Frogmouth Cottage Photography

My upside down camera

8 August 2020 Vintage Camera Test
  • Black and white photo looking up a suburban street with a row of shops on the left hand side. A tree is in the foreground with it's branches trimmed around overhead power lines.
    Suburban street.
  • Black and white photo looking across a surburban street to a sports field. A car has just driven past in the foreground.
    Empty streets.
  • Black and white photo of a wooden sculpture in a park. The sculpture is carved like a stack of 4 roundish balls standing on top of each other.
    Art and nature.
  • Black and white photo of a garden in front of a house. The plant in the foreground has spiky leaves and large pointed flowers.
    Jungle.
  • Black and white photo a dog catching a ball in its mouth, its back paws are on the ground and its front paws in the air.
    Ball play.
  • Black and white photo of two dogs sniffing hello to each other.
    Making friends.
  • Black and white photo looking along the outside of a timber pailing fence that is leaning inwards.
    Falling down.
  • Black and white photo of a dog lying among a pile of blankets. She is looking towards the camera.
    Nap time.
  • Back and white photo of an old style luggage rack with many pairs of shoes on it and and a skipping rope dangling down.
    Old Shoes
  • Black and white photo of a timber deck with wooden table and empty chairs, there is a tin roof above with a ceiling fan.
    Waiting for the people.
  • Black and white photo of a dog sitting on a wooden deck. She looks as if sh is getting ready to walk away.
    Enough photos already Mum!

So the camera isn’t upside down, but it does take photos upside. My latest purchase in my 2020 photo project is a Rollei Giro 90. I could find very little information about this camera when I first saw it on eBay, so it was a bit of a gamble. One that has paid off. The negatives turned out great, and surprisingly they were upside down!

When I loaded my next roll of film I also realised that it loads from right to left.

If you have come across this camera and are looking for some information about, here’s a few things I’ve discovered:

  • I found the Owner’s manual here.
  • My version comes with a date stamp. You’ll see from my images that I took a few before I realised how to turn it off (which is actually quite easy if I had read the manual first). How many good photos were ruined in the 90s with date stamps!
  • It’s very nosiy. Not a good choice if you want to take photos by stealth.
  • It takes a single CR2 battery.
  • It has Wide angle and Tele angle zoom options with a 38 – 90mm Rolleigon HFT lens.
  • There are five modes – Auto, Self-timer (which I haven’t tested yet), Continuous Shooting, Portrait and Landscape (infinity). The mode resets to Auto after you take your photo (in portrait and landscape), which is a bit of a pain.
  • Flash modes are Auto, Red-Eye Reduction, Fill Flash and Off.
  • Photo of the back of a 35mm compact film camera, with a roll of film being loaded in.
    Right to left film loading.
  • Black and white photo of 35mm negatives, showing upside down images.
    Upside down negatives.
  • Black and white photo of 35mm negatives, showing upside down images.
    Upside down negatives.

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