1947 Kodak Duaflex
Around two years ago I found a Kodak Duaflex Camera at a thrift store right outside of Richmond, VA and was determined to make it work. That evening I went home, did my research, and quickly discovered that it took 620 film. This is a format that is no longer made. I found on YouTube that you can trim down a roll of 120 and make it work, so I eagerly did. I took a handful of images with it and to my surprise it worked! I also discovered how dirty and hazy the camera really was.
You could tell from the dust on the outside that it had not been used in ages, but I didn't realize until I developed the first roll that the internal mirror needed some TLC.
So it sat on my mantel in my college bedroom as decoration for the next two years. Eventually it got packed up and moved back to my hometown with me during the pandemic. Again, it sat around on a shelf until I suddenly had the urge to tinker with it again.
Due to the age of the camera I knew that it would simply be mechanics and no electronic elements. I took the risk and began disassembling the camera piece by piece. In hindsight, I wish I had recorded what I was doing because the reassembling process proved to be a bit more difficult. There was one slim piece of metal I couldn’t quite figure out where it originally belonged so I had to make an educated guess.
Once it was reassembled, I finally decided to purchase a modified roll of 620 film from B&H. I eagerly put the roll of film in and took a few pictures with it set up on my tripod around Thanksgiving in 2020. Then just like before, it sat around on my shelf for the next two months. January rolled around and one day after work my mom was out by the pond fishing, so I decided to finish the roll.
To my surprise, it worked! There didn't seem to be any light leaks and I was able to remove whatever was causing a big portion of the haziness. Another challenge I added to this project was scanning the film myself. Over the past two months I have been teaching myself how to scan film on a recently purchased Epson V600, but more on that in a future post.
For a small personal project, it was rewarding. If you are thinking about trying something new, give it a shot! You will certainly learn something in the process.
