What’s old is new again

Unless you have been in a cabin in the woods without internet access, you have no doubt seen all of the hoopla about simple-use  and single-use cameras.  Several podcasts (All Through a Lens and the FPP) have had dips into the world of disposable cameras. 

Kodak's latest

Isn’t it funny that here in the year 2021, soon to be 2022, there is this amazing dichotomy: a huge emphasis in the digital world on mirrorless cameras with ever-pricier lenses that seem to be getting larger all the time, and the film community with announcements about cheap plastic simple cameras, and the Kodak price hikes.  Of course, it’s not quite that simple a divergence, but my point is that at what point does the  path to doing meaningful photography become a choice in spending $10,000 or more to feel that you have have the lens/camera that will FINALLY  allow you to capture great images?  That’s not including the high-end computer  necessary to process the thousands of frames you shot at the park yesterday, and never-mind the fact that you only post them somewhere in the digital realm for others to see.   Meanwhile, some person mucking around with their Holga got a magazine cover.  That’s so unfair.  

Konica B&W from early 2000s

Yes, I am being satirical here, but the truth is that how much the equipment costs does not equal great photographs or meaningful images. You can have a 20 x 30 inch colorful photograph that was shot with the latest and greatest technology, and it can be soulless wall art.  Or not. Great images depend on the person holding the camera making that exposure.  It doesn’t matter if the camera is a one-time use Kodak with Tri-X film, a Leica MP, a Rolleiflex, a Canon A-1, Olympus XA, Nikon F4, a battered Pentax Spotmatic that you bought for $10, or a $2500 mirrorless outfit.  The photo is made between the ears.  

Why is it that young people are wanting to shoot film?  It definitely isn’t perfect. Things don’t always come out the way that you thought they would.  It takes chemicals to process the film, and it’s expensive to send rolls to a lab.  Yet, they persist, because film has captured their imagination.  It’s okay to have serendipity, to have a mistake turn into a successful image.  Using a camera that is always ready because it has no batteries to charge, no start-up delay, and requires only that you, the person using it, has some creative impulse to satisfy.  Even a lowly one-time use camera can be used, within its limitations, to take interesting and meaningful images.  

From an Agfa LeBox dispo camera.

There is something about using a Nikon F with just its plain prism that I am sure the digital folks just won’t get.  That is, the ability to always choose exactly what I want to shoot at. There is no mini-computer telling me what the histogram should be, asking what digital effect would I like, whether or not the person is smiling in face detection, etc. Photography should not have to be about those things.  What do you feel?  What do you see?  How does the scene before you affect you?   How will you commit it to a piece of acetate with a coating of silver salts and dyes?  

As we approach the end of 2021, and I look back on over two decades of committing myself to becoming a photographer, I see how I have changed in my approach and my expectations, and choice of subjects.  In the beginning, I wanted to be able to take really good macro shots of insects, because that was the realm within which I worked.  Along the way, I learned a lot by reading, and shooting hundreds of transparencies, because that’s what the nature pros did.  Slide film.  Just when I got pretty good at it, digital SLRs started to appear, and they became a tool that I used in my work, and made my museum work all the better because of the immediacy and how the images are used. 

Magicicada septendecim, May, 2004

But that work world was different from the creative world that I embraced with film cameras.  In that world, lay the myriad paths one could take, depending on types of film, type of camera, format, type of lens, or not lens (pinhole), genre, type of darkroom process, etc.  In other words, film photography is a rich environment that never stops being capable of teaching us things. You don’t need to spend much to get into the club, and in the film world, everyone has a seat at the table.  From one-time use cameras to wet-plate, from pinhole to Leitz Summicrons, from Kodak Gold 100 to Ilford Ortho 80.    In short, the film world offers creative possibilities that will often lead one to paths that they never knew existed.

Bill Schwab, 2008 and his wet plates

So, this season, buy a kid a Kodak, Lomo, or Harman simple-use camera and see what happens.  Be ready to have an old Pentax or Canon or Nikon to loan or give away once the thrill kicks in.

