Proof of Concept - TTV

On our last annual family reunion beach excursion, my brother passed on a Rolleiflex camera, that used to belong to my father, to my daughter. It will be a good opportunity for her to get a feel for old time film photography. I plan to shoot black and white with her and to process the film and then scan the negatives into the computer. I don't have the room or the time right now to screw around with enlargers and prints. There are no photo stores in town (other than in Anchorage) that have processing equipment, so I ordered a film tank and spool, powdered chemicals, and 120 film from B&H in New York. I'm looking forward to this exercise together with K.

While I wait for the supplies and a good shooting day, I decided to give a whirl at TTV with this camera. Before I did so, I wanted to clean it for it was filthy. My brother may be an old time camera aficionado, but I find it hard to believe he could take a decent photo with it as grubby as it was. There are lens elements on both sides of the shutter. I didn't have the right tool to take the outer lens off, but I could get the inner lens off which had some old oily smegma on the side of the shutter likely outgassed lubricant of some kind. I was also able to get to both sides of the outer lens if I put the shutter on bulb and max aperture. I also cleaned all of the elements to the TTV system.

This is what it looks like through the viewfinder of this camera. It is really not suitable for a working TTV contraption as the Duoflex is because it has crosshairs etched into the smoked glass. It's still an interesting effect.

Since I screwed around with the camera for a couple of hours today, I really had no time to seek out a suitable TTV blip subject that did not involve flowers. Calico and her mom tell me the flower ban is silly. Besides, all comments about the flowers generates higher view and comment totals.