ON ASSIGNMENT

Had a mapping assignment up north in the remote border areas. Decided to bring Kamra #1 for a field trip, in the anticipation there might be a chance to shoot with it. It was just readied the day before, and there were some kinks that revealed itself during the first ever field trip.

LIGHT-SAFE BOXES

holding 30pc of unexposed photo paper each, 60pc matte, 60pc gloss in total, 120pc at a total weight of 520gm

PACK CONTENTS

KANTA #1 Interchange—package, field camera. from left; - Minyak Goreng oil can Kamra with light-shield lip - red filter, rubber wrap, 210mm meopar lens, lens cap - 150mm lens, lens cap - lens board 59mmØ, 26mmØ, pinhole 0.4mmØ - selenium light meter, safelight kit - 500ml x 2 container solution, 2,000ml container waste water - 4 light safe boxes for 100pc of photo paper
- Reproduction arm
—Gunny bag big
- 80ml x 2 container stock chemicals
- 10ml graduate, funnel
- 150ml x 2 trays, 500ml containers wash waters
- 3 wipe cloths
— Gunny bag small
- Swiss army multi tool, 15mm spanner
- spirit level, spare screws, nut & washer, measuring tape
- light shield corduroy jacket
- 3 x mounting straps
- 5kg load tripod

in total about 9+kg

REPRODUCTION PRINTS

attempts at daylight exposure, printing & reproduction, in-camera. Testing the selenium light meter's accuracy, in reference to the aperture setting and exposure table. for reference, rated at ASA 3, metered at EV 10, f32 /1s

FIELD TEST 3

Daylight exposure, reproduction printing, in camera processing, all successful! This Kamra is now field ready, now to start using it as it was intended, an instant self-contained camera. introducing Kanta #1; Interchange

FLASH LIGHT METER

on loan from Vig Nachname the main guy behind the awesome Obscura Festival In Penang. Exactly the light meter I was thinking of getting for the project, Sekonic L 308s, to measure night shots/ with flash, light strobes

PRINTS

FIELD TEST 2; challenging to shoot, adjust lights and develop prints. overall it's possible, need to improve on a few things. night / dark shoot needs more lights, positive paper rating is at least 1.5 stop lower, safelight kit not entirely safe, need wipe cloth inside, reproduction arm is coming loose, need assistance when shooting with strobes

FIELD TEST 2

packed and ready for a field test, although still not fully equipped. will also be shooting in very dark conditions, will be bringing a light strobe. total weight 9kg

EXPOSURE CHART

designed a chart specifically for the range of the kamra based on EV Exposure Value in reference to a simple light meter. Rated at ASA 3, this old selenium light meter is still accurate.

PRINT CALCULATIONS

averaging 15-20pc prints of 4x5" RC paper to 100ml solution of each Developer & Fixer. 100pc would use 1,000-1,400ml of solution plus wash water which would amount to a total of 2,000-2,500ml of waste water. 

SAFELIGHT

Red filter that'll fit on the lens would double as a safelight too. The shop ran out of red gel, and red filters too!! managed to buy this spare gel sheet and a permanent red marker. maybe they'll work, will try this out at the next field test.

found cellophane sheet, red transparency, from 'art friend'. not as deep red, but with bout 6-8 layers its pretty close

 

 

STROBES

Most of them older than i am. tested the Blitz which works well and might be strong enough for an exposure. This package was donated by Koon Yit, Bang Bang Geng, inherited from an old master. Thanks for the great support

 

 

 

F STOP

Calculating the effective f stop for the 'up-cycled' lens rated at 150mm focal length at an opening of 19mm which is almost f/8. Used the aperture leaf mechanism from a good prime lens as the aperture setter. It fits snuggly at the front. Sometimes everything just falls in place.

VIEWING HOLE

to inspect the development process, bore a hole through the top to install a viewing hole over the developer tray. in case of an over-exposed image, could stop development before it gets too dark. using parts salvaged from old lenses, film canisters and 3mm plywood. will need a red filter to make it photo paper safe.

PHOTO BOARD

the wooden plank that holds up the photo negative, on the reproduction arm, is wet most of the time in use. To increase the adhesive quality, have applied layers of shellac and a thin varnish to make it waterproof and not as porous. This will also prevent this pinewood from rotting at the joints

FIRST FIELD TEST

although still in a controlled environment. this is the best print of today (digitally inverted), shot outdoors with daylight. for reference, 210mm meoptar barrel lens, EV8 rated at ASA 3 exposure of 4 seconds at f22

 

 

 

 

LENS CAP / SHUTTER

an important element to all kamras, this will act as the shutter. manually opened and closed by hand. has to be light proof and secured. made from parts of old lenses and kitchen ware. trying to add in a red filter as a safelight, will develop that next.

LIGHT-SAFE BOX

designed and developed a light-safe box to store photo paper. it had to be light, easily accessible with one hand, and efficient enough to fit within a Kamra. Made from recycled packaging materials, boxboard, old film light-shield paper, experimented with using garbage bags as light shield. Made 4 boxes, stores about 24pc 3R photo paper comfortably, which makes a max of 12 positive exposure per pack.

 

 

SAFELIGHT KIT

Making a little safelight kit, powered by batts. made from salvaged electronic parts etc. as an alternative to the red filter on the lens. Used an old flash as the cover

 

 

 

FIELD KIT

all the basic printing utensils i'll need for bringing the kamra out into the field. trying to keep it light by fitting all on this small stool.

from top left;
green bottle top 500ml— clear water for chemicals & wash/ wastage water with silver
glass bottles 130-170ml & blue 10ml graduate— chemical stock (developer/fixer)
plastic take away container— water washing container
ilford 3R box— photo paper
210mm barrel lense
150mm lens/ lens board Ø 26mm

pinhole lens board

spirit level
red filter
swiss army tool
wiping cloth
reproduction arm
chemical trays
funnel

MATERIALS; Bicycle tubes

thanks to Bike Pro, for the tubes, making the light shield lip for Kanta #4