The Zeiss Ikon Days - part 5.

Now the fifth and last part of the Zeiss Ikon Days, where I also used my Zeiss Ikon pinhole camera in combination with a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod and the 496RC2 compact ball head.
The film I used was the AgfaPhoto APX 100. I used to determine the exposure time with the Ilford Pinhole Exposure Calculator. They were six minutes indoor and eight seconds outdoor.
Everything went very good until the 19th frame as the camera made problems with the transport of the film. The result was that the film ripped. At home I tried to get the film back into the cartridge, which was a delicate matter. But I managed it somehow. After this mess I was lucky that the labor developed the film. It took a little, but here are five of seven pictures which survived this little experiment...

Well, I think I still have to refine a little bit the pinhole camera for the next time.

DIY Pinhole Camera

It's some years ago I made for the last time something with pinhole cameras. First I built the Dacora Obscura, which was the ultimative letdown. Just one picture was okay. Then I built some "pinhole lenses", which were really good, but the results weren't what I expected.
After these experiences I lost the pleasure to make more with pinholes.

But some days ago I found at Ebay a Zeiss Ikon Contina Ia (type 526/24) without lens and shutter, it was just the camera body and the old leather bag.

picture from the ebay seller

picture from the ebay seller

Because of this the camera was very cheap and instantly when I saw it I had the idea to make a pinhole camera out of it. Therefore I bought it. 
The Contina arrived today and I attached an old 48mm Rollei lens cap to the camera. The lens cap perfectly matched. After this I measured the focal length, which is 45mm and used the pinhole size calculator to determine the diameter of the hole. Then I made with a needle a tiny hole in the middle of the lens cap.

Focal length: 45mm
Diameter: 0.283mm
fStop: 159
Image circle: 86,4mm 

I hope I can soon show photos taken with this new DIY pinhole camera.

The PRAKTIsche CAmera present.

I like a lot Praktica cameras! At this moment I have got seven of them from three different series:
Praktica F.X3 blue
Porst FX4 (Praktica PL nova I series)
Praktica super TL (Praktica PL nova I series)
Porst CX4 (Praktica L series - 1st generation)
Praktica LTL3 black speed (Praktica L series - 2nd generation)
Revue ML (Praktica L series - 4th generation)

My Praktica super TL + Praktica nova 1B of my girlfriend

Now I got my eighth Praktica, a Praktica BMS, which came with a vintage AKO camera bag as a present from my girlfriend! :)

picture from the dawanda seller

The BMS is from the Praktica B line with manual speed shutter control, "the camera for conservative individualists which never deliver her experience to a machine" (source). Well, I'm not a conservative person, but an individualist one, therefore it's the right camera for me!

picture from the ebay seller

Here the BMS is coming in a typical LOCOstgraphy setup:

_Praktica BMS - 23,80 € (incl. 3,90 € postage) - Analog Lounge (Ebay)
_Beroflex MC Auto 4-5.6/70-210mm + lens caps - 5,- € - Kruschtlmarkt Durlach
_Nikon HS-4 lens hood - 0,50 € - Déjà-vu Karlsruhe
_Tokina Sky filter - 0,50 € (convolute) - Kruschtlmarkt Durlach
_Camera metal strap - 1,- € (convolute) - Kashka Karlsruhe
_Metz 30B3 flash - 4,50 € (convolute) - Kruschtlmarkt Durlach
_Metz flash filter blue - 0,50 € (convolute) - Mimapi Altertümchen Cologne
_AKO vintage camera bag - 15,90 € (incl. 5,90 € postage) - giba Vintage (Dawanda)
 
Sum Total: 51,70 €

films:
_Fujicolor C200 (expired 02/2015) double pack - 3,99 € -  Zeitreise Oldenburg (Ebay)
_Agfacolor XRG200 (expired 09/2006) double pack -  4,80 € - Ebay
_DM Paradies 200 triple pack - 9,- € - Foto Dinter Durlach


I'll use the setup for the second part of Colorize your flash. After I used the red and green filter, I'll use now the blue one.

Screw the circle on!!!

In August I bought at the Mimapi Altertümchen in Cologne a Skylite auxiliary video telephoto lens 1.5x for some euros.

But the screw mount of the auxiliary lens was very tiny, just 46mm, too small for my lenses. Therefore I had to find some kind of adapter to use it with some of my lenses. I found an old plastic ring, perhaps an old lens filter, but without the glass, which was at the Chinon-made Revuenon 1.7/55mm lens. The filter screw of this lens is 52mm. I glued the plastic ring and the 46mm ring of the auxiliary lens with loctite together and everything works perfect.

