A single roll of Seattle Film Works 35mm 200iso color film - expired June 1999. No doubt the layers of emulsion on this film has gone bad - how was this film stored? But I know no fear, I'll shoot it just the same! Price paid...10¢

A fully functional Olympus T-20 electronic flash. No corrosion in the battery compartment and the front diffuser is still pretty clear. I installs two AA batteries and the flash charged and fired. It's my first ever Olympus flash - I'll introduce it to my Olympus OM-1n later today. Price paid...$3.00

A Konica Big Mini HG (BM-300). It's dusty, dirty, and grimy - plus plenty of scuffs and scratches. I swiped the battery from my other Big Mini, dumped it in, and the camera came to life. I'll give it a good cleaning in the next day or so. The camera still had a partially exposed roll of Kodak 200 Gold 36exp in it - I rewound the film back into the canister and plan to have it developed. It was most likely ruined my someone opening the camera back....but you never know, there may be recoverable images on the roll. Price paid...$6.00

Just added to my collection of backyard shooters is the Konica Pop. A fully automatic 35mm camera featuring a Hexanon 36mm fixed lens that shoots at f/4 and a pop-up flash......nothing more. This camera is in near mint condition and cost me less than a fancy Venti drink from Starbucks. My new Konica Pop is a compromise because I still can't find the Konica C35 EF3 in good condition at a price I'm willing to pay. Both the Konica C35 EF3 and the Konica Pop are identical in shape, form-factor, looks, and features with the exception of the C35 EF3 sporting a Hexanon 35mm f/2.8 fixed lens. I'm sure I'll find one soon enough.

The four roll leather case is finished. Took only 30min's or so to complete, not counting drying time for the dye. The leather has no stitching, only 4 rivets and 1 snap holding it all together. The plastic case originally had a belt clip but I cut it off because it cluttered up the look of the entire case once the leather was added. I also stamped "35MM" and the word "Four" on opposing sides of the case - meaning four rolls of 35mm film....ha,ha. I'm happy with the results - project complete.

My next leather crafting project will be another film holder. I found this hard plastic canister made to hold film on eBay for only a few bucks. The bottom is stamped "Material Corporation, Patents Pending, Made In Japan." and the top has a cool etched diagram of rain drops, 4 rolls of film and 3 big arrows pointing towards the etched diagrams of film. Perhaps it means that the case is waterproof and also contains rolls of film. There's also a belt clip on the side but I plan to remove it because I don't want to stitch leather around it. This project will have the same look and feel as my other two leather film holders - I need to buy more tooling leather but it should be done in a few days. After the completion of this project I'm planning to make a leather film box that holds 10 rolls of 35mm film.

 

In the month of March my Analog Project 2012 featured the Mamiya U. This camera released by Mamiya in 1981 is an automatic exposure 35mm point-n-shoot that features a sharp 35mm Mamiya / Sekor f/2.8 lens, shutter speeds that range from 1/8sec to 1/500sec, a built-in pop-up flash, 12sec self timer, and an underexposure warning alert. With zone focusing, this camera is easy to use and serves as a great all-around pocket shooter. I think this camera is best suited for simple daylight shooting with 200 speed film and not too dark indoor shots with 400 speed film as long as you use the built-in flash. My little DIY thumb-tack shutter release button has held up very well over the past year - it saved this camera from a life of never being used as it would have sat on the back shelf. It's another in a series of big bulky PnS from the 80's that I've added to my collection - I seem to have a soft spot for this style of 80's retro cameras. In my opinion these types of cameras (80's point-n-shoots) sits squarely in first place as an alternative to over priced boutique cameras that are all the rage in the Lomography scene.

Check out my YouTube Ch. for a quick video about this camera.

