Frogmouth Cottage Photography

Kodak Duaflex and expired colour film

31 January 2024 12 months on film Film Test Melbourne Vintage Camera Test

My @12monthsonfilm January project is complete. Shot on a Kodak Duaflex (my first time shooting it) and expired Lomography Color Negative 100 gifted to me by @unitedcolorsofjerry . I expected crazy things from this film and it didn’t disappoint!

About the camera

The Kodak Duaflex is a 620 roll film pseudo Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera made by Kodak in the US and UK. My version was made in the UK, where they were produced from 1949-1955. Mine is an earlier model without a lens hood. It isn’t a true TLR because the top lens (which is very large and easy to see) is just part of the viewfinder and does not aid focussing.

Photograph of a box style camera a plastic cover lying on the right hand side of the image. A cord is attached to either side and is coiled on the left hand side of the image. There is a roll of 120 film lying on the left side of the camera.
Kodak Duaflex with lens protection cover and 120 rollfilm

The Duaflex is made of bakelite and metal, with a simple fixed focus 75mm f/15 Kodet miniscus lens. The shutter has speeds of “I” (instantaneous for snapshots) and “B” (for timed exposures), and is synched for use with a Kodalite Flasholder (which I don’t have). Focus is fixed from 1.5 metres (5 feet) to infinity. It produces 12 6x6cm images. 620 film can easily be aquired by respooling 120 roll film onto a 620 spool in a dark bag. A special feature of the Duaflex was double-exposure prevention, meaning the advance knob had to be turned to the next exposure before the shutter could be activated (see below for how that worked out).

The shutter speed is estimated as being 1/50 and the camera manual advises that “at the instant of exposure, hold your breath and press the exposure button with a gentle squeezing action”. There is no tripod screw, so timed exposures need to be made with the camera placed on something solid.

The outcome

  1. The film is loaded into the bottom of the camera and rolls up. The backing paper of the Lomography 120 (which I respooled onto a 620 spool) may be a bit thick. Winding seemed uneven, and this has probably caused the wonky sides. I like the curved corners and negative marks on the sides.
  2. Half the images were very red and half normal. The color shift is amazing – see the red dripping off the red one (btw that’s me doing a mirror selfie).
  3. The second last image below has a green circle on it. This is imprinted from the end of the backing paper onto the final negative.
  4. It is supposed to be impossible to make double exposures with this camera – but somehow I did. The flowers are my favourite photo.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of a vegetable garden. It has uneven edges and a reddish cast.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of a rectangular garden bed with a climbing plant growing up on a wire trellis.. It has uneven edges and a purplish cast.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of a fence with pots along the bottom edge and another pot and lanterns hanging at the top. It has a reddish cast.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of a garden bed against fence with small and medium sized shrubs. There is a path made of paving bricks in front of it.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is very red and the image of person sitting in a chair is blurry.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of two wooden barrows side-by-side filled with potted plants. There are more plants hanging on the wall behind it.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of an apartment building complex. There is a raised covered platform in the foreground. A woman is sitting on it. A child is blowing bubbles next to her. The edges of the film are uneven.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of a large ice bag dispenser set into a concrete block wall. There are two doors, which have signs displaying "ICE $14".
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is of an aprtment block. In the foreground is a concrete path and bench. a woman is sitting on the bench under a tree with a dog at her feet. The edges of the photo are uneven and there is a green circle in the middle of the image that has been imprinted on the negative.
Square photograph with film markings along the left and right side. The photo is a double exposure of two images of flour beds. One has a scarecrow in the background. The edges of the image are uneven.

This was a lot of fun, and having something to focus on was a great motivator to both shoot and then finish the process (develop and scan). Looking forward to February’s challenge, which will be using my Canon AV-1 with Kodak Vision 3 50D (also expired, and my first time shooting it).

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