Camera Conversion

Before I ran out of room, I used to collect old cameras and being a mechanical type of guy, I like to make them serviceable . Many old cameras take obsolete film types so unless your pretty handy or willing to spend considerable money on film, they pretty much gather dust on the shelf.

The Kodak Duaflex (top left) is a cute little twin lens box camera that takes 620 film. 620 is basically the same as 120 only the reel it comes on is a little narrower. You can roll 120 onto 620 reels in total darkness or you can make an arbor like the one in the photo, chuck it up in your lathe and turn the flanges of the 120 reel while the film is on it. Once you've got the tooling squared away, it's a 5 minute job to convert 120 to 620. Lot's of cameras used 620 film by the way.

The big folder used 116 film originally. I converted it to take 120 film by machining up some spacers for the ends of the reels and a mask for the inside of the camera. It now takes 2-1/4" x 3-1/4" negatives. The only tricky part of the whole conversion was moving the red window in the back of the camera to get it to line up with the numbers on the film. It takes really good pictures. The lens is nice and sharp and the ball bearing shutter still works really well even though it's about 90 years old. The bellows have a few light leaks but the hockey tape I put on them seems to do the trick. This camera was pretty beat up on the outside or I wouldn't have messed with it. If you have a really nice old folder, I wouldn't recommend carving it up.

The Kodak Brownie Holiday camera takes 127 film and that film is still available. It's a little pricey but if you want to take pictures, spend the $5.00 and get a roll. The one shown has film in it now and if I get some decent images, maybe I'll print out a couple and scan them in.

The bottom line here is that even though digital imaging is the wave of the future, darkroom photography still can be a lot of fun. If you like to tinker, you can figure out how to use these old cameras and make some nice snapshots. If you want to get in a little deeper, you can pursue some of the alternative methods such as albumen prints and ferrotypes. You don't need to invest a lot of money. Just a little time in research and some basic photo developing equipment and you're in business. The internet is loaded with photographic info and there are books galore about every possible area of photography that might strike your fancy. Lindsay Publishing offers quite a few photography books along with many other subjects that appeal to the tinkerer. The prices are very reasonable and shipping is a bargain as well.