And So It Begins

 

I put a new battery in the bicycle speedometer and then took the bike out for its maiden voyage of the year. Obviously I didn't go all that far, 6.5 miles, but it's a good beginning. It was humid and a little windy, and there are some different muscles involved riding the old Raleigh compared to the commuter. I'll try to get out every day, weather permitting, and increase the mileage, working towards being able to do the 40 miler in about a month. There's a 41 miler at the end of August Coach Jen and I did a couple of years ago. Whether or not I'm able to do the earlier 40 miler, I should be able to do the 41 miler and then a 50 miler in October. Doing a 50 miler or a metric century is my goal for the year.

Since the Rolfix Jr broke, and I like using a folding camera, I drug this one off the shelf. It's in relatively good condition, the lens is clear and the shutter seems to work well. There is one small hole in the bellows but a piece of hockey tape took care of that. It has shutter speeds of 25, 50 and 100th of a second. The lens is slow with the largest aperture being only f 6.3, but it closes down to f 32.  However, those settings are plenty good enough for outdoor daylight photography. It has the 6 x 9 format, giving 8 shots on a roll of 120 film. 

The camera was designed to use 620 roll film rather than 120, but that size is obsolete. The only difference between the two sizes is the length of the reels the film is wound on. 620 is narrower, so some photographers will reroll the 120 onto a 620 reel. I made an arbor for my lathe so I can thin the ends of the reel to match the overall width of the 620 reel. That's the arbor in the foreground of the picture above. 

I "machined" a roll of the 120 yesterday and loaded it into the camera, so I'm ready to start shooting. The roll of film is 2 years out of date, but I don't think that'll matter. Black & white isn't too fussy, unlike color films are. I have some out-of-date color film that may or may not be serviceable, but I don't think there's any place around me that even does color developing any more. All of my color photography is done with my phone anyway. I do have a roll of exposed color film I'd like to know what's on it, however.

There's supposed to be break in the heat this week so I'm hoping to get some work done both outside and in the shop.