Old school photography

 The other day, for no good reason, I got thinking about film and old school cameras. When I was a kid my dad had a pretty good collection of old cameras and shot a fair amount of 120 type film.

If you've never used 120 film it's around 60mm wide, so nearly twice the width of the more common 35mm stuff. It comes open on reels and requires a little skill to handle.

Interestingly it's still being made, so I ordered some:

I ordered from B&H Photo in New York but it's available from a lot of different places. This is all brand new film, that one on the end has "vintage packaging".

When we came back from our last trip to camp we stopped at my parent's house to snag a camera. Unfortunately it would appear the collection has been packed away somewhere. I did find this: 

It's a Kodak No.2A Brownie. The line started in 1907, the 2A was made from 1920 to 1924, so right around 100 years ago. It was my great grandmother's, unfortunately we don't know any more of the story than that. At the start of 1920 she was already married with 2 kids and a third on the way.

Unfortunately this camera uses 116 film which is a little wider (and longer) than 120. It's possible to respool 120 film onto 116 spools or to fit 120 spools into a 116 camera with adapters. It's also possible to buy bulk 116 film and fit it into a 116 spool.

For the moment I think what I'm actually going to do is buy another camera. They made millions of 120 cameras, they're not particularly rare or expensive. At some point I'll probably revisit this Brownie, stay tuned...

Valerian - Movie Review

We don't see a whole lot of movies any more and since the volume is low I try to keep the quality high. Last night on a whim we saw "Valerian" and boy I wish I hadn't...

The trailer looks pretty good:

Its a Luc Besson movie, he did "The Fifth Element" which I'm a big fan of and I'd hoped this movie would be similar. In a way it was, this isn't "science fiction" since that would require some kind of real science. The film ignores science and physics almost completely. Gravity exists pretty much everywhere, all the time as does, apparently anyway, air.

Dane DeHaan isn't an actor I'd seen before but his portrayal of Agent Valerian is one of a spoiled man-child. He's at once a super tough fighter and suddenly a limp noodle. Cara Delevigne's Sergeant Laureline may have set the cause of women's rights back 15 years. My friend rightly pointed out "She never did anything useful in the whole film." Thats not 100% true, she saved Valerian's life exactly once, then she immediately got kidnapped apparently forgetting that in the previous scene we'd seen her with a gun. She plays the helpless maiden to the hilt, sergeants around the world will cover their eyes in shame.

Rhianna makes a completely unnecessary but appearance only to be killed off within minutes of her introduction. Its especially sad because hers was one of the best characters in the film, of course the character is ruined in a completely pointless and sappy death scene...

With plot holes you could fly a 747 through and lead actors that look and sound like petulant teenagers I'm stunned by how positive the reviews online are with most reviewers commenting on how good it looked. I can't disagree more with that, the imagery is overly busy with no common look or theme to be found anywhere. I see that this was all based on a comic, while the movie thoroughly sucked I'm interested in reading the source material and feel bad for the author who's vision was implemented so poorly.