Rollei A26

Rollei A26

I just got a new (to me) Rollei A26. I have just started playing with it but it seems a lot of fun. They have a winding mechanism that resembles the 110mm format (with the cartridges) squish and expand... then you have a fresh exposure to shoot.  I have had some trouble with the lining up of the exposures. It seems that there might be a problem with it but it is just a matter of time until I figure it out. 

The exposures, as the film I load into the cartridge is not the right one, has the perforations shown on top. It might be the hipster in me, but I find them really nice to see. the exposure does not limit itself to the middle of the negative, but to the whole negative. You can actually see part of the picture printed on the sides of the perforations if you look closely. 

The camera is not that uncommon, but it is not used too much these days based on the numbers of publications on hashtags. still under twenty. It is nice to be able to revive a little machine and create some art with it. The exposure is square, and the camera has a good lens. The german version has a carl zeiss, my singaporean one as sonar, I believe. It is still a good lens for this little piece of german engineering. 

It seems there are some issues that are making this camera super impose images, overexposing some parts of the image and keeping some well exposed.  Double exposure is what happens when this is going on as in the picture below.

This is a picture taken in Glenmore reservoir, the two parts of the pic, left and right are in different areas of the park. They were joined for this picture only!  

I have to load some film on it again to see if there is a way to avoid this from happening... or go make it happen intentionally.

If you have any questions, please let me know by private message on Instagram. 

Andres

Expired Film

Using expired film has been an experience that seems to keep me "fresh". Excusing the irony, it is true. Film as it ages seems to change in sensitivity, by color, unevenly and at different stages plain impossible to predict. Every roll is different in my opinion. I have had a batch of the same brand, same iso, same expiry date and every one of them have given me a run for my money almost by exposure. Not even consecutive exposures can actually be copied and pasted (presets) and go on with my happy go lucky day.

In this variety of shots you can see that the colors are kind of unpredictable. some are way too blue, others showing degradations that are unique and beautiful in their own right. Reds come out in some, blues flood everything in others. At this point, it is hard to tell what is going to happen every time I shoot some expired roll. It is exciting in many ways as it is impossible to predict.
Homework for myself is to learn about the inversion process and how to use the histogram to do so more efficiently. I guess I got my topic for my next time.
Thanks for reading.