor state and the camera had clearly got quite wet at some point. Both of which meant the leather covering needed to be replaced. The approach used for this Parvola was to undo the results of neglect and damage and retain natural wear, then return functionality. The Parvola was also used to try out a new method of making leather impression stamps for the Ihagee logos, this is documented in Project 7 on the workshop pages.

The camera has now has its own entry on the museum pages after it's restoration/conservation treatment. It is currently loaded with a roll of our diminishing stock of 127 roll film, so let's hope all is well with it.

One of our long term residents, an Ensign Focal Plane Roll Film Reflex (crikey, that's a mouthful - no wonder they renamed it the Speed Reflex), recently went into the workshop (yet again!) as we found a donor to supply all the parts it needed. Viewing hood springs, correct shutter selector catch, undamaged top housing with better leather in the hatch, neater lens cover, a handful of screws and a usable carrying case. Other than that the donor's innards had all but rusted away.

This contemporary image from 1938 shows one Trevor Edmund Thomas, on the shore at Weston-Super-mare. At this time Trevor was the owner of our Graflex 1A. We know this as he had written both his name and two addresses in the back of the camera. Although faint and confused with scratches and wear, a bit of research in the census found a name of a surviving relative, to whom we wrote in May 2018. The fabulous outcome is this image. The lady I wrote to is Dorothy, the little girl in this picture. Behind her is her father, Trevor and we also see his wife Olive and their son Arthur. It would appear that this image is reunited with the camera that took it almost eighty years to the day.

Very much of the era, it's a very warm summer day, sunny but hazy looking roughly easterly. Trevor is dressed in a full suit and waistcoat, a tie and neatly folded handkerchief. Wherever possible we like to show images known to have been taken by each camera, contemporary ones especially so. So I'd like to express my thanks to everyone who helped resolve the evidence trail that lead to the address, and Dorothy and her daughter Vanessa for finding and allowing me to publish this picture.

Additional images added to the image gallery for the 1934 Kodak retina model 117.

In November 2017 the old Kodak Retina, now 83 years old and, you might think, overdue for retirement - was despatched on what would turn out to be almost a world tour. The camera was taken from the display case, given the briefest of checks entailing a quick look for holed bellows and a visual test of the shutter, two films were grabbed from the fridge and off it went. In the next 6 months it was subjected to temperature ranges of -10 to +33c. Altitudes up to 11,000ft and about 30 airport x-rays. Of the 70 frames exposed, 58 are usable. The exposures mixed on those two films ranged from night time long exposures to insane cold, high altitude and sun so bright it made your eyes hurt. Both films were then developed together in the same tank in multi-shot ID11. What could possibly go wrong!

Workshop activity is continuing with the Ensign Focal Plane Reflex having a fairly extensive overhaul, the Thornton Pickard Ruby reflex needs new velvet light seals in the plate carrier and I have been collecting together the materials and information for a total rebuild of an Ihagee Parvola wreck, this will entail new leather work and pressing logos into the covering when finished. I am developing a new method to replace the way I have been doing it for many years, documented in Project 1. This will be written up in due course and added to the workshop pages.

The view from my mountain hideaway as the sun went down on February 28th 2018, so just about okay for inclusion. This was taken with the trusty and quite battered Pentax K-X. I also used the Kodak Retina 117 for a similar shot, but that will have to wait.

The mountains are the Trans Ala tau, but I don't think anyone will be able to track me down from this angle.

But here's some weird, very obscurely related photography related news. Okay, that is pushing it somewhat, but I am struggling to find anything to write! Amongst my innumerable interests, I occasionally like to play with drawing or painting, as well as a bit of writing.

I recently completed a book entitled OF OUR OWN DEMISE and wanted to do the cover illustration. Now the subject of the book has nothing to do with photography, so I will not go into it here. But I elected to draw the image as a negative, exactly as you see here. As a creator, when I draw normally, I can see the progress that my efforts are taking, adjusting and modifying as I go. But I decided for this, the creator would have control but the final outcome couldn't be entirely known.

"The creator does not have total dominion, but absolute interest."

The final outcome would not be known until the image was "processed", in this case digitally inverted. It was interesting as there's a strong parallel with taking a photograph and seeing the film for the first time as it exits the developing tank. I was very strict with myself, I drew it once, when I was happy with the negative, I had it scanned and then flipped the negative in good old "Photoshop". The result was pretty much as I wanted, but seeing it for the first time was a joy normally denied me.

If you are curious as to the finished image, click here!