Just finished stitching together another leather film holder. This one is for a single roll of 120mm film. The plastic container courtesy of Rollei Retro 100 Tonal. I stamped the lower portion of the leather with the numbers "120" to represent the film type. It turned out so well that I went back and stamped the numbers "35" on my previous leather film holder which holds dual 35mm film rolls. My stitching needs more practice but with each leather crafting project I'm only gonna get better. Next up is a dark slide holder....stay tuned.

The first 2 parts of my Hasselblad build arrived today. The once-over revealed that both are in perfect shape. They are currently wrapped up and re-boxed for safety until the A12 backs arrive in 2 days. A lens (the final part) is about 2 weeks out mainly due to my indecision on which one to get.....I simply can't decide.

For the month of February my Analog Project 2012 features the Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim. This all plastic point-n-shoot camera has built a small following within the lomography community behind it's ultra wide angle lens and it's ability to capture images in just about any lighting condition. The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim features a 22mm fixed focus wide angle lens that captures with a fixed aperture of f/11 and a fixed shutter speed of 1/125sec.The results can be surprisingly sharp and clear when paying close attention to body mechanics (hold still) when shooting with this camera. It's all plastic design makes this one of the lowest weight cameras I own but that's not without sacrifices - the parts inside this camera are so cheap that it's likely to fail due to breakage if handled too roughly. The Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim is extremely easy to use, simply load the film, point.....and shoot. But remember to keep your fingers away from the lens or they'll end up in your shot due to the ultra wide angle lens being almost flush with the front surface of the camera. To see a short demo of my Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim jump over ot my YouTube Ch.

In response to a question:

Dear @patternfreak

I too have experienced being stuck on 'E". This seems to happen most when the film take-up spool fails to properly grab and hold on to the film leader after the rear cover has been re-attached. Simply remove the rear cover again and re-thread the film leader on to the take-up spool and making sure to wind the film advance dial a few times to make sure the take-up spool has accepted the film leader. There's enough film in the film canister to allow for extra winding of the film when loading a camera.

Also, take a close look at the top edge of the rear cover. There should be a little plastic stem on the left side of the cover - it sticks out about a quarter of an inch. That stem fits into a hole on the back of the camera. When the rear cover is removed (and the stem is out of the hole) the film counter resets itself to "E". Once the rear cover is re-attached to the camera and the stem is seated correctly in the hole, it enables the film counter to start counting when you wind the film advance knob on top of the camera. If the stem is missing the film will advance....but the counter will always remain on "E".

Good Luck

Randy (Dred242 and BokehImage)

This 35mm leather film holder was totally inspired by Patrick Ng. I follow Patrick on flickr and last year he posted a photo of a leather case he crafted from sections of leather, rivets, snaps, a clasp and some thread all wrapped around a plastic Rollei dual film container. For me it was love at first sight, I had to have one. I'm sure many of Patrick's followers have offered to pay him to recreate his leather goods for them but I don't think he would - he's such a busy person. I was sure that if I had the right materials I could make one myself - so I set out to find what I needed. I got plenty of tools and supplies from Tandy Leather located here in the Bay Area as well as two sizes of clasps from Ace Hardware - the rest was donated by my mother-in-law who has lot's of leather crafting goodies stashed in her garage. I ordered the Rollei film with container on eBay and I plan to order at least one more. I've also got a roll of Rollei 120mm with container in route and should be here in the next day or so - it too will get wrapped. My mother-in-law gave me valuable tips and plenty of coaching before I got started, and my wife helped out with advise when I had to make decisions about cuts and rivet placement. This project took about 2.5 hours total and to be honest....it wasn't that hard. I plan to make at least two more of different shapes in the coming weeks. I don't own a fancy leather camera bag to hang my new little film holder from but I'll have one soon enough.

Patrick Ng is a connoisseur of fine writing instruments, elegant paper, travelers notebooks, leather goods uniquely hand-crafted by himself, vintage cameras, awesome GTD (getting things done) inspired organizational techniques, Moleskine art, world travel, and so much more.

Check out his flickr photostream at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moleskineart/
And his website: http://scription.typepad.com/