Fabrice on Film

I thought that my Pathé Webo needed servicing, because the markings on some C-Mount lenses didn't match the distances at which the image was sharp in the reflex viewfinder. And I thought that, living near Hollywood, it wouldn't be too hard to find a film technician to help me with it. How wrong I was! After calling 7 different camera repair shops, only Walters Camera Video & Digital was open about a walk-in to check it. Some answers I got were: “I’m not an expert in that - there’s someone who’s an expert in that in the los angeles area - 16mm is a rare commodity etc etc” “No we do not” "Yes we repair film cameras, but not 16mm" "We don’t offer that anymore" "We don’t I haven't seen one of these in 10 years!" I was also wrong is assuming there was something to fix with the camera. The lenses that were showing an erroneous distance for the sharpest focus were more recent, TV lenses that didn't mount as properly as lenses designed for 16...

I picked up this Kodamatic Nº2 at a flea market for $10, because it looked great and because the shutter fired, but little did I know what challenges it would bring. The bellows had holes in it. The front lens focused at different distances than the ones marked. And it shot 616, a long-lost format. "Challenge accepted" said a little voice inside my head... I tediously sprayed the bellows with black sealant for two months. I measured the focus and corrected the distance markings using a laser rangefinder. Oh, and I designed and 3D printed adapters to fit 120 film inside it. Turns out the hard work paid off: the photos are simply beautiful! Largest negatives I've ever shot (61x108mm).       

 In 2015, I was asked by Film Shooters Collective to review one of my all-time favorite cameras, the Pentax Auto 110. The review, which contains many samples taken with this incredible camera, can be found here . If you own one and you want to show it some love, run a roll of fresh film through it. If you don't and you'd love to use one, find one and get busy shootin'!

    It's 2020, and resources about Super-8 can be hard to find. The reason why - and why people stopped shooting film to shoot digital pictures - somewhat still puzzles me, as the two technologies are completely different. But I feel like people also stopped drawing or making "physical" art as much as they used to (that is, non-digital art). The massive collective hallucination that anything digital necessarily has to be better than its analog counterpart might come to an end someday, in the meanwhile, it'll be the few of us enjoying the "older" technology as much as we can. That being said, I've found this website , with Super-8mm Camera manuals, and it's still maintained! Photo credit: unsplash

  With the Fabrice on Film blog, I intend to share my process and my journey as a film photographer and filmmaker.  Experiences with equipment, with different types of film brands, labs, share personal insights and processes will be logged here as much as I can afford to, time-wise. Thank you for reading, and keep shooting the right stuff. Image credit: Joshua Newton / Unsplash