It all started with the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024. I decided it would be fun to make a small pinhole camera to photograph the eclipse as it occurred. I already had a viewing box made with a pinhole in it, so a camera seemed like an easy addition.
A small electronics box, a bit of cardboard and aluminum foil (for the pinhole) and… a piece of black and white film. I’m glad to live in a city that has a camera store that is still open! They have black and white film, and paper. So, I picked up a few rolls of 125 ASA 120 medium format film and a box of Ilford paper.
I asked the clerk if they do developing, and she said they could send out rolls to a lab but that they also have developing supplies. I said I wasn’t ready to go down that road, but thanked her for the information. Foreshadowing much?
Here’s my pinhole camera, I still have not gotten the film it contains developed.
Being who I am, I thought, “could I make my own film developer at home and develop this little piece of film from the pinhole camera?” I then found instructions for caffenol developer – instant coffee crystals, vitamin C, and washing soda – dissolved in room temperature water. That was it.
Since I now had medium format film, I found I could get a cheapo HOLGA medium format camera from Amazon that comes with another roll of film in a kit. This seemed perfect for being under $50 for a camera and film. It’s about the cheapest thing I could find that was medium format and was a new camera.
I took my HOLGA point-and-shoot plastic camera on a couple of trips and messed up the 4×6 and 6×6 winding positions on my first roll so that my photos all overlapped with double-exposed edges. I developed the film in caffenol and could not believe it worked. I didn’t have any fixer – although I tried too short of a bath in salt water. Still, I had developed my first medium format negatives.
I knew that somehow 35mm film was going to be in my future, because it’s too easy to get ahold of and use. I don’t have a 35mm camera anymore, though.
Fast forward to today, May 4, 2024. I now have a darkroom setup with caffenol and FX-55 developer, citric acid stop bath and rapid fix bath. I have acquired an old Minolta X-700 that was “as-is” on eBay for $30. Its mirror was stuck flipped-up, and I found thanks to geniuses on YouTube, that I could adjust the winder idler gear and low-and-behold, the camera’s shutter went from being half open and mirror stuck, to winding and opening fully normally.
It feels so good to get an item that arrives essentially DOA, and after a couple hours of “research” on YouTube and the Internet to have fixed it! A few small screws removed, a bit of adjustment of a small gear-set, some lubricant, put it back together and voila, it works!
The X-700 was a camera I always wanted! Its program mode and aperture preview features make it a great crossover camera for amateurs to pros. All this would be bad enough, but I also got a Minolta XG-7 that was “as-is” and just needed some Deoxit treatment and came to life. I really want to do some medium format photography though, and make hand-held size contact prints from that large-ish film. So… I have also gotten a Rolfix 6×9 medium format camera from 1951 that had “sticky shutter” problems. Deoxit on the shutter and self timer mechanisms took care of those issues. A little bit of TLC, and I have three quality cameras for under $150.
The bulk reel of film and box of empty cassettes is on the way. I’m planning to build an enlarger out of a magnifying glass, some luan, and a small lamp. It’s a good thing the next major eclipse is decades away, goodness knows I don’t need a Hasselblad… or do I?
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