Dobrý Den!

Czech designer, Jaroslav Jurica, has designed the Rubikon, a paper pinhole camera that can be printed out on card at home and glued into a functioning pinhole camera.

This is the v.2 of the Rubikon (called the pinhole rebel) was released earlyer this year and is simpler to cut out and fold than the original v.1, even if not quite as cool looking.

Download it today and get snapping... well more *slide... [wait] ...slide*. Rubikon 2

I have mine printed out, foled and glued with aditional black paint on the inside for added security. I don't have any photos from it as yet, but I will put them up with Part: 2; the original paper pinhole.

In 1979 the ABC magazine published a jigsaw called Dirkon, which paraphrased the single-lensed reflex cameras, which used to be very popular at that time. The cut-out Rubikon was first published in 2005 in the 8. issue of the ABC magazine, 25 years after introducing Dirkon

Via: Hubero Kororo

It seems that Kodak have decided to revive the Box Brownie for the 2012 London Olympics. It's not a new move, they have been known to make commemorative Brownies for other events and anniversaries.

Taking form the design of the 1962 Flash 3 model, the 2012 features no controls apart from the shutter, an out sized flash (folds out from the body of the camera) and a range of colours.

"Like the original Brownie, the user must look down from above into the viewfinders; and like the original Brownie, a different viewfinder is used depending on the orientation of the camera and the picture being taken, one viewfinder is used with a portrait image and the other for a landscape image. For low-light photography, a flash is included in the camera. Unlike older box-Brownie models, the flash is included in the design and pivots outwards from its storage position inside the side of the camera."

From what I've read it's digital, but with no means of looking back at what you've taken 'till you get to a computer. Ah... the best of digital and analogue combined!

In my humble opinion, the colours; good, the face on the front; bad. It might be just me, but it seems cheesy and too obvious. Apart from that, I'll be doing all I can to get one.

via Yanko Design and Trend Hunter

We all know that normal Holgas take 120 film, which you either have to develop yourself (and mess it up if your me) or send it off to an expensive lab. But it is actually very easy to temporarily convert it to take 135 film without buying the back! So let's get started.

You will need:

• Your Holga120 (mines the GCFN)
• A used 120 spool (I don't know why I put two in the photo)
• Electrical tape (gaffer tape will also work, but it leaves sticky gunk)
• Bits of foam
• Rubber bands (the thick, Royal Mail, ones work well)
• A roll of film (I know this one is already developed, it was completely over-exposed so I put it in a canister for tests like this)

Step One: Open the back of your holga. You will need either the 6x6 or 6x4.5 mask if you want to get the images printed normally.

Step Two: Get the spool and wrap the rubber bands around either end to leave a gap that is big enough the let the film through.

Step Three: Attach the film leader to the spool with tape.

Step Four: To make the 135 mask, get some black card stock (160g is good) and cut out a square that's about 63mm square, then in the middle cut out a gap that is exactly 36mm wide and either 24mm or 35mm high (depending whether you want the sprockettes exposed).

Step Five: Place the spool in the right hand side, like loading the 120 film.

Step Six: Place the canister in the left had side and support the top and bottom with the foam. Layers of thick card might work, too.

Step Seven: Because 135 has no backing, you will need to block off the window with the electrical tape. I have only done one layer hear, but feel free to do more.

Also block it off on the inside for maximum light-proofing.

Step Eight: Close it all up and wind the film on a turn and a half and your all set. For even more security, you may wish to seal all round the edges with tape.

When you have taken a shot, wind the film on 21 clicks, if you want to try with wider shots, calculate yourself how many clicks you'll need. It helps to use a piece of paper or something.

What do the results look like? Take a look for your self.

A new TLR has been unleashed on Japan. A plastic beast that takes 135 film; The Blackbird, Fly.

These little toy cameras are the latest thing to come from Japan. Well... there are only available in Japan at the mo, for ¥12,600 (about $127, £75 or €94).

Like the 35mm Holga back, it comes with different mattes, allowing you to take the classic TLR square images. 3 masks allow; standard 24x36 - for portrait shots, 24x24 - for small square images, and full frame - 36mm high and completely exposing the sprocket holes.

It can be used with the regular top-down view, or to achieve better landscape shots, rotated 90 degrees for use with a viewfinder.

The photos I've seen from it all look quite good, for a 'toy' camera. I really need to brush up on my Japanese and fly over there and try one out.

Stats:

Focus - 0.8m - infinity

Aperture - f7 and f11

Focal distance - 33mm

Shutter - 1/125

Features:

Bulb/Normal modes

Hot-shoe

Tripod mount

That's all I can get from my very limited Japanese, if you're better than me - http://www.superheadz.com/bbf/index.html translated it yourself.

A couple of weeks ago I was given an old, 120 camera spay painted entirely gold; don't ask why. But anyway, I cleaned it all up with white spirit and washing up liquid and did a pretty good job of getting all the paint off. It looked like one of the later Kodak Brownies, but had a little logo of some kind and the words "INDUSTRIA BRASILEIRA": Made in Brazil on the top. It was getting more intriguing. On the front, under the lens, it had big sliver letters spelling out "KAPSA" (Brazilians seem to like their capital letters). So I did a little Google search and came up with very little; things like the "Korean American Pharmacy Student Association" and an Arabian dish made from chicken and rice. With the general search being a bitter disappointment, I moved on to other things. I had a gander at Flickr and found a handful of people who still use them.

I thought to myself "that can't be all there is on the internet!" and had another look at the camera. Then I noticed that on the metal bit around the lens was the peculiar word "VASCROMAT", again in block caps. Crossing my fingers, hopping I found something relevant. It was a hollow victory when the 75 results came back 0.49 seconds later; they were all in Portuguese! And most were just telling you how much they were worth. I did manage to find the most important information. The shutter speed. It is apparently 1/100. Which means that I have to use 160 ISO film. Which unfortunately does not want to be found easily. So rather than wasting my life hunting film in the vast planes of eCommerce websites, I decided to use 400 ISO that was stopped down to 200 with an ND 2 filter.

The camera has a little window on the inside as a mask for the incoming light. It it no bigger than an inch square, so I could just get some ND lighting gel. You can buy a whole sheet for the same price as a regular glass filter, but I only want a tiny square. That is where a little help from my friends come is. I know a woman who is a TV production designer and she said that she could have a word with a lighting technician who would have some ND gels. So until then I'm stuck with 400 ISO colour negative film. I did read about red scaling colour film some time ago and remembers something about you having to adjust it exposure by a couple of stops. I looked it up again and indeed, the celluloid is ND 2-3 so I just did that with some 35mm with the canister blue-taced in upside down where the new spool would normally go and taped the leader to the take up spool and I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Image by Rodrigo Moraes