So, many years ago, I bought this little folding camera from circa 1937. A Zeiss Ikon. Uncoated Tessar 80mm f/4.5 lens. Guess to focus. Shutter tops out at 1/175s, and actually works reasonably well in the upper range (sticks on the lower speeds). Takes 120 film, and shoots 6×6. Nice travel camera… if you lived during the depression. Found it in a little camera shop out in the desert on a trip to photograph old mining towns. I’ve only put a dozen or so rolls through it all these years. Not the best image quality ever, but hell, I was in college, and had practically no money. It was cheap medium format at its best.
Back in what must have been July of 2002 or so, I put a roll of Portra 160VC in it, and took it to work with me (I was a waiter at the time, slingin plates down at the Wolfgang Puck’s at South Coast). After shooting like 5 frames that day, it pretty much sat in a box for a year, when I dug it out to bring on a family portrait shoot. Shot one frame with it, then back in the box. A few months ago, I re-discovered it again when we went out to shoot John Michael Cooper and his family. Shot three more.
Finally actually took the film out of the camera (still had only shot 9 out of 12 frames). The film sat on my desk for a couple months, until I couldn’t stand looking at it anymore. Called up our lab, asked “what the hell do I do with this?” (I hadn’t had any film processed in years). Got it scanned, and found out that, hey, there were some kickass photos sitting there! Took almost three years for this suite of images – so enjoy!
