A Karat Film Camera That Wasn’t Made By Agfa: The Bilora Radix 35 BH

I came across an odd one the other day. I was searching for some history on the Karat film system, the original version of Agfa’s Rapid system launched (or relaunched) in the 1960s, and naturally Chrome suggested an article by Mike Eckman. Keppler’s Vault 84: AGFA Rapid Film, is a thorough history of the Rapid film system. It delves into the history of the format, notably that the Rapid film system was based on a revival of Agfa’s Karat film from the 1930s and 40s. (Interestingly, Karat film was an attempt to compete with Kodak’s 35mm cassette.) 

In the post, Mike Eckman discusses the history of the Rapid film system with reference to a couple of contemporary articles from the 1960s. ‘The second article’, Eckman writes, ‘is from August 1964, and … tells some of the history of the format, even alluding to a very rare Bilora Radix Karat camera that was introduced in 1949 ….’ Mentally, my ears pricked up. What? A Karat camera not made by Agfa? Of course, my curiosity was raised so I started a search for this elusive ‘Bilora Radix camera’.

Turns out that there is quite a bit of information out there about the Radix. It was only around for a few years, from 1948 until about 1952, and it was bad timing by the Bilora camera company, better known for its cheap box cameras, to launch a Karat format camera just as Agfa was winding down its own operations in favour of using the dominant 35mm film cassette. There were a whole range of Radix cameras, from models with a fixed shutter speed, but a variable aperture, to models with five shutter speeds.

Well, by now I really wanted to get my hands on one of these cameras, so turned my attention to that popular auction site. There were a few variations available in Europe, and prices were not that bad. I found one interesting item in Germany. ‘For sale is an old camera that shoots in the 135mm square format using 24×24 film’, the advert for the item said (in German). ‘I found it in a store, bought it home, and used it to shoot two rolls of FomaPAN200.’ Unusually for an eBay post, this advert actually included two or three images taken with the camera, and they weren’t bad.

‘Although this camera isn’t famous,’ the description continued, ‘it’s still an improved version of the RADIX series with adjustable shutter speeds. The lens is clear and scratch- and fungus-free, and the shutter is precise and stick-free.’ According to the description and photographs the camera even included two Rapid canisters, so now I was really interested. Fortunately, I won the auction, although someone did try to snap it up at the last second, but didn’t bid higher than my max bid, and the auction closed.

The Bilora Radix is a strange beast. Yes, it looks like a normal camera, but the shutter button is not a button but a serrated lever that slides left to right. The shutter speed dial is a knob on the front of the camera to the right of the lens, and the back is removed by twisting the two lugs on the back of the camera which comes off in one piece. The aperture is changed by a small lever on the front of the lens, and this model was known as the Radix 35 because it is fited with an f3.5 lens. Another model, fitted with an f5.6 lens is known as the Radix 56. I think this version is one of the later models in the Radix range, and I reckon that it dates from the early 1950s. All in all, it’s in pretty good condition for a 70-year-old camera. 

This version of the Radix is quite sophisticated compared to others in the Range, with variable shutter speeds and apertures. It also came with two Rapid canisters, which was really useful. The take-up canister is nice and lose in its space, but the full/delivery canister was really tight. I’m wondering if this is because of a difference between Rapid and Karat canisters, and I’m going to have to compare these later, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the function of the camera.

In the meantime, I’m going to load the Radix with a roll of Harman Phoenix redscaled film that I have loaded in a canister and take that to Aveiro. One thing I did find about the Radix is that when you open the back it doesn’t reset to 0, the numbers just continually cycle around. I wound the camera back to the dot after ’16’ and loaded the canister of Phoenix. I fired off two frames, but instead of a ‘1’ appearing for the start of the film, an ‘A’ appeared, followed by a dot. In fact, it looks like these frame indicator goes, ‘1 … 16 . . .  A . 1 …’. But hopefully it’ll work OK.

As the film was redscaled I rated it at ISO 100, and set the shutter speed to 1/200s, the fastest shutter speed of the Radix. To judge the correct exposure, I used the Camera Meter app. It was a cloudy day, and around Aveiro the suggested aperture for the redscaled Harman Phoenix film was mainly between f16 and f8.

