KODAK SALE

Its been a while since posting, I have been busy photographing and listing for sale on EBAY loads of KODAK camera's plus a lot of old cine movie camera's. I did not realise how many old Kodak camera's I have collected over the past year!

I have some more to list and once this is complete i can continue with the restoration work on the vintage No1 Pocket Kodak.

Saying that, things will be busy next week as I am starting another 'restoration' project on Monday. This one will be to remove an old roof off a barn and replace. This includes salvaging the old oak beams and re-using the 100+ year old clay roof tiles.

There is also some stonework to be repaired and hopefully the weather will be kind but I guess its going to be cold! I did 'swear' that I would not do another building 'restoration' job for a while and concentrate on my 'buying & selling' venture but this was too good to turn down.

The main reason being, its at Rockfield Studio's, I may get to meet some famous 'rock star' but I doubt it. The last 'famous' person I met, or should I say. 'could of met' was David Byrne (X Talking Heads lead singer). Thing was I had gone to see him play in Nottingham at the theatre there years ago, great gig/show and was stood next to him in the foyer. Daft thing was, I never even realised it was him at the time as I was too busy making a 'feeble' attempt to 'chat up' some girl.

Anyway, it was a great night!

Restoring Kodak PART 4

I have just uploaded a video to Youtube, its the Kodak Pocket No.1 in action after finally getting the thing to open and close. Its now ready for the final cleaning down and preparing for the paint work. You can view the video here, its not much, in fact its my first every. You could say its not even a movie by definition, all I did was to string some photo's together so more like 'animation'?

How ironic, I have plenty of movie camera's that I could use, I even have a Sony Movie camera and what do I do? I use photo's and a very basic animation technic, stop motion? All it took was 6 photo's, I could have least used more to make the animation run more smoothly. Never mind, its a start and its also the very first thing I have published as a 'video'? I had better not give up the 'day' job and I guess 'Hollywood' wont come knocking but its a start.

Vintage Cine Cameras

Today I have been sorting through old cine cameras and finding out all about the ones I currently have to sell. I have taken some photo's ready for Ebay and just started some research about each model, I currently own around 15 or so!

Most are in a 'working' condition and the ones that are not may be, thats if I can figure out how to work them. I guess I could look this up on the internet, there are plenty of cine camera manuals and dedicated cine camera websites out there, but I much prefer figure them out for myself.

Most cine camera's appear fairly simple to figure out how to use but some can be very 'baffling'! Especially to someone new to this but I am learning something new with each camera.

I am amazed at some of the 'interiors' of these cine cameras, apart from being in excellent condition some look simply wonderful. You don't see anything like this in modern cameras, I guess its more about 'cost' and probably the fact that not many people would care as long as it worked.

It makes me wonder if there is a 'point' to what I have just said well I guess you could say yes. Take camera's for instance, the modern digital camera? I would not be without mine especially for the work I do but in the past couple of years, I have had to replace them at least every 18 months.

They do exactlly what they are meant to do but they just don't make them as 'robust' as they should do. Maybe there are one's out there but I am guessing these are not going to be cheap?  I could understand why if I were a 'wildlife' photographer or had to use the camera in 'extreme' places but this is not the case.

Maybe I should 'splash' out and buy a more expensive camera? I have never paid more than £200.00 for one and would worry if I did. The digital camera's I have owned in the past have all been your average, half decent and fine for the work that I do but they have all stopped working after a period of time.

Ironically, there is an exception and this still works today even though it must be over 10 years old and for the last 8 or so years has just been left in a desk drawer. Guess what it is? A Kodak! yes a Kodak DC215 Zoom that cost me a fortune when I purchased it.

The only reason I stopped using it was because I had upgraded to a camera with more 'megapixels, plus it would 'burn' through AA batteries no problem until someone advised me to use re-chargeble one's. Talking of Kodaks, I have managed to sort out the problem with the No.1 Pocket Kodak and its working fine now, will update later.

Just realised the time so its 'off to bed' for me, early morning start tomorrow. I am off to take some photo's, something I have been meaning to do for a while now. Its all very good 'dealing' in cameras but I want to go out and see what I can do. I will be using a digital camera, hopefully a 'film' one soon, its more of a practise run. Plus I am very good at editing photo's with Photoshop, I know its cheating but I have salvaged some great photo's. I guess when it comes to using 'film' theres going to be less chance of that.

One last thing, I have found out that the local college allows anyone to use there 'darkroom' and will also give advise. This is great news as I intend to have a go at developing the photo's I shoot, hopefully will be able to arrange something for next week.

Restoring Kodak PART 3

Well, I learnt something new today about restoring 'Vintage Kodak Camera's, to make the leatherette 'shine' use a good shoe polish. I hope I did the right thing but I do remember reading this somewhere.

So, today I glued most of the pieces of 'leatherette' back down to the camera except for the front panel that cannot be put back on until re-painting is complete. I then gave the camera a bit of a clean and polish, I was going to continue with trying to sort out the sliding action.

The camera's 'bellow' unit slides now or should I say 'glides' nicely until it reaches the case. This is where there hinge underneath the lens should rise up and the whole lot should fit back in the case. It then jams and will slide over back into the camera case but requires some 'jiggling'. I cannot see any obvious signs of why this is happening and its causing me concern, if I cannot sort this out then the camera will only be a 'display' piece.

I would be happy to have this on display, even in its current condition, but then I am biased. The challenge was to restore the camera in order to take some photo's. so I guess its back to the 'grind' stone.

I did manage to date the vintage 'Pocket No.1 Kodak Camera' but unsure how accurate this is, it would be great to find out if the dates correct and how many were produced. Anyway, here's some more photo's of progress so far. i am 'chuffed to pieces', which reminds me of a joke -

My friend suffers with manic depression so I pushed him in front of an old  'steam' train. He was 'chuffed to bits'! Oh well, it made me laugh.