Another Camera?
Whilst several of the photographers I follow on YouTube use pinhole cameras from time to time, I don’t personally know anyone who does, and I’ve never tried one. So when I spotted one in the used camera cabinet at Canterbury Cameras, I had to have it. It’s a Noon 612 “Kingston” and is capable of shooting 6x6, 6x9 and 6x12 on 120 film. It was made from solid walnut in Poland by Jacek Urbanik and is surely one of the largest and heaviest roll-film pinhole cameras, 26cm wide and weighing a whopping 1.2kg!
The First Modifications
Having got it home I found very little information available online for this specific model, perhaps because the plate on the top says it’s number 490 of only 499. What I did learn is that it should have come with a piece of paper giving the pinhole diameter and f-stop for this specific camera; they are handmade and all slightly different. A call to Canterbury Cameras resulted in them finding the exposure chart the previous owner provided, but by then I had COVID and couldn’t go to collect it. Anca at Canterbury Cameras photographed it and sent me the image, sadly it turned out to be a generic chart, not the one for this camera. But full marks to her for customer service! I knew I could soon work out the aperture with a bit of experimentation. I also learned that later versions of this camera have some metal studs on the top to help you aim the camera, and an “end stop” for the shutter. Rather than making permanent alterations to my camera I fixed stick-on drawer buffers to it to perform these functions. They may not be pretty but they aren’t too obtrusive and at least they can be easily removed if necessary in future. The shutter end stop makes it much easier to get the camera out of a bag and put it back without accidentally opening the shutter.
Out To Shoot
The part of North Kent where I live is blessed with several tidal pools and as the tide was about right, I set off with a roll of Ilford FP4+ to make some photos in 6x12 mode. I had read that low angle shots work well for pinhole cameras but I didn’t want to put it down on the salty wet concrete or sand, so I took a small Manfrotto table-top tripod with me. It’s fair to say the first shoot didn’t go well. It was very clear the little tripod wasn’t up to the job, I could see the camera wobble as I opened and closed the shutter! Worse still, the film became harder and harder to wind on. The knob became increasingly stiff and tended to turn without winding the film, which was odd because it wasn’t like that when I loaded it. Winding on became so difficult I wondered if I would have to go home and unload the film in a changing bag. I also found it difficult to read the numbers on the backing paper through the red windows in the back of the camera. Apparently the numbers on Kodak film are more easily visible, and later Noon cameras have clear windows, but with Ilford film and a Mk1 Noon I had to turn the camera so the sun shone in through the red window before I could see the numbers. They are definitely easier to read on my 1950’s Nettar. Had it not been a sunny day I think I would have needed a torch to see the numbers!
The Results
Having developed the film in Ilfotec DDX I found the images weren’t very good. I was keen to try the 6x12 format at this location but of course this meant only getting 6 shots on a roll. Because the exposure chart for the camera was missing, I had to do some bracketing, based around a guesstimate of f222, which seems to have been about right, but this further reduced the number of compositions I could try. There is camera shake on most of the shots. My composition wasn’t good, even with my improvised dots on the camera I haven’t yet got me “eye in” for the 97° horizontal field of view. But the lovely pinhole characteristics are there, I just need to learn how to exploit them. I know some people say Rodinal and stand development are the way to go for pinhole work and maybe I’ll try that, but I think the negatives need more contrast so I will probably try Adox Silvermax next time.
Fixing the Fault
Whilst the film was drying I set about finding out why the film advance knob got harder and harder to turn and even stopped engaging with the take-up spool. The spool is turned by a small spring-loaded bolt with a pin through one end to engage with the film spool. The bolt goes through the top of the case and a wooden knob screws onto the top end. The problem was that the hole was too deep in the knob. As I turned the knob to wind on the film, it was screwing further and further down the bolt until the knob was jammed against the top of the camera. This also pulled the bolt up against the spring inside the camera until the pin in the lower end was no longer engaging with the spool. When I took the winding mechanism apart I could see a circular groove in the top of the camera, it’s obviously happened before. It was easily fixed; I measured how deep the hole in the knob was and calculated how much depth I needed to block off. I found an 8BA nut I had in the workshop was exactly the right size to reduce the depth of the hole and pushed it in. The knob can now be done up tightly on the bolt and then won’t tighten any more. It doesn’t bind against the top of the camera or compress the spring to pull the bolt out of the take-up spool. The bottom of the knob had become rough, it was soon polished on some 320 grit sandpaper, and a light coating of Osmo Door Oil protected it and put the shine back. I gave a very light wipe of the door oil over the outside of the camera to restore the lustre to the wood too. The door oil is excellent, you just wipe it on with a cloth and let it dry for a few hours, it then makes the wood even more beautiful and provides protection against splashes and dirt.
What next?
I’ve ordered a sturdier table-top tripod and fitted four more of my little clear rubber drawer buffers onto the bottom of the camera to act as feet, to help it sit on the ground without wobbling on the tripod bush plate, which protrudes slightly. I’ll go out in a week or so and try again!
Further Information
“Shoot Film like a Boss” and “Steve O’Nions” both have great YouTube channels and sometimes shoot with pinhole cameras, should you wish to learn more I recommend them both. There’s also a review of the Mk2 Noon 612 on “The Noisy Shutter” blog which is a comprehensive resource covering a wide range of film equipment and topics.