Aside from a couple of images in Oiã, I only managed about 6 exposures in total from what turned out to be a really short piece of film, and only one was from Aveiro. There were a few light leaks, and I’m still not sure where these were from, but I was delighted with the images that turned out and I can’t wait to get out with the Bilora Radix again soon. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. 

https://flic.kr/p/2r2ZtEh

https://flic.kr/p/2r35RHH

https://flic.kr/p/2r36fZX

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Further down the rabbit hole: The Agfa Karat rapid film camera

Back in September of 2024, I picked up my first Rapid film cameras, some cheap Agfa Iso-Rapids. These basic, Agfa Clack-like cameras were supposed to be the end of it, but then I decided that I needed a few more Rapid canisters — which led to a couple more Agfa Iso-Rapids and the Ricoh 35K Rapid — and soon after I came across the Golden Wonder, my precious little Welta Penti II, that I decided would be perfect for the Frugal Film Project this year 

Surely that was enough, I thought. But then I discovered there was a Rapid camera in the Lomo Smena range, and so was added the Lomo Smena SL to my rapidly growing (pun intended) sub-collection. And just last week I added another Agfa Iso-Rapid and a Agfa Silette Rapid F camera because I wanted more canisters and it’s cheaper to get a camera with a canister in it than buy the canister alone. And that’s it, I have enough now, right? After all, I’m only using my Rapid film cameras for the Frugal Film Project, I don’t need any more, right?

Wrong, I was browsing around the ‘Bay a few days ago. Not looking for anything, really, just at my ‘watched’ items: there’s a broken 3D Nimslo camera that is way overpriced, and a couple of first generation Lomo Smena Rapid cameras that I’m keeping an eye on just in case my SL doesn’t deliver the goods. And then, way down the listing under the ‘More Like This’ tab, was a listing for an ‘AGFA KARAT APOTAR 1:3.5 F=55mm’, for the not unreasonable price of 18€ plus shipping from Germany. 

It was described as, ‘Used and functional item with few to normal signs of wear. These are signs of use which arise in the context of normal or careful use,’ and the condition was described as, ‘ [Category] C … strong used and full working.’ There were plenty of images, including one close up through the back of the camera hinting that the lens was nice and clean. Not too bad for a 1940s era camera. Did I mention that it was 18€?

But did I really want an original Karat camera? This was from the age before Agfa rejuvenated their Karat system as Agfa Rapid for the 1960s market to compete with Kodak’s instamatic film cameras. So yes, I did.

As a bit of background, in the late 1930s Agfa began production of their Agfa Karat film cameras, a range of cameras that used 35mm film but instead in a proprietary spoolless metal canister, not the 35mm cassette that Kodak and many other manufacturers were using. These were 12-exposure cassettes and in each camera two canisters were used, one which held the unexposed film and another to receive exposed film that was simply pushed into it. 

I made an attempt to date this camera, but the best I could manage that it was post-WW2. The pre-War Agfa Karat, which was the series model 3.5, was introduced in 1939 and featured a Compur Rapid shutter and a four-element Solinar 50mm f3.5 lens. In 1941, because of the Second World War, camera production was stopped and did not resume until about 1946. The post-War model 3.5 Agfa Karats featured an Apotar three element 55mm f3.5 lens and a Prontor shutter. According to CJ.s Classic Cameras, the serial number of HH5820 suggests that this Agfa Karat (3.5 v2) was the penultimate Agfa Karat model made, and since the Agfa started making Karats that used 35mm film cassettes and not Rapid canisters from 1948, it’s likely that my particular model was from around this time.

The first cameras were nice looking art deco style cameras with slightly rounded bodies, but in the pre-War years Agfa simplified the bodies and post-War released an Agfa Karat with a cheaper lens, the Agfa Apotar 3.5/55 three element lens, which is the one I have. The Karat has aperture settings from f3.5 to f32, and a range of shutter speeds from 1s to 1/250s, plus B. By around 1948, with the release of the Karat 36 model, Agfa had abandoned the Karat film system in favour of using regular 35mm cassettes, and they were not to make cameras that used canisters until the 1960s, with the renamed Rapid system. 

I was a little concerned that the Agfa Karat was in worse condition than the seller had listed, for example, what if the lens was gummed up and it wouldn’t focus, but when it arrived it was a little scuffed up but in sound mechanical condition. The lens, as it turned out, was not as clean as I had hoped, with a bit of fungus and haze on the elements. This will certainly need some attention before I can take it out.

What I was thrilled to find, though, was a Rapid canister inside the camera. No, that’s wrong. It was not a Rapid canister from the 1960s onwards, but a genuine Karat canister from the 1940s. It’s in lovely condition, with a matt black coating and a smooth finish to the touch. I’m not sure if I should consider this an addition to my collection of Rapid canisters. I reckon that if I try to add film to it that film might get a little scratched (I’m going to try it, though).

