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Old 20th June 2013, 07:43 AM
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Ravindra Ravindra is offline
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Default The Box Camera in India

Browsing through old photo magazines, I am amazed to find not so much as a passing reference to the joy of photography using a simple, uncomplicated box camera. The stuff you come across in these magazines is mostly of an “advanced” nature— “exposure f/4 at 1/60 sec on Agfa Isopan using Leica M4… developed in Promicrol with intermittent agitation….”

There is no doubt that the photographer with an interest in darkroom work will benefit a great deal by the hints, tips and suggestions put forward in these magazines, but the accent, I point out, is heavily weighted I favour of top rate cameras and darkroom formulas giving magical results. It is maddening to see the humble box camera enthusiast completely left out, ditched and stranded as it were.

You won’t find a single advertisement telling of a box in these magazine columns. Perhaps the reason is that traditionally, a box camera has been regarded as a toy, something good enough only for children. But there is something more here. Manufacturers have capitalized on the simplicity of toy cameras by showing children holding them to reinforce the feeling that the camera is indeed simple enough to use. And for this reason, you can be sure to find these cameras advertised in children’s magazines and comic books.

I have preserved with me a few of these old comic books containing camera ads here in India. There is something captivating in these old advertisements. They were never in colour, but they wonderfully bring back the days when enthusiasts worked with roll film, and pictures had to wait for months before the user had his roll developed and his prints made.

All through the fifties and sixties and even after that, Agfa products ruled the Indian market. The New India Industries Limited, set up in collaboration with Agfa of Germany had two production units : one in Baroda, where simple German cameras were assembled. Many Indians in those days found the joy of photography in these simple inexpensive cameras bearing the hallmark of Agfa. The earliest among these cameras was the Synchro Box, a traditional box camera from the house of Agfa. Simultaneously with the Synchro Box came the 'Gevabox', a unique design that combined the old time tradition of using a film holder within the camera, combined with the luxury of a direct vision optical viewfinder.

Then came along a new generation of cameras. Advertisements for Agfa Click III, Click IV, Isoly I, and later Isoly II commonly appeared in the Readers' Digest as well as in children's magazines. Each of these was a box camera taking pictures on 120 size roll film. Click III had a simple meniscus lens, but Click IV had a two-element achromat. Both these models took 6 cm x 6 cm pictures, a format large enough so that contact prints could be ordered.

When the Isoly range of German cameras reached India in the early sixties, users were astounded with a format of 4 cm x 4 cm. Despite the smallness of the size, 4 cm proved to be a size to reckon with. Enlargements made from these negatives show crystal clear clarity, for the Isoly I came with an Achromat lens, and the Isoly II with a 3-element anastigmat with a lens opening of f/5.6.

Agfa's second production factory was in Bombay where photopaper was made from ready-made rolls imported from Agfa, Germany. Agfa products were distributed in India by Allied Photographics Limited, which later came to be known as Agfa Gevaert India Limited.

Early on in the fifties and sixties, Allied Photographics published a very pretty little photo magazine called Agfa Photo Gallery, an eight page glossy leaflet which included pictures sent in by photo enthusiasts, advertisements, besides hints and tips on improving one's photography as well as announcements telling of forthcoming photographic competitions and salons. The magazine, though free, was so much in demand that amateurs often were disappointed to find copies sold out at photodealers. To keep up with the tremendous demand, Agfa India Ltd announced that readers could have all 12 issues each year by sending the publisher an amount of Re. 1 to cover postage charges.

Regards,
Ravindra
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Old 22nd June 2013, 02:55 AM
JulioF JulioF is offline
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What a beautiful post. Made me remember things.

I entered photography at age 8, shooting with a box camera (a Vrede Box that had a yellow filter). Later I got a Brownie Hawkeye, which was weird because of the square format. We developed film for business at home in our small Uruguayan city, almost all of the customers film coming from box cameras. Only sophisticated photographers had adjustable cameras in those days, and they mostly developed their own film. That included my father.

Most of the box cameras were 6x9, Agfa, Kodak, Vredebox, and some other brands I cannot remember now. Framing the picture had some chance to it. The key for good pictures: keeping the box steady and getting the subject within the sharp focus distance of the lens. Of course, enough light. You could get very respectable pictures if you knew the limitations of the little boxes.

6x9 contact prints in chloride paper were the rule (the more sensitive bromide type was reserved for enlargements). When a good picture happened, we told the customer that it deserved enlargement, which meant 13 x 18 cm size. Sometimes we got to do the job, too.

Developing was performed in a home-made square-section vat, about 20 cm side and 1 meter something long. The strips hanged from a cable into the D-76. We prepared D-76 by 10-liter lots and reused it with replenisher, and of course fixer too.

I liked making contact copies. Red light, seeing the images appear on paper, for a boy of 9 it was pure magic. Maybe this is why I am writing here.

The boxes and film market was divided between Agfa and Kodak. I rooted for Agfa, for some reason, but Verichrome Pan was the most common film. We developed a lot of Agfa Isopan as well, along with a bit of Perutz, Gevaert and Ferrania film. Ilford was rare.

Those were the days!

Last edited by JulioF; 22nd June 2013 at 02:58 AM.
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Old 22nd June 2013, 06:13 AM
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This is the first time I have come across the Vrede make of cameras, and yet it is all so fascinating ! I am also glad you had Kodak and Agfa too, the big names in those days. And Chloride papers ..... oh boy, you seem to be one of the few persons who lived that long ago, when you had all kinds of papers on the market -- chloride papers, gaslight papers, POP papers .......

