Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Monday, January 28, 2019
Friday, January 25, 2019
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Things Old Guys Do - The Bullet Camera
The 1940 Kodak Bullet Camera
I do a lot of photography. Been doing it ever since I was in college. There isn't a lot of film or formats that I have not done. 4X5, 3X4, 120, 620, 35mm, 35mm (half frame), and of course 127.
If you haven't heard of 127 film, that is because they stopped using this format near the latter half of the last century (probably around 1960). So it is considered a dead format. Ignorant of this fact (ignorance can be bliss when learning stuff), I came across this little camera in the bargain bin of a thrift store about eight years ago. They were asking .25 cents.
It intrigued me, because it was super small (you can shove it in your pocket) made of Bakelite and had this cute feature of a corkscrew lens. For .25 cents, it was a nice paperweight if it didn't work. Of course when I got home, I found that 127 film wasn't going to work, since even the last of the black and white would be bad by now, even if I could find some expired film. However, while I was searching eBay for film, I came across this rather odd listing
A 100 foot bulk roll of Kodak Porta 160nc Color Negative Film (C41 Process) that was actually in 127 width. It wasn't even expired, so for some small amount (probably $40), I bought it, figuring I would 'roll my own'. The only thing I needed were extra film rolls. These are always metal and hard to find.....but not on eBay! I managed to scarf up five of them over a few weeks and started experimenting in the dark room.
I calculated that the 100 foot roll of film would yield about 40 rolls of 127 film (at eight shots per roll). I have shot and developed about 30 rolls so far and am getting near the end. This is NOT a great camera, although it does have a certain James Bond quality to it. The focal length is 6ft to infinity only, so you have to stand back from any subject. Field of view isn't stellar either. The shutter is fixed at approximately 1/60sec (they didn't pay a lot of attention to this back in the day) and the camera was never designed to shot 160asa speed film. So I quickly found out that you needed a LOT of light to get the image right.
You can expect to see most of the current batch on my Flickr feed in the coming week.
A Universe Not Made For Us (Carl Sagan on religion)
There comes a time when we all must leave the nest, cast our fortunes to fate and take a leap of faith. I time when we no longer worship gods, a time when we become the greater being.
Tuesday, January 8, 2019
Things Old Guys Do - The Captain's Chair
[cinema cycle]
Things That Old Guys Do
The Captain Kirk Chair
The Man Cave 2.0
We got this new house with a covered / enclosed patio. This is supposed to be the dog lounge, where our large canines can sleep and frolic without worry of making a mess or shedding all over creation. So naturally, this was also destined to become the new and improved Man Cave.
Those Dreams Of Early Adulthood
What the new Man Cave eventually turned out to be was the ultimate stereo that I had always wanted as a teenager in college. We are talking college in the 1980s, so the Internet and Streaming media are not in the picture here. What I was shooting for was a viewing system for my extensive collection of media. Since my collection is voluminous and extensive, it figured it was time to upgrade the system to match. About $1,200 later, the project is complete
The Chair
What I did not have was a really nice chair to sit in while using / viewing the system. Mind you, this patio area has a tile floor (dogs remember). Easy to keep clean, but also easy to maneuver around with the right chair. So I went looking for the ideal office chair to complete the media lounge. I found it on Amazon.com for $189.
The Wheels
Sounded good, but all chairs came with the same crappy plastic wheels. I knew that this would not do. So I opted for custom wheels and installed them myself. Big difference on the tile floor. This thing glides around like it is on a cushion of air.
The Floor
One little setback, is that the chair glides so easily, that the unevenness of the floor becomes apparent and if you don’t anchor your feet you go floating toward the center of the room.
The Price!
While the total I spent on this chair was just shy of $200, I was amazed to find the original take on the back of the chair once I had assembled it. Appears that retail, this chair is worth a lot of the up and coming executive. It is nice, but it ain’t that nice!
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