arhphotographic

This blog has been heavily influenced by time spent reading the works of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Monday 29th November

I awoke to a bitterly cold day with a wind that cared for neither man nor beast. I little relished spending the day in it, but after a hearty bowl of porridge I soon found my self driving in my horseless carriage to my first appointment of the day.

“Arh, just the person I was hoping to see” said Mr Gregson. “I wonder if I might prevail upon you to perform a small task for me.” He promptly disappeared into the house and then returned with a small light brown object in his hand.

“It belonged to a relative, years ago, and there appears to be a film in it! Do you think you could develop it for me? There may be something on it or there may well be nothing. What do you say?”

On opening the case I was greeted by the sight of…

a Bilora Blitz Boy 120 film camera resplendent in all its crimson Bakelite glory.

I had never before cast my upon, let alone held one of these cameras before. An initial investigation of the camera revealed that there was indeed a roll of Kodak Verichrome in it with a few frames still to be used. How long it had been in the camera and under what conditons it had languished during it’s state of inactivity could not be ascertained.

Who could resist the opportunity to try this curiosity and finish off the film and then try to develop it? The case was afoot!

However I needed to enlighten myself about this camera. There was only one thing to do, to pay a visit to Dr Google! In a few moments he had uncovered information, much of which could not be verified for accuracy, but enough to give a glimpse into the cameras origins and possible functions. The Blitz Boy was made in Germany, this is certain. It appears to come from a long line of ‘box’ cameras produced at the start of the 1900’s, the Blitz boy being produced around the mid 1950’s.

The lens looks to be fixed focus meniscus 50-70mm in construction. I wrongly assumed that the shutter had a single 30th second speed, like so many of this class of camera. It doesn’t. It stays open for as long as you hold the shutter button down or at least this one does. What a pity I found out after I had used the film up. Even though there is no tripod mount I could have been a bit more circumspect in my use and thus could have avoided the camera shake evident in the images.

The gold coloured lever at the bottom of the camera when moved outwards forces the camera to separate, allowing you to place a roll of 120 film in to it. There is nothing to stop you from making double exposures and no lock to stop the film from being moved on. Simply move the film wind on untill the number on the back of the film can be seen in the film window on the rear of the camera.

Being uncertain of the age and condition of the film I decided to develop it in my usual manner.

Fomadon R09 diluted 1:50 @20℃ for 12 minutes

Stirred continuously for the first minute and then for 4 seconds every 30 seconds

IlfoStop – 30 seconds

Ilford Rapid Fix for 7minutes and 30 seconds

Washed for 6 minutes

Rinse Aid for 1 minute

Looking at the negatives I could have cut back on the developing time as they were quite dark. However, I was able to compensate for this over-development by scanning them with my Epson V370 by adjusting the amount of exposure made by the scanner.

These were the only images to be rescued from the film. However given the uncertainties of the film I am grateful to have any at all!

While there were some singular features about this experience, I will be more judicious in the future about using this type of camera.