A Few Frames with My Hawkeye Folder
A Roll of Rollei RPX-25 shot with my 1924 Kodak No.2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye
CAMERAS
What a fun camera the old Hawkeye is! Every time I shoot it I wonder why it took me so long to get to it. The viewfinder is about half the size of a postage stamp, so small that my old eyes can only make out major shapes in it (although it's surprisingly clear and sharp) but I love that. In my imagination at least, having just the overall shapes of things to judge my composition by actually improves the composition of my shots, or so I imagine. In any case I do love how the world appears through that tiny viewer, and with only one shutter speed to choose from (about 1/30th) there's not a lot of fiddliness to this camera. I usually leave the focus on the "fixed" hyperfocal setting and just adjust the aperture f/8, f/16, f/32 or f/64! It's pretty much a 100 year old point and shoot.
Rollei RPX-25 is one of my very favorite films. Process it correctly (or rather, incorrectly) and you get super high contrast akin to litho film, which I absolutely love. Today though, I decided to process it in Konmpostinol, which I still haven't tested enough. I got lucky with the formula I'd been using on most 35mm films; 7minutes at 86° F with intermittent agitation. RPX negatives in medium format are a beautiful thing to behold!
If memory serves me well, RPX is actually Agfa Aviphot. I think more than a couple Rollei films are different speed varieties of this film. In any case, here todays shots. These were all shot in a 1/2 hour walk near the house.