My place of employment for over 30 years. Draper Tools Ltd, from Early 1987 until October 2017. I enjoyed my time there, felt valued and I think I must have worked with almost everyone to a greater or lesser degree during my stay. Although Draper's were fabulous and everyone from the Chairman, John Draper, down were sorry to see me go, I think 30 years is enough.

in 1998 this photograph was taken with the collection's Williamson WF117A aerial camera on one of a very few outings for it. This was taken by a friend using the Williamson from the right hand seat of C172 G-BHCC as we passed by back in 1998.

The head Office building stands out well in the town of Chandler's Ford. It was also well positioned as a good marker to start the run in to Right Base leg for runway 20 at Southampton Airport, back in the days I could fly in there. You'd never see a Cessna 172 in there today, it's wall to wall Flybe Bombardier Q400s.

Cameras wise, I'd long been cooking up ideas about making new shutter blinds, and have put quite a few in over the years. Some years back I bought some new shutter cloth from Micro Tools, but was a bit dismayed with it, as it was far too thick for the Ensign Speed reflex that it was intended for. But that's all I could get so I used it and adapted the camera to take into account the extra bulk of the cloth. Earlier this year I went to use the Ensign again but it was dead. Accordingly I thought it was time to take it all to pieces and make my own cloth to the correct thickness, as I had hatched a plan to make my own cloth and an experiment suggested I was on the right track. I had hoped the original Micro Tools cloth had degraded as it was well over a decade old. Alas no, when I stripped the camera the problem was easily resolved, so I just elected to fix the issue and move on. But I felt cheated! I had this idea in my head, and I simply had to give it a go. So I went on a hunt for a camera with a nice big cloth shutter that was in need of replacement. It didn't take long. It was advertised as a Butcher's Reflex camera. It was unmarked in any way, but with a Butcher's Aldis Anastigmat. Butcher's were notorious in not marking their cameras, as they had a history of just importing them "off the shelf" from Germany prior to the First World War and then having Houghtons Ltd. in London make them when the German supply kind of became inconvenient. So unmarked cameras from Butcher's are not at all uncommon. It didn't quite look right though. But no matter, the camera was just what I wanted, externally and cosmetically is was fine as it was, but the shutter curtains were totally ruined. Perfect.

So I put my long awaited idea to make new shutter curtain material into action, and am pleased with the outcome. I wanted to make my own as I needed control over the thickness of the finished material and I had rejected the methods I that others have posted online as being unsuitable. One method I've seen involves painting cloth with acrylic paint on one side, but it doesn't produce the soft pliable low drag result of the original material.

Anyway, the method I cooked up can be seen in Project 6, and the restored camera, which actually turned out to be a Quarter Plate, Thornton Pickard, Junior Special Ruby Reflex can be seen in the museum pages.

Sadly with all the changes of recent weeks, any thoughts of using the cameras is on hold for a few months.

The camera I chose for this attempt was the Ensign Selfix 220, a 1950s era 120 roll film camera.

Mainly because I hadn't got around to publishing any images with it. Now the Selfix is nothing special, with a fairly average lens and self energizing shutter, with a harsh action, making camera shake a very real likelihood. My attempts to make colour images with this camera, mimic those of the earliest attempts, that is three separate exposures through coloured filters, first Red, then Green and then Blue are made on black and white film, then processed as usual. Originally, these were then made into positives, then each image was projected via it's own projector through the same filter to be coincident on a screen. This later part is done digitally here, by scanning each negative and then putting it in the appropriate channel in Photoshop - but it's much the same process, just easier as it avoids having to get three projectors working together.

The camera needs to be tripod mounted, and the filters I used were fairly dense needing a three stop increase in exposure. The camera had a bit of an issue with frame spacing, the result is the colour bands down the sides of the image, which enhances it no end.

The subject is the Hydrangea in my garden, which cannot make a decision as to be blue or pink, so invariably does a half and half.

The first film, a Foma 100, went through the Reflex Korelle and has been processed. All told I am quite pleased that the old Korelle got to celebrate it's 80th birthday with a film. The B model is far from the best of the Korelles, but I enjoyed getting it to work and I am reasonably pleased with the results from the first attempt. The one at left is a small part of the very first picture from the first roll from the rejuvenated Korelle B. The only issue may be the first curtain out accelerating the second by a fraction, though this is hard to tell, so I will wait and see what the faster shutter speeds show up, also one film roller is a little sticky which has made some tiny scratches on the emulsion, but this ought to be easily cured. The camera itself is completely light tight without a hint of fogging or streaking, which makes a very pleasant change for once. A few more frames from this first film can be seen in the camera's image gallery,

Grandad's old DRP was given what will be it's final outing. 90 years after Gramps bought it, his daughter was photographed by his Grandson with the 1927 DRP.