I just borrowed a vintage camera from Karine’s collection and used it while on duty with Flying Medical Service in the Tanzanian bush.
Here is the beast, a Burke and James Press. So far the research shows this model would have been built between 1910 and 1920. Guess what the film format was long disused or one would have to cut it in the darkness from a larger sheet-film. Nowadays only one company does that, Efke, which is great as it saves one user a lot of headache. Efke seems to specialize in weird format, thanks for that. In this case a medium format, that is 2.25by 3.25in ( 5.7 by 8.2 cm)
One tripod is mandatory since you lose your view finder while shooting since the film holder is in the way for the picture. I could add an external visor of course.
A light-measurement cell is recommended.
Needless to say the Masai and Sonjo people were puzzled by the contraption. The Rolleiflex is already weird but then this thing…
Quite mission to handle such a camera, like any field camera. I found the viewing and focusing quite difficult on this one, maybe it’s due to old specs and materials from 100 years ago. I think the lens is also a bit fogged.
Obviously lenses back then were not treated like multicoated etc so the negatives came out really soft. I had to add some contrast after developing the films. Here is the volcano Lengai.
the funny marks in the blue sky might be me developing in a wrong way…
Anyway, I was just curious to use that thing from the past. More? Yes once in a while but most likely with Karine’s bigger but similar beast. Same technology but a recent model with better materials. Yes those things are still being produced albeit at a slow rate.
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