Those that know Nicole and I know that we have what appears to be an on going camera acquisition problem. To remedy this but continue to try out ALL of the cameras we have decided to start borrowing cameras from our fellow camera enthusiasts instead of trying to purchase or hoard them all to ourselves. Not all are winners though and some are just easier or more fun to use but you have to shoot with them first to find out! Thus, we decided if we run a roll through every camera we are interested in, not unlike going on a 5 minute date with a bunch of strangers at a singles night, we can quickly see which are worthy of being added to our collection (or put on our list of “must haves.”) Camera speed dating!
Here is most recent camera I had the pleasure of a quick date with…the Hobbix Junior.
A quick couple facts about the Hobbix Junior…..actually, I have had a hard time finding out much about this little camera. It was made in 1955 and has a fixed focus lens, and only B & I shutter speed options. I snapped it up, admittedly, partly because of it’s name and definitely because of it’s size. It is tiny (though not consider a spy-camera or micro sized), and very compact with it’s short fixed lens. It takes 828 film, which is a similiar size to 35mm film, but it is roll form like 120 film with a paper backing, not in a canister. This film is not really made any more, though we have some in stock from a company called Film For Classics that is cutting and packaging odd sized film for those of us interested in shooting older format cameras. The 828 film we have in stock is Arista EDU iso 100 black & white film. What I shot for my first roll though was a very expired Kodak roll I acquired. The film turned out not so great, no doubt due to how expired it was, but there were definitely images there so the camera certainly seems to work! I used it in probably less than ideal conditions for some of the roll too, with probably not enough light so that definitely didn’t help. I liked this little camera and I’m a bit sad it’s film is so unique, making it not as easy to shoot alot with. However, I will definitely try it out again with some of the Arista film and see if using new film makes a difference. Here a couple of the ‘better’ shots.
