This bare tree, shining in the sunlight, (it was actually much brighter out than it looks like here), reminded me of the one in the final Lord Of The Rings movie, “The Return Of The King.”

This was another camera in my collection that I didn’t think I would ever be able to use. Kodak stopped making film for it in the mid-1980s, and the special “J” battery they used is also no longer made. But I did have an old, empty cartridge that I loaded with some 120 film and managed to get it to take a picture. Without the battery, the shutter only had one speed and it was much too fast for the 400 speed film I used. The original film had an ASA rating of 150, so 400 should have been plenty enough speed, but it wasn’t. The camera really needs the battery so that it can set the right shutter speed. One thing I haven’t tried is to push some 400 speed film to 800 or 1600 and see if that works better. The negative for this image came out almost blank, it was so faint. By having to darken it up so much, it came out much too grainy. It looks like a picture from the 1800s! But I did get the camera to produce an actual image.

Camera: Kodak Handle No. 3
Film: Foma Fomapan 400 B&W, cut down 120 (expired 04/2015)
Date: June 29th, 2023, 12.54 p.m.
Location: Norris City, Illinois, U.S.A.

Developing chemicals at 68 degrees F
Adox Adonal – 11 minutes (1:50 – 2 tsps. of Adonal and 500 ml. of water)
Water rinse – 1 minute (to keep the chemicals clean)
Ilford Ilfostop stopbath - 1 minute
Water rinse - 1 minute
Kodak Kodafix fixer - 9 minutes
Water rinse – 1 minute

Kodak Handle-3 Foma 400 2023 01if