Thrifty #11

Kodak Duaflex III

For this weeks thrifty I will share something I found about a month ago, a Kodak Duaflex III from the 1950's. Its one of those simply designed waist held point and shoot cameras similar to the brownie hawkeye I found earlier. I love these cameras because of their simple design and function. The only problem with them is that they all shoot out of print 620 film, so I decided to do something about that. I found that with a little modification I can make this Kodak Duaflex III into a 35mm camera.

This camera could not be more basic, there is no focal option, a set aperture, one set shutter speed, pretty much as basic as a point and shoot camera can get. I thought this camera would be an ideal candidate to try and modify to a 35mm. I found that a 35mm roll was just slightly to large to fit into the original 620 film roll holder. I discovered that by removing stamped sheet metal holder opened up just enough space for the 35mm roll to be held snugly in place when the back cover was closed. This was fairly easy to do and really does not take any structural or cosmetic element away from the camera.

I then used a plastic 35mm adapter I had form my Holga 120. All I needed to do was cut it down to size to fit inside and flush with the original 620 film plane. I then just used some glue to fill in the gap, used a razor to cut off the excess and hit it with a black sharpie. In all, it took me about an hour to modify this camera.

I use the original 620 film spool and simply attach the end of the roll of film with some tape. Now, it is a little tricky figuring out how much film to advance for the next picture, with the 620 film you could look through the back window to see numbers printed on the film. With 35mm film I needed to cover that window to prevent light from damaging the film, which you can see that black piece of tape above. So I came up with a formula when winding the knob for the next picture. I used a marker to put a dash on opposite sides of the wheel. After you take a picture you turn the knob 1 and 1/2 turns. You do this until you take 9 pictures at which time there is enough film on the spool that you now only need to turn it one time around. It was a little tricky at first but I quickly got the hang of it, its just hard sometimes to remember how many pictures you took.

I tried taking a few pictures with this camera not knowing what would come out. I was a little worried just how much the Image would be cropped and if the lens was still good or if the film plane would match up. I was a little worried that all the pictures I was taking would not come out. What you see through the view finder now is not what will be on your film, you half to imagine the cropped image when framing what your shooting. I took this camera to folk life and I also did a few night shots using the bulb setting and doing some multiple exposure shots.

one man band

balancing performer falling

Fremont bridge at night

Multiple exposure shot of traffic

You can see more pictures of this camera here.

You can see more pictures from this camera here.

Any questions or comments of the modification this camera. If you are interested in making one for yourself I can try and elaborate more it you feel my explanation was to brief or to vague. I was actually surprised how simple it was to do. I'm going to enjoy taking more pictures with this camera.