arhphotographic

This small camera, measuring 3in long and the height of a 35mm film canister, comes from a long line of small cameras hailing from the 1940’s continuing on into the 1960’s. As the name suggests the country of origin is France. This has to be the most unusual camera I have come across to date. As soon as I saw it, I thought it would be fun to try out.

The picture below shows the camera with the lens retracted

The lens extended doesn’t increase the cameras foot print by much.

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Below we can see the shutter speeds range from 1/10th sec to 1/150th sec including a bulb and cable release. The lens is a 50mm Lypar f3.5. Interesting aperture selection.🤓

To remove the back to put film into the camera , simply slide the lock on the base of the camera.

When I got the camera, it was missing film spools. I initially thought about trying 3d printing. However I came across some Altipan 21 available on that well known auction site for what I thought to be a reasonable price.( More about those another time) With the purchase of two rolls of film I was able to remove the film and recover the two spools.

But how do you go about re-spooling such small film? From the image below, the bottom box gives us the dimensions of the film as 24*36.

So I decided to use some 35 mm film and remove the sprocket holes leaving the middle bit. But how could I do that, along with measuring the right amount of film, all in a changing bag without being able to see anything?

Once I determined the amount of film, I was able to cut a piece of card the same length. I initially thought that in addition to cutting the right amount of film I could use it as a template to cut the sprocket holes off. But this proved too difficult while in the changing bag. So I decided to cut the holes by feeling my way along the film. This was not going to be perfect by any means, but at least I would be able to try the camera out.

So with the film cut to the approximate dimensions, it went on to the backing paper relatively easily.

On reflection I really should have waited for better weather. But you know what it’s like when you have a new toy. 🤪

One of the inherent issues with the camera is the lens’s having to be pulled out from the camera body. Time has not been kind to my Eljy as it is hard to pull the lens out and focus is very stiff.

However, the fact I got any images at all has been very encouraging. With a little more usage perhaps the issues will go away or at least be not such a problem.

Well there’s only one way to find out. Of course there is some Altipan 21 to use as well.

To be continued……..