Second-Hand Photography Finds

Hello there lovelies,

I thought it was probably about time that I shared some of the great things that The Boyfriend and I acquired at the garage sale last weekend. That garage sale was an absolute goldmine of vintage photography and video equipment. If we'd had more available cash I would have snapped up some of the vintage video cameras as well, but these things happen.

This beauty was my favourite piece of the day. I almost didn't find it, but the leather case caught my eye from underneath a pile of junk. I didn't even realise what I had found, but The Boyfriend's Dad knew exactly what it was.

Here is The Boyfriend's wisdom about this beautiful camera: This is a Kodak Six-20 A folding camera, produced some time in the 1930's as best I can tell. Purchased originally as an interesting display item, but now that I did some research and found out you can re-roll commonly available 120 film onto the 620 reels this uses, I'm thinking of restoring it to good working order and actually using it. The bellows has light leaks, but all the mechanics are functioning perfectly."

This is another very old-school beauty that we found in the pile. I think the coolest thing about this camera is that it has absolutely no internal electronics. This baby is completely mechanical!

Again, I rely on The Boyfriend for technical wisdom - "This is a Saraber Finetta 88 35mm viewfinder camera. Seems to be working, and uses regular 35mm film. No hinges, to open it the whole back & bottom comes away after undoing a bolt on the bottom, fully mechanical - no built in meter. Produced sometime between 1953-1956. Interestingly, it does have a removeable lens, though according to the info online there was only 2 other lenses available for it."

I can't wait to get these beautiful things restored and ready to use. I still have to get pictures (read, force The Boyfriend to take pictures - all these pictures are his, by the way) of the other cameras we found, and the kick-ass slide projector. Oh, and don't think I've forgotten about you Sarah - pictures of the darkroom will be supplied. Unfortunately we had to disassemble the makeshift bathroom darkroom during the week so that we could bathe for work. Honestly, I don't know why workplaces are so fussy about bathing. But we'll be setting it up again this weekend, and then I'll grab some snapshots. I can't wait! I'm going to be developing my own roll of black and white film this weekend. Stay tuned!

Until next time, xo.