Uploaded February 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
What an awesome place! Got some cracking images from this one.
But... the shoot wasn't without its problems!
Thornbury Men's Shed get a lot of items donated to them, and they restore what they can and sell it on to pay for the premises etc., but they don't do camera repairs currently. So they have a box of old cameras, which I took a look at and borrowed one that I thought might be interesting.
It's a Kodak Brownie No 2A, c. 1920-1924, shooting 116 film. You find these old things everywhere, I tend to ignore them when they come up, and I almost moved on from this one.
But... that 116 was a BIG film, wider than 120. And the film gate is 11.5cm wide (high? long?), which means this camera, if i can get it working reliably, will shoot huge 6x11 negatives! Big wide panoramic shots.
So I gave it a clean, and tried my luck!
More to come from that camera.
I also shot on some more reliable cameras here - the Bronica ETRS shooting Kodak Tri-X 400, for some lovely black and white shots. I decided to push it to 800 for this shoot, to give me a stop more light to play with indoors. Results were good, but not great. That push really cranked up the contrast, on a film which isn't lacking contrast to start with,
Then I shot Portra 400 in the Rolleiflex SLX. That faired pretty well, happy with those results! I also put a roll of expired Portra 400NC through it, but you'll notice that these images didn't make the cut! Pretty poor results, not enough light for an expired film in there. So be it!
I also... because you can never take too many cameras, right?... took along the last of my Zebra Dry Plate Tintypes, and a few Zebra Dry Plates (glass).
Total disaster with the Dry Plate Tintypes, but the glass plates came out well.
Watch out for the hidden easter egg in this one! A tease of something coming very soon!!
Drop me a comment with your thoughts on the images, the technique, the place, the people, whatever!
Link to Thornbury Men's Shed Facebook page: facebook.com/groups/330780326356604
Link to Thornbury Men's Shed: thornburymensshed.com/contact
Link to the main UK Men's Shed site: menssheds.org.uk
What an awesome place! Got some cracking images from this one.
But... the shoot wasn't without its problems!
Thornbury Men's Shed get a lot of items donated to them, and they restore what they can and sell it on to pay for the premises etc., but they don't do camera repairs currently. So they have a box of old cameras, which I took a look at and borrowed one that I thought might be interesting.
It's a Kodak Brownie No 2A, c. 1920-1924, shooting 116 film. You find these old things everywhere, I tend to ignore them when they come up, and I almost moved on from this one.
But... that 116 was a BIG film, wider than 120. And the film gate is 11.5cm wide (high? long?), which means this camera, if i can get it working reliably, will shoot huge 6x11 negatives! Big wide panoramic shots.
So I gave it a clean, and tried my luck!
More to come from that camera.
I also shot on some more reliable cameras here - the Bronica ETRS shooting Kodak Tri-X 400, for some lovely black and white shots. I decided to push it to 800 for this shoot, to give me a stop more light to play with indoors. Results were good, but not great. That push really cranked up the contrast, on a film which isn't lacking contrast to start with,
Then I shot Portra 400 in the Rolleiflex SLX. That faired pretty well, happy with those results! I also put a roll of expired Portra 400NC through it, but you'll notice that these images didn't make the cut! Pretty poor results, not enough light for an expired film in there. So be it!
I also... because you can never take too many cameras, right?... took along the last of my Zebra Dry Plate Tintypes, and a few Zebra Dry Plates (glass).
Total disaster with the Dry Plate Tintypes, but the glass plates came out well.
Watch out for the hidden easter egg in this one! A tease of something coming very soon!!
Drop me a comment with your thoughts on the images, the technique, the place, the people, whatever!
Link to Thornbury Men's Shed Facebook page: facebook.com/groups/330780326356604
Link to Thornbury Men's Shed: thornburymensshed.com/contact
Link to the main UK Men's Shed site: menssheds.org.uk
