The other day I tore the paper off a single use camera. It was one of those that came from a budget source rather than a genuine Kodak or Fuji one. Often they are recycled and just re-papered, not a bad thing really. In this case it turned out to have a back door! This meant that the film can be removed, and although not designed to put another film in, the fact that it didn’t have to be cracked open like a walnut – left the possibility. The issue is that when loaded commercially, the film is out of the cassette and the user is actually widing the film back into the cassette as they go along. This of course is a good idea as, if anything happened and the camera is split open before it’s end, most of the photo’s will be safely back inside. Trying to re-load one in a dark bag however is a challenge. One has to pull the film out of the cassette, roll it tightly, without getting finger prints all over it, insert it into the quite small tight film chamber, then let go of it so the door can be closed, without the film springing back out! The challenge was too great – I have no sensible purpose for doing this what so ever – I have an under used Leica for goodness sake, but I had to give it a try!
One of the joy’s of bulk loading film is that you don’t have to load a 24 or 36 length, in my case I made a 10 exposure Foma 200! Successfully loaded, I set off, made a few exposures, retuned home and developed the film in BTTB (Barry Thornton Two Bath), my current choice of developer.
Well I made photos! Yes there is bad vignetting in the corners, combined with softness – but then it is a plastic lens that cost pence! I also found it to be contrasty. The camera also scratched the film, although that could have been me not coiling the film tight enough on reloading. Out of the 10 images I scraped together 3 worth showing – just about! As I’ve said I have no sensible reason to bother with this all – it’s really just to see if I could. Once before I re-loaded a Kodak single use Zoom. I I also re-loaded a standard kodak one too, both provided better results. On the positive side, I have to admit there is something about the Holga/Toy camera/Single use camera results that are lo-fi and bring something different.