Introducing and trying out the Agfa Karat was supposed to be all one post, but I reckon that I have a little bit more work to do with this camera than planned. One thing that I most certainly will have to do is to clean the lens, so the next post will be a summary of the cleaning of the camera and the lens and the first test ‘in the wild’ with the Agfa Karat.

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A brief interlude: The Agfa Silette Rapid F

From 1953 until 1974 Agfa released a family of 35mm cameras known as the Silette series. A basic manual focus viewfinder camera, these came in various forms and with different features. In the early 1960s, Agfa released a Rapid film version in competition with Kodak’s introduction of instamatic film. In fact, they released three Rapid versions, the Silette Rapid I, the Rapid L, and the Rapid F.

All three Rapid cameras had the same characteristics as their 35mm counterparts, but instead of a cold shoe for an external flash, the Rapid F (and Silette F) had a small translucent window and a flip up lid into which a flash bulb could be plugged. The flash bulb was powered by a Pertrix No. 74 battery, which nowadays is no longer available, but otherwise the camera was wholly mechanical. The Agfa Rapid F has a 45mm f2.8 Agnar lens and a Parator shutter with speeds of 1/30s – 1/250s (plus B and a synchro flash speed, but I’m not sure what this is). It has a four leaf iris, with apertures from f2.8 – f22.

Being a Rapid camera, the top plate of the camera is plain with the wind-on lever on the bottom left of the body. One wind of this will push the film one frames width from the full Rapid canister on the left to the empty canister on the right. 

On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw and the film counter, which counts down from 12 to one. When the count reaches 1, the shutter is disabled and you can only wind on to finish the film. The position of the ratchets that catch the film sprockets to move the film suggests that a leader of about 40mm of film is left outside the canister. 

My particular model, the Agfa Silette Rapid F, was picked up for 20€ from the ‘Not Passed’ category of the Kamerastore website. Although it has ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, the only thing that was wrong with this camera was that the little translucent window for the flashgun was missing. Otherwise, it was perfectly sound.

The aperture selection, shutter speed selection, and zone focusing are all set on the lens assembly. Selecting the shutter speed and aperture is quite straightforward, but the focusing confused me for a second. On the focusing ring, at the top and bottom are two arrows. Rotating the lens moves little icons on the top of the lens, a church and a mountain for infinity, a group of people for middle distance, and two heads for portrait/close up. At the same time, at the bottom of the focusing ring are shown distances in metres and feet. Choosing the right symbol, or setting the distance, should give reasonably close focus. 

As I have several Rapid canisters filled with Harman Phoenix film for the Frugal Film Project, I took one of these to use with the Agfa Silette Rapid F. Loading the Rapid F was simple enough, just a question of making sure the wind-on ratchets lined up with the sprockets of the film and slowly advancing the film so that it fed into the empty canister. Then I closed the back of the camera and shot two frames until the counter was at zero. 

It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so I took the Rapid F to Águas Boas. I took a range of images, long distance, middle distance, and close-up using the symbols on the lens and also the distance markers. To measure the exposure I used an app called Camera Meter. After exposing the film, I decanted the 35mm back into a 35mm cassette and took it to the lab. 

The first thing to say about this camera is that it’s really nice to use. All the movements are smooth, and a single wind of the lever moves the film from one frame to the next. The only thing that confused me early on was the focusing with the symbols, but even that became intuitive after a while. I was a little unsure whether the film was feeding properly into the empty canister, but there’s a different ‘feel’ to the wind on lever when film is present in the film gate and when it is not. I noticed that with the Lomo Smena SL, too.

The images came out really well, although with the high contrast Harman Phoenix emulsion some of the highlights were really blown out. I’ll put that down to my faulty exposure reading rather than the camera. On the whole, I was really happy with how the Agfa Silette Rapid F performed, and it’s certainly earned its place as a backup camera to the Welta Penti II ‘Golden Wonder’ and the Lomo Smena SL. 

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The #FrugalFilmProject: Out in Aveiro with the Golden Wonder

A couple of weeks ago I introduced my camera and film choice for the Frugal Film Project, the Golden Wonder, a.k.a the Welta Penti II, and Harman Phoenix 35mm film. Last weekend I managed to decant several strips of Phoenix into Rapid canisters, and so it was time to load a canister into the Golden Wonder and make a trip to Aveiro. 

