The #FrugalFilmProject: Out in Aveiro with the Golden Wonder.

The #FrugalFilmProject: Out in Aveiro with the Golden Wonder.

A couple of weeks ago I introduced my camera and film choice for the Frugal Film Project, the Golden Wonder, a.k.a the Welta Penti II, and Harman Phoenix 35mm film. Last weekend I managed to decant several strips of Phoenix into Rapid canisters, and so it was time to load a canister into the Golden Wonder and make a trip to Aveiro. 

It was the first time loading the Welta Penti II, and definitely the first time using Rapid canisters, so I was a little apprehensive. What I did was to insert a little bit of film into an empty Rapid canister so the empty and full canisters were joined by a thin strip of film. I then loaded these into the back of the Penti II (making sure the little wind-on tab poked through the sprockets) and gently pushed the plunger to make sure everything was engaged.

Of course, at this point I realised that I had the canisters in backwards. The empty canister should be in the right side, where the little tab is, and the full canister on the left. I flipped them around, closed the metal pressure plate, and remembered to dial the frame counter back to zero. Then I closed the back, fired off two blank shots to push the film leader into the empty canister, and I was good to go.

Out in Aveiro I wandered around some of my favourite haunts snapping away as I went. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. I had used this rating previously with the Lomo Smena 8M, and it gave lovely high contrast colour photographs with a vivid blue sky, and on this cloudless day I hoped the sky would 'pop'.

The Golden Wonder is a great little camera. It makes a subtle 'click' as you fire the shutter and a solid 'clunk' as the plunger is ejected ready to wind on the film. I only took about half of the roll in Aveiro, so to finish the film I took a walk in the woods behind our house to document the new electricity poles that gave been erected.

Actually, to say 'woods' is incorrect now. Swathes of the majestic trees that once formed the woods have been cut down to make way for the new pylons, and the lane that once threaded through the woodland is now a forlorn tarmac strip that winds across a desolate landscape. Even the electricity poles are bright, and new, and quite soulless. It'll be a while before I feel happy in these woods again.

When I originally decanted the Harman Phoenix film into the Rapid canisters I added a few cm extra film for the film leader. However, it turns out that the 60cm length of Rapid film might actually include the film leader. When I was wandering around the woods, I noticed that the film counter had reached 24 exposures and I still got a few more frames from the camera. Next time I will stick firmly to the 60cm length, and see what happens. 

Rather than taking the Rapid canister to the lab, which are quite expensive, I have a collection of reusable 35mm cassettes, so it was quite easy to transfer the film from the Rapid canister to a 35mm cassette (in a dark bag, of course). When the images came back from the lab there were light leaks on some frames but not others. I reckon this was from the poor like seals on the reusable cassettes. 

Most of the images were great. I managed to nail the focus, always the thing I fear most, and the colours of Harman Phoenix just popped. It is a high contrast film, though, and sometimes I didn't account for the contrasty conditions when taking the photos. I'm thinking hear of the boats on the canal especially.

Also, the emulsion can give a reddish brown cast, and where the original image was reddish brown the whole image becomes just one confused mess. I'm thinking here of the photo of the trunks in the demolished woodland. But if I start thinking about the subject and the shadows, I might get better results from this fabulous colour film. Actually, next time I might try exposing it at box speed (ISO 200) on a dull or cloudy days. There's certainly a lot of them just lately. 

I've posted the whole roll in an album (https://www.flickr.com/gp/147583812@N06/N84341peyC) on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. I had great fun with the Golden Wonder, and playing with Rapid canisters was a wise choice. Next month will be more of the same, hopefully by the seaside, but in March I'm going to try some half-frame redscale with Harman Phoenix. 

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