Vintage Queensland with the Agfa Isolette

One or another piece of my vintage camera collection always follows my trips. This time I selected the Agfa Isolette, made in Germany somewhere 1951-1954, with a 85mm/F4.5 Agnar lens. Surprisingly the images are quite sharp (at least in comparison to the other vintage cameras I was playing with before). It offers more flexibility than the box, since it have an aperture range from 4.5 to 32 and shutter speeds 1/25, 1/50, 1/200 and B. Its sensitive to flare!
Anyway, I am always happy to bump into a subject or scene that gives that vintage look as well. Here we go: Isolette + Shanghai GP3 100 bw + locations in Blackwater and Miles (Yes, I admit, tourist spots).

Camera Collection: Agfa Synchro Box

What a simple tool ! A box (guess how the name was created) which contains the most simple camera tech (after pinhole) to make pictures. Produced (this model) by Agfa somewhere 1949 to 1958 the camera was the average joe's affordable camera (before single-use-throw-away, alias delvelop cameras were born). Now in 2007 my box still dont need any service (what to fix?) or batteries (there aren't any) besides a de-dusting of the simple lens.One test image on a chinese Lucky100 SHD bw film. If I am in the nostalgic mood I will do some more shootings with the box. Btw, it goes with F11 and 1/30s. Either you dont enlarge your images or you use a tripod !Have a look at BoxCameras.com for more boxes and historical more accurate data.

I love the dreamy, slightly blurry effect. No Photoshop required.

And for anyone keen to read the manual, here you go...

Shanghai GP3

OK, before I delight you with the panoramas from Australia, I still owe you results from the GP3 testfilm (link) . I used it with a Voigtländer Bessa (6x9). Please note the sharp centre area and the rather blurry rest of the image. I have no explanation yet for the funny dots (see enlargement). The film has an OK grain (less than Lucky 100), but is similar sensitive to scratches like the Lucky100 SHD (link).

Expectations

Yes, I am back from Queensland ! A very interesting, but long trip, managed to drive 3.700km with the campervan from Brisbane to Townsville and back. I must admit, I did far less panoramas than I thought I would do. It has something to do with expectations ?! Earlier this year we traveled through South Australia (a very short 5 day excursion from Adelaide to the Flinders Ranges) and I didnt expect to do lots of panoramic works there, the opposite happened ! Now I thought in Queensland, the 2 weeks time and with the flexibility of the van can do lots of panoramas... also the opposite happened ! Maybe a bit too ambitious with the driving time and didnt take the early (5.30pm) sunset into consideration. The distances are huge and there are less subjects (I found less!) than in SA. I am always looking for ruins (like the early settlement houses), a shack or rusty car, but the only things we were passing for 100's km were trees and trees. Also need to add that I run into that non-standard-tourist subjects more or less randomly and hardly find a suitable scene in an outdoor museum or "follow-the-tourist-route-sign" place. Anyway it was a great experience and I am looking forward to explore more of Australia soon. One thing I experienced one more time: (Panorama) Photography is about learning, endurance and patience, thats wonderful, there is always a next step to do, a new experience to be made along the way !
I bought a book from Peter Ilk (for my panorama bookshelf) in Townsville ("Australia - Images of a timeless land").
Now its time to work on the backlog and to wait eagerly for the films (about 5 rolls 120 and 5 rolls 135). More soon at this place.