#phoblography

It's clearly not perfect, but for my second ever attempt? Yeah, i'll take it. I know what i need to do better last time, i know what i need to get, all in all i'm very happy with how the entire roll came out. These are my faves.

For a fuckin' bargainnnnnnnn!! This is a W. Butchers & Son's "The National" from 1914, taking British 4.75x6.5in glass plates. It's not perfect, but everything that needs fixing is easy stuff:

The shutter on the left below it fires but doesn't fit the camera's lensboard or the lens

The shutter on the right has no curtains but the lens is pristine and it fits the body

The bellows are dry as the Sahara and slightly pinholed

The plate holders fit but don't light-seal, one is pinholed and they need converting to 4x5 sheet film.

And the groundglass is FILTHY

Aside from that she's a beaut!

Course ya do, come have a gander! These were scanned from a box of 14 glass plate photographs i picked up second hand with an old camera. According to the seller, they were taken by a relative in the 1920s.

The photographer in question was one A. Ferrie, who kindly wrote his name on the box of plates. Quoth the seller, he was an electrical engineer out in what is now Rajasthan. Unfortunately i don't know enough about Indian history or geography to confirm that, if anyone can i'd appreciate it!

Myself and my best made did try and pin down what waterworks were photographed last night, but unfortunately we weren't able to. One we found with a lot of visual similarity was at the wrong end of the country, and every Rajasthan one we found was post-independance.

Nevertheless, Mr. A. Ferrie & descendants took stunningly good care of his equipment. The camera itself is a 1921 model (pic @ end of post), and got to me in near-flawless shape. I'm working on adapting it for modern film right now, to continue its working life.

While i won't be able to use glass plates, i can use other film types that're still made. A couple of adapters, a bit of maths, it'll be fine. Mr. A. Ferrie's camera will live on and take more photographs after over a century in storage.

Even if the locations of these photos may never be placed, they provide a rather interesting look into Colonised India. The construction of irrigation equipment, the import of British structure design marring the landscape, i find it a somewhat chilling reminder that this isn't long ago at all

Like, hell, independance was 80 years ago next year. My granda's older than that. Likely you know at least one person older than that too. The scars of colonisation still rub raw, yet the change and growth since is honestly admirable. Still aways to go, but a lot's been done since.

And thus, we reach the end of the thread. I hope you enjoyed, and at least found it a little interesting to look a century into the past and know that everyone in those photos, including A. Ferrie himself, is long dead. Yet their actions live on, and we look at them now.

I took these on Harman Phoenix II while in NL last year, and what a gorgeous film. The glow it gets being overexposed, the greens that come through at box speed, the whole look is gorgeous.

I'm Varlet, amateur film photographer, history nerd, livestreamer, and 9.0 slayquake on the cunter scale. I post my own photos, photos i've recovered from old plates, rambles about old cameras and more. Soon i'll even be posting restoration progress updates on one of my cameras, oooo 👀.

Whenever i head anywhere, i try and nosy round second hand shops for anything I'd find interesting. One particular such find while I'm out in another country was this, the Ilford Sportsman Auto RF, a 35mm film rangefinder camera from the early 60s. Which i got for FIFTEEN EUROS. FIFTEEN.

An english rebadge of a West German Dacora camera (hence the MADE IN WEST GERMANY badge in Thunderbirds Episode Title font), the Ilford Sportsman Auto RF is the fullest featured of the Sportsman line. Possessing a rangefinder coupled to the focus ring and Selenium light meter coupled to both the exposure ring and rangefinder, it's rather easy to compose... in decent light. The rangefinder works by having a square of light roughly in the center of the rangefinder framing. If you're out of focus, anything in that square has a ghost image to one side, and you must adjust the focus ring until the images coincide. In substantial light, this works fine. In low light or indoor conditions, this is near impossible. Even in good light, the square is so small it damn near sparks eye strain to see. Despite it's shortcomings, when it works it works incredibly well. Maybe when it's not winter, it'll work better for me.

A Prontor 500LK leaf shutter design, the Ilford Sportsman Auto RF's controls are almost all on the front of the thing. The lens has the focus, exposure, timing and self-timer crammed into it, with the shutter release just next door. The shutter release itself is very gentle, so much so i didn't think it was working at first, too used to the hand-shaking slam of my beloved Zenit B SLR.

On top of the camera, you have the rewinder, one of the two readouts for the light meter (the other being in the rangefinder, backed by a fetching green.), cold shoe, and a film speed reminder dial. This isn't necessary, and doesn't effect the camera function, but i do appreciate it.

On the back of the camera, we have the film advance/shutter cock.

And nothing else.

It feels stunningly barren on the back, even if it's not all too different from most cameras. I think the big featureless slab of greige pleather is definitely not helping matters there. Once I'm home I'm considering working with a leatherworker to reupholster it in some nice colourful proper leather.

One thing that surprised me about the Sportsman is its size. I know the Zenit B is small for an SLR (and being a '71 model, about a decade younger than the Ilford), but still. The Ilford is about as wide, slightly deeper in the body, and about the same height. It doesn't weigh quite as much, but that's to be expected.

Overall i quite like the thing. I have a roll of Fomapan Creative 200 in it currently (Couldn't find any Ilford film here. smad.), and I'm looking forward to seeing what i get once I'm home in January.

Thanks for reading 💖