The mission on January 2 was to locate a similar camera so I can continue my large format experiment into the spring. We found a Rexoette box camera made completely out of wood. (The Kodak Brownie #3 is a cardboard camera) The Rexoette also has an easier mechanism to load the paper negatives which are similar in size to the Brownie.
These old box cameras are notoriously expensive at the antique stores near Calgary, I managed to pick up the Rexoette for $20 so that was encouraging! .
The Rexoette box camera was made by Burke and James, a Chicago-based camera manufacturer established in the 1890s. Our sample it seems was built in in 1910, a little math calculates to 110 years old. The camera is a basic wood box camera with leatherette covering with three aperture sizes, changed by pulling out the metal tab near the shutter. The camera measures 6.5" x 5.5" x 4.5".
I've now had a chance to get out with the Rexoette on a couple of occasions and the results are interesting. As noted previously with the Brownie #3, there is no film available for these old cameras. The negatives are about 3”x4" and need to be cut to size and changed out in a change bag if you're not near the darkroom between shots.
One option for film is to cut 4x5" film to size, but that’s a pretty expensive way to test a process, so I decided to use some RC paper, at least initially. Easy to cut down, an 8x10 sheet results in 4 sheets of film for the camera, so about $0.25 each. I’ve tried paper negatives in the past and aside for the need to pre-flash the paper to cut the contrast a little, the results are excellent!
After being out on 2 shoots with this camera I've sorted out a workable process in the car with the changing bag, it's a little slow, but that goes with shooting medium to large format photographs I think.
The negatives I've gotten so far are really contrasty, but I think I can reduce the contrast a little by pre-flashing the paper before heading out, that should improve the quality of the photographs. I've narrowed the exposure time down a little as well.
Having no idea what speed the shutter exposes film and the really slow nature of the RC paper as film, the exposure in sunshine should be 1/8 to 1/4 of a second. What I've figured out is 4 activations of the shutter gets close to a decent exposure, 5 or 6 activations might be a little better, next time out I’ll give that a try.
I like the look of the photographs I've gotten so far, they look as though they could have been made over 100 years ago, and that’s the point, I think, at least for me. I'll probably go on one or two more shoots with the Rexoette to refine the process a little more.
I'm thinking of a project in the summer that this camera and process might be well suited to, we shall see. I've included some shots of the camera, the process, and some of the results below.
Enjoy!
Dean.