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Ravindra
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Old 23rd June 2013, 03:23 AM
Stocky Stocky is offline
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In about 1956 or 1957 I was dragged along to a grown-up gathering which I found usually boring. One of my father's friends asked his son to show the children the making of a print. Young Robert had been to the Grand Prix here in Melbourne in 1956 (Stirling Moss was the winner and the famous actress Sabrina was the conspicuous guest of honour). When I saw the print appear in the developer I was awe struck. "This is for me!" I thought for myself. I started as a teenager and here I am still doing it.

My own children of course are not nearly as amazed in this day of instant everything, but in the days when document duplication was either a printer setting metal type or a spirit copier (remember the purple handouts at school?) it was wonderful.

My first camera (long before I started doing my own developing) was an Agfa Clack which looked much more "professional" than my sister's Brownie, although it was functionally much the same.
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Old 23rd June 2013, 05:15 AM
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Thank you boys, I really appreciate the comments. And I agree with both of you -- much of the joy of photography comes from seeing your results take shape in the darkroom. Just imagine, watching under a red light the tones in a well exposed print slowly materializing as the paper lies immersed in developer in a tray. I find from experience that no matter how well a print may be crafted, it does not look pleasing unless it is enlarged sufficiently. Postcard and 4 by 6 sized pictures hardly appeal. A print about 12 inches in width , maybe even more, looks infinitely better, even if a slight softness creeps in on account of the increased magnification.

Speaking of box cameras in India, I am reminded of a gentleman here, who, back in the late seventies planned to buy an Agfa Isoly II camera. He was a real technically minded guy who had carefully thought out everything in advance, his knowledge of his subject was far beyond what was needed to work with an Agfa box, and he was thrilled at the time because this was the first time he was getting to handle a camera with a focussing lens (leaving aside Isoly I and Isoly II, all other Agfa boxes here in India had fixed focus lenses). But our man was troubled on one point, and that was the 4 x 4 cm format. Why have a square picture only 4cm wide when the film itself is about 6cm wide? So our man wrote to the Agfa camera factory in Baroda asking for the reason for this. A month later, he received an enthusiastic reply from the production manager of the camera factory. "According to ISO standards," the manager wrote back, "the picture definition in an Isoly II with Agfa Agnatar optics is acceptable only within the diagonal defined by a 4cm square." Our man was satisfied with the answer, feeling great that he had received an answer from one of the technical boffins of the industry, and promptly bought the camera.

Later, when he had taken a few pictures with the Isoly, he felt like working with filters. So off he went to Photographic Stores, the Agfa dealer in town. There he was shown yellow and orange filters specially made for the Isoly camera. These filters were just the size, about 32 mm, and beautifully fitted his camera. The orange filter would beautifully darken the skies, the instruction leaflet said, and what is more, from the information printed on the package, the filters were marketed by Agfa Geveart India Limited. So our man went in for these filters, and did succeed in getting good results. So far so good. About a month later, he again wrote to the Agfa Gevaert office in Calcutta, asking them if they had any more such filters in their range specially made for the Isoly. And to his great consternation, the reply from main office said that they had not heard anything of any such filters. "We are sorry," the regional manager of Agfa wrote, " we have no knowledge of the filters you mention. We do not market any filters as yet."

The lesson is obvious. Although the man was satisfied with the results of these filters he had acquired, they were perhaps made by some local firm which was audacious enough to label their package with the name of Agfa Gevaert India Limited.

Regards
Ravindra
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http://box-camera.blogspot.in
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Old 11th July 2013, 02:11 PM
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Bill Clark Bill Clark is offline
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Wonderful thoughts and expressed very well.

My first camera, my Mom's, was a Kodak Brownie. It used 620 black & white film. Since I didn't have access or couldn't afford to outfit a darkroom, I made contact prints from the 6x6 negatives.

My roots were simple and I still run my stuff in manual mode, most of the time, with my film & digital equipment. I have a 50 person group photo to make Saturday, everything will be in manual mode. I pay attention to the people. Smiles!
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Old 17th July 2013, 01:04 PM
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What a very pleasing story to begin & wonderful follow ups. I really enjoyed reading it, much better than some of the moaning we seem to get lots of.
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Old 18th July 2013, 08:28 PM
Paulographic Paulographic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Clark View Post
Wonderful thoughts and expressed very well.

My first camera, my Mom's, was a Kodak Brownie. It used 620 black & white film. Since I didn't have access or couldn't afford to outfit a darkroom, I made contact prints from the 6x6 negatives.

My roots were simple and I still run my stuff in manual mode, most of the time, with my film & digital equipment. I have a 50 person group photo to make Saturday, everything will be in manual mode. I pay attention to the people. Smiles!
I hated my first digital camera thinking it was an automatic toy like a point and shoot film camera. Horrible results. I learned to do what I do with my film cameras. Shoot on manual.
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Old 31st July 2013, 06:52 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stocky View Post
In about 1956 or 1957 I was dragged along to a grown-up gathering which I found usually boring. One of my father's friends asked his son to show the children the making of a print. Young Robert had been to the Grand Prix here in Melbourne in 1956 (Stirling Moss was the winner and the famous actress Sabrina was the conspicuous guest of honour). When I saw the print appear in the developer I was awe struck. "This is for me!" I thought for myself. I started as a teenager and here I am still doing it.
Stirling Moss and Sabrina - now that caught my eye.
Had dinner with Stirling Moss at Sebring in 1960 after the transmission blew in the Masarati Bird Cage about four hours into the race. Had a great conversation.
Never met Sabrina - not that would have been interesting.
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Old 21st November 2013, 05:43 AM
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Thank you friends for your kind comments.
Regards,
Ravindra
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