Those that know Meghan and I know that we have what appears to be an on going camera acquisition “problem”. Really all it is, is a desire to try all of the cameras!!!
We have started collecting many vintage cameras now over the past few years, but in an effort to not let our collection get out of hand we decided to only collect cameras that work and can actually be used.
However, not all are winners 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. Camera speed dating!
Here is most recent camera I had the pleasure of a quick date with….The Geva Box 120 format camera.
A few quick facts about the Geva Box, in the fifties there were four different models of the Geva Box made for Gevaert, this particular model was the last one made in 1955. It takes eight 6×9 photos per roll. Unlike most box cameras this one comes with two aperture options (f11 & f16) and three shutter speeds (1/100, 1/50, & B).
This was my favourite box camera up until it decided to betray me and break! Though a friend of mine played around with it and it seems to have righted itself, but I have yet to test it out since. Initially I liked it because it had two different aperture settings and despite the gloomy weather it took great photos. I think the Gevabox’s lens has the perfect amount of blur/sharpness in all the right spots. When I shot these pictures I had misgivings cause all I had was Kodak TMX 100, I thought for sure it’d be too slow. However I was pleasantly surprised and liked all the photos on the roll.
-Nicole