It was the first time loading the Welta Penti II, and definitely the first time using Rapid canisters, so I was a little apprehensive. What I did was to insert a little bit of film into an empty Rapid canister so the empty and full canisters were joined by a thin strip of film. I then loaded these into the back of the Penti II (making sure the little wind-on tab poked through the sprockets) and gently pushed the plunger to make sure everything was engaged.

Of course, at this point I realised that I had the canisters in backwards. The empty canister should be in the right side, where the little tab is, and the full canister on the left. I flipped them around, closed the metal pressure plate, and remembered to dial the frame counter back to zero. Then I closed the back, fired off two blank shots to push the film leader into the empty canister, and I was good to go.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67ur

Out in Aveiro I wandered around some of my favourite haunts snapping away as I went. For exposure metering I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 160. I had used this rating previously with the Lomo Smena 8M, and it gave lovely high contrast colour photographs with a vivid blue sky, and on this cloudless day I hoped the sky would ‘pop’.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PZm

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PYK

The Golden Wonder is a great little camera. It makes a subtle ‘click’ as you fire the shutter and a solid ‘clunk’ as the plunger is ejected ready to wind on the film. I only took about half of the roll in Aveiro, so to finish the film I took a walk in the woods behind our house to document the new electricity poles that gave been erected.

https://flic.kr/p/2qG66vM

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67ss

Actually, to say ‘woods’ is incorrect now. Swathes of the majestic trees that once formed the woods have been cut down to make way for the new pylons, and the lane that once threaded through the woodland is now a forlorn tarmac strip that winds across a desolate landscape. Even the electricity poles are bright, and new, and quite soulless. It’ll be a while before I feel happy in these woods again.

When I originally decanted the Harman Phoenix film into the Rapid canisters I added a few cm extra film for the film leader. However, it turns out that the 60cm length of Rapid film might actually include the film leader. When I was wandering around the woods, I noticed that the film counter had reached 24 exposures and I still got a few more frames from the camera. Next time I will stick firmly to the 60cm length, and see what happens. 

https://flic.kr/p/2qFZjwc

Rather than taking the Rapid canister to the lab, which are quite expensive, I have a collection of reusable 35mm cassettes, so it was quite easy to transfer the film from the Rapid canister to a 35mm cassette (in a dark bag, of course). When the images came back from the lab there were light leaks on some frames but not others. I reckon this was from the poor like seals on the reusable cassettes. 

https://flic.kr/p/2qG4PUS

Most of the images were great. I managed to nail the focus, always the thing I fear most, and the colours of Harman Phoenix just popped. It is a high contrast film, though, and sometimes I didn’t account for the contrasty conditions when taking the photos. I’m thinking here of the boats on the canal especially.

https://flic.kr/p/2qFZjtb

Also, the emulsion can give a reddish brown cast, and where the original image was reddish brown the whole image becomes just one confused mess. I’m thinking here of the photo of the trunks in the demolished woodland. But if I start thinking about the subject and the shadows, I might get better results from this fabulous colour film. Actually, next time I might try exposing it at box speed (ISO 200) on a dull or cloudy days. There’s certainly a lot of them just lately. 

https://flic.kr/p/2qG67g5

I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images. I had great fun with the Golden Wonder, and playing with Rapid canisters was a wise choice. Next month will be more of the same, hopefully by the seaside, but in March I’m going to try some half-frame redscale with Harman Phoenix. 

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Three more Rapid film cameras (this time bought just for the cassettes)

I’m getting quite into using Rapid cassettes just lately. So much so that I was dreaming about it the other night. I’ve chosen a half-frame Rapid camera, the Welta Penti II, as my camera of choice for the Frugal Film Project, and I have enough cassettes for that, but I think I need a few more cassettes so that I can have several films being used in several cameras at the same time.

Including the expired film Rapid cassette I have five in total, but I’m keen to get more. First of all I checked out that popular auction site, eBay,  but getting individual cassettes is quite expensive, from 18€ upwards, including shipping. That was a little too steep for me, so I took a different tack.

I obtained my original Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras from the Kamerastore website for the princely sum of 8€ apiece, and among these collected four Rapid cassettes. I therefore took a look at the other Rapid cameras on the website and found three more that were advertised as having cassettes, a Ricoh 35 K Rapid, which included two cassettes, and two more Agfa Iso-Rapid IFs, which had one cassette each. Thus I could get some cheap cameras to play with for a lower price than going to eBay.

Of course,  all the cameras were in the ‘Not Passed’ category,  they were, ‘Untested … and found to have