If you attach it to the Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens, which also has a 52mm filter thread, it makes (because of the factor 1.5x) a 42mm lens out of it. But of course, the aperture also changes with the factor 1.5x, therefore an aperture of 3.5 becomes a 5.25 (~5.6).

Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens + auxiliary video telephoto lens

Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens + auxiliary video telephoto lens

But the auxiliary lens creates a strong edge cover, because it isn't for wideangle lenses, but for a focal length of 50mm or something else. The edge cover on the pictures looks like the effect of for example the Lomo Fisheye, which creates circular photos. The combination of the Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens and the auxiliary video telephoto lens also creates this circular picture, but without the distortion of a fisheye lens.


First three pictures of my Nikon Girl without the auxiliary lens:

And now with the auxiliary lens:

Colorize your flash...

Some years ago I used Ilford Multigrade Filter Kits in combination with a flash.The results were really cool, therefore when I saw the Metz flash filter set I bought it to create once more cool effects with flashin' colors.

First I've used the red filter in combination with the Bauer E528ABS flash at my Porst CX 4 with the Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens (the setup like on the photo above) on ISO 200 colorfilm. I flashed indirectly upwards.

Then I've used the green filter in combination with the Bauer E528ABS flash at my Porst CX 4 with the Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens on ISO 400 colorfilm. Once more I flashed indirectly upwards.

Ich bin ein Motiv!!!

"Ich bin ein Motiv" - "I am a motive" was some years ago the slogan by Konica. Some days ago I found a sheet with stickers with this slogan at the Mimapi Altertümchen in Cologne and of course I bought it. One of the stickers I taped on the Porst CX 4, a export version of the Praktica LB, which I bought last month at the fleamarket at the Rheinufer in Cologne.

But I bought more stuff in the last time and here we go with a new part of the LOCOstgraphy style.
First I bought at the fleamarket at the Rheinufer in Cologne the Porst CX 4 with the Porst 1.4/55mm lens and a camera bag from the 1970s for 20 Euro. Later on the same fleamarket I bought the Ringfoto 3.5/28mm lens for 5 Euro.
Some days later I was once more in the social secondhand store Kashka in Karlsruhe. There I bought the Revuenon 1.4/55mm and the Porst Tele 2.8/135mm lenses for 15 Euro together.
Then I was at the ZKM during the KAMUNA, where was a table with things for free. There I found a Kodak EK 8 instant camera and a Bauer E528ABS flash.
And in the last days I was once more in Cologne where I was at the Mimapi Altertümchen and there I bought the filter set for flashes from Metz with the original case for 3 Euro, a mechanical self-timer with the original case for 1 Euro and the sheet with the Konica stickers for 1 Euro.
In sum I paid 45 Euro for everything and of course, everything works perfectly!

The LOCOstgraphy style part2 - new old stuff...

I'm back in Germany since May and I just took my Praktica LTL3 with Helios 44M-4 2/58mm, the Revuenon Special 2.8/135mm, the Tron flash, the Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, the Leitz Elmarit-R 2.8/35mm, a M42-EOS and a LeicaR-EOS adapter (both from quenoX), the digital EOS stuff, some 35mm- and pocket-films and my two Lowepro bags (Nova 5 AW and Orion Trekker II) with me from Brazil.

In the last days I just bought some new old stuff here in Germany and, of course, I did it in the real locostgraphy style (see part1 here)!  Like at the Durlacher Kruschtlmarkt flea market in Karlsruhe Durlach, the Oxfam store and the Mimapi Altertümchen, both in the wonderful Südstadt of Köln, where my beautiful girl friend lives, and at the two social secondhand stores the Kashka and the Déjà-vu, both in Karlsruhe.
The wonderful fact to buy old photo equipment at flea markets and thrift stores in Germany is, that you can buy good stuff, which already works, for a good and fair price! I also was at a well known photo store in Köln to buy a wonderful Zeiss Ikon Contaflex for a relatively high price, but it didn't work and the dealer was very astonished that I even want to use it. Of course I didn't buy the Contaflex, because I don't want an expensive dust catcher! ;)

I just bought some cool SLRs:
_ Revue ML (a labeled Praktica MTL5)
_ Revueflex 3000 SL (a labeled Chinon CX)
_ Praktica Super TL
_ Revue X4-M (a labeled Mamiya ZE-X)