(Note: Do not take this post as a rant against digital photography.  It's not.)

Cheapest Entry into Panoramas, circa 1990s

Kodak's line of 35mm single-use "disposable" cameras  began in 1988, and the branding of them as "Fun Saver" started in 1989.  They featured a plastic body with a cardstock outer shell, and like the Fuji QuickSnap, were popular with consumers well into the digital age.  They may have been inexpensive, but the production of cheap, yet sharp acrylic lenses combined with an f/11 aperture and 400 ISO film usually resulted in acceptable photos for the consumer.  In the 1989, a cropped panorama (13x36mm negative image) model appeared, called the Kodak Stretch which featured a simple finder and 12 exposures. It was renamed the Kodak Fun Saver Panoramic 35, which was produced until 1999.  The last iteration of the Fun Saver Panorama 35 featured 15 exposures, and a viewfinder that provided a relatively accurate view of the scene. Combined with a rectangular lens hood and a 25mm f/12 lens, the camera  made acceptable color panoramic images of those vacation spots to countless tourists.  They sold for about $12-$15 at the time.  The fact that all of the images on the roll were the same format made it easier for photo labs to produce the panoramic prints.  It wasn't until the appearance of the APS film format in 1996 that consumer-grade panoramic photos would once again become popular, even though they were based on an even smaller image area than the 13x36 of 35mm. 

The first version was named "Stretch 35"

Final version, late 1990s.  

I acquired a Fun Saver Panoramic 35 about 6 years ago and it sat on a shelf - I don't even recall whether I had removed the original film and processed it.  After our move to NC it was in a box, and earlier this year I decided to open it up and reload it with Ilford XP-2 film.  

While these cameras are reloadable, they are not like the Lomography Simple-Use camera or the Harman 35. They were meant to be reloaded in the factory,  so you will need to disassemble the camera before you can reload it.  The paper box covers over most of the workings of the camera, with access only for the shutter button, frame number, viewfinder, film advance, and lens.  To remove it from the box, you need to remove the lens shade, which is held in place by two prongs.   Once you remove the lens shade, the camera slides out of the cardstock box covering.  

To open up the camera, look for an embossed label on the side and insert a small screwdriver a small screwdriver to pop the back open.  You'll see that the film cassette is on the take-up side, and the supply side is an empty spool.  You'll need to go into a darkroom or use a changing bag to roll film onto the supply spool and then place the two ends back into the body and close it up.  It works better with hand reloads, because the film counter only goes to 15, and if you have a 24 exposure roll of film, it will not expose the remaining frames.  I suggest either Ilford XP-2, Kentmere 400, Kodak Tri-X, or Fomapan 400.  

You'll need to reset the frame counter by slightly lifting the clear top cover away and rotate the frame counter disk counter clockwise until 15 shows up in the raised window.  You will not be able to take any photos without doing this. You should do this before you load the film into the camera.

Once those steps are done, reattach the back - it should snap into place without too much effort.  You may want to super glue the lens hood in place because one of the prongs will have probably lost a tooth when you removed it.

Use some black paper tape to seal along the edges, just to avoid a light leak. Now you are ready to shoot with this fun little camera.

I did all these things before I found out about the wonderful panoramic images done with this camera by Deon Reynolds on The Darkroom web site.  Reynolds adds a yellow filter to get more contrast with the sky when he uses a black and white film, such as Kodak Tri-X. Remove the pano mask and insert the gel filter right behind the lens and replace the mask. His images are really good, and will make you rethink what disposable cameras can do. 

The following images were shot on expired Ilford XP-2, developed in D-76.

So, my first attempts with my reloaded Fun Saver Pano were pretty good. I shot mostly along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville NC, with a few shots at the end of the roll from New Jersey. I have to say that I was impressed.  The key thing here is that the Fun Saver Pano 35 has a 25mm f/12 lens, which is perfect for the format.  You want a wide-angle in panoramic format, to get the most of the effect. 

I picked up two more empty Fun Saver Panoramic 35's for $1 plus shipping on eBay, so now I have three to take on my next road trip.