What’s in the Box – February 2023

What’s in the Box – February 2023

Published by Dave Roberts on  March 3, 2023 under Film Photography Tips and Tutorials and tagged Bencini, Expired Film, Vintage Camera, What's in the box?

February was a quiet month to start with – probably as I spent a load of time getting all my websites back in gear, writing tons of new content and getting this totally new website set up. Who want’s spare time anyway?

Then, end of February it seems like there were sellers on eBay giving film away. I don’t need as much film as I got, but when you see 12 rolls for the price of one roll, I’d be a fool not to.

So there ended up being a fair bit of film – I may well end up selling some of the bulk stuff on eBay, though I’m hoping the 35mm film pulls through as I need a daily stock of 35mm without dipping into the limited Ektar and Portra supply and I’ll pass some film on to my nephew who I’m tempting over to the dark side!

For once, there are only two three cameras – I’ve too many on the ‘review shelf’ to buy more. It also gives me time to put up said ‘review shelf’, so there’s that. I was tempted by a few more cameras and the number has already crept up from when I originally drafted the post a week ago, and took some willpower not to up that number, especially now I’ve got this site as an excuse to buy more.

A Bargain Bencini Relex

Another to add to the 127 collection and write up. This fits in somewhere in the Bencini line-up between the Comet and Comet II and takes landscape orientation shots, so much more suitable for reloading with 35mm film. I think it’s going to need a good clean at the very least, I can’t see a thing through the tiny viewfinder. Thankfully, these Bencinis are so simply built there’s not a lot to go wrong. I’m definitely in the market for some 127 film, but with the limited controls on these cameras it seems like a waste to spend too much money and using 35mm in there seems like the best option.

  • The Relex is on the left
  • bencini comets - more of them - they are taking over - please send help - they are monitoring communications

A Working Fujica 605n

I like a good M42 camera, but my Prakticas seem to enjoy munching film. I had a copy of this camera a few months ago that’s in the u/s box and unlikely to be fixed so I was quite happy to get hold of a working copy. This is getting a working lens (that Helios is 50% glass, 50% fungus) and I’ll have run a film through it by next week!

It even has one of those rare beasts – an M42 body cap. That’s the first one I’ve ever seen!

More Rapid Film Stuff

I didn’t go out of my way for the Ilford Sprite rapid , but I needed the carts it came with as the cheapest way to get Rapid cassettes is inside old rapid cameras. I’ll no doubt put some film through it at one point though, as it would be rude not to

It came with one ISO 64 cassette, now I have three of those,  but the 100 ISO cassette I really needed  scratches film, so I’ll need to see if I can fix this as I really need to get some 100 ISO film into these cameras. Gut feeling say’s that I’m going to need to go a fishing a bit more in the ‘bay.

You can see the damage quite clearly below.

A Nice Adaptall II SP Tamron Zoom

I’ll have to find time to try these Adaptall lenses out – I hardly ever use zoom lenses of this length, so why have I suddenly got 3 of them? I reasoned that I needed another adapter for Pentax so I could have a full set on the ready. All great until it turned up with a Nikon adapter. Now I’ve got one for Nikon and Contax / Yashica – so I now need a camera to go with them. In my defence, this is the superior SP lens and was straight onto my Practika MTL5. 

This zoom lens joins a 28mm and a trio of standard 28/35-70mm zoom lenses which are good to have as I prefer a lens to a lens cap. I’m still looking for the 90mm Macro and either the 24mm or the 24-48mm zooms, but they’re all in demand and command a heftier price.

16 rolls of Fuji Press

I had to give this a go at the price. I don’t need 16 rolls, but hey.. I’ll have to start re-selling this stuff on eBay… I’m going to run a test roll very soon and publish the results here if they’re any good, or if they’re not.

Bulk roll of Kodak 2238 and Some Random Kodak 120 film rolls

I don’t need any more super slow ISO films, I never get around to shooting them. I may get away with shooting the Kodak 2238 Panchromatic Separation Film as an ISO6 or even 12 film, which means I may be able to hand shoot it. I may need a faster lens, though 1.4 is provably the most my budget can stretch to. I recently shot a roll of ISO 12 WASHI A with no problem hand held, so I’ll see how this turns out. Got 30m to play with.

I’m looking forward to shooting the expires 120. Kodak Gold 120 from the early 90s should be good, especially as there’s 4 rolls of the stuff. Not sure about the rogue roll of Ektachrome 100, but there’s 3 Ektachrome 64s and a brace of Ektachrome 200 to keep me busy from the early to mis 80s – so these are strictly experimental films and I’ll just see what I can get from them.

Some more film..

Yeah, another bargain.. Someone was offloading Kodak Ultramax for £1 a roll, Sensia 400 for a few quid that follows on nicely from this week’s Sensia 100 review, and a whole bunch of random 35mm film that mainly included a roll of Astia that I wanted as well as some of the older Portra stocks and a supply of Lomo 100. It also means I can give my daughters some colour film without sweating about the more expensive stuff, as consumer film has been simply impossible to get hold of recently. It may all be pants, but we’ll see!  This last lot hasn’t arrived – so take that as a sneak peek at this month’s box!

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