Black Bone III + Black Bone II

But my main focus at the moment is to buy M42 prime lenses, which I can adapt at the digital EOS. Therefore I bought the following lenses:
_ Chinon 2.8/28mm
_ Schacht Edixa-Travenar-A 2.8/50mm
_ Steinheil Auto-Cassaron 2.8/50mm (@ Praktica Super TL)
_ Revuenon Auto MC 1.8/50mm (a labeled Pentacon / Meyer Optik Görlitz, @ Revue ML)
_ Revuenon 1.7/55mm (a labeled Chinon, @ Revueflex 3000 SL)
_ Schacht Edixa-Travenar-R 2.8/85mm
_ Revuenon Special 2.8/135mm
_ Rexatar 5.6/300mm
_ 2x Revue Auto Tele Converter 2x

Then I also bought three other cool cameras:
_ Olympus µ[mju:]
_ Minolta AL-F
_ Kodak pocket instamatic 100

Further I bought some other stuff:
_ Revuenon 3.5/135mm (a labeled Enna München, with M39 Zenit screw mount)
_ Auto Revuenon MCF 1.4/50mm (a labeled Mamiya Sekor-EF 1.4/50mm lens) + Auto Revuenon MCE 4.5/80-205mm (a labeled Osawa lens) both with Mamiya ZE bayonet and which came with the Revue X4-M
_ Metz Mecablitz 30B3 flash
_ Revue Tron C30S flash
_ Lowepro Nova 1
_ Holiday 80s style photo bag

Totally I've paid 193 Euro for all this new old stuff!

And at the end of the post two pictures taken with the EOS Rebel XSi (450D) and the Chinon 2.8/28mm with crop factor it's a 44.8mm (the 1st picture) and the Revue 1.8/50mm with crop factor it's a 80mm (the 2nd picture):

FOCUS LATIN AMERICA: ART IS OUR LAST HOPE - MailArt project

I've participated at the MailArt project FOCUS LATIN AMERICA: ART IS OUR LAST HOPE by the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA.
The exhibition started today and will be on view through November 23 in the Orientation Room of the museum.
Also the exhibition will be at the MonOrchid Gallery, 214 East Roosevelt Street, Phoenix, USA from December 5, 2014 to January 12, 2015.

Here the wonderful text about the project:

Mail art has a rich and varied history in Latin America. Arte correo (and arte correio) began in the region in the mid-1960s with the pioneering efforts of such key figures as Edgardo Antonio Vigo, Graciela Gutiérrez-Marx, and León Ferrari in Argentina; Clemente Padín in Uruguay; Guillermo Deisler in Chile (and later Bulgaria); Dámaso Ogaz in Venezuela; Manuel Marín, Pedro Friedeberg and Felipe Ehrenberg in Mexico; and Leonhard Frank Duch, Unhandeijara Lisboa, and Paulo Bruscky in Brazil, to name just a few. On the occasion of the exhibition Paulo Bruscky: Art Is Our Last Hope at Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona, Vanessa Davidson and John Held Jr. are co-curating a mail art exhibition entitled Focus Latin America. Centered around the theme “art is our last hope,” the curators seek to revive dialogue about the challenges facing artists living in Latin America and the utopian projects they have historically undertaken to fuse artistic practice with social engagement. Created in 1983, Bruscky’s artwork Art Is Our Last Hope was envisioned as a billboard piece consisting solely of those five words. How have art and life in Latin America changed since he issued that proclamation? What meanings does this notion engender in Latin America in the 21st century?

Here a picture of the exhibition, my postcard is in the red circle (at the left of the picture):

Copyright © by Phoenix Art Museum

I've sent in the palimpsest "A021 do brasil" which I showed at the Colmeia 2013 event in Blumenau, Brasil.
See it here at the tumblr of the project.

4° Evento de Arte Correo en el MAC - MailArt project

MailArt is coming!!!
Once more I've participated at an Argentinian MailArt project, now at the 4° Evento de Arte Correo en el Museo de Arte Cañadense (MAC) by Rosa Gravino, Cañada de Gómez, Argentina.
There will be an exhibition at the Museo de Arte Cañadense (MAC) in September 2015.
Here my postcard at the page:

Yes, it's one of the original xylography palimpsests which I made two years ago.

A mini circular frame

Today I made a mini frame out of a glass sheet from a broken table lamp. The diameter of the glass is 5,5cm.
As background I made a circular wooden sheet in the diameter 7,5cm.
To fix the both sheets I've used the original screws and metal sheets from the lamp.
The hanging system is provisional, but it works.

The picture is a 9x13cm c-print, which I cut. Now it is also circular and has got the same diameter like the glass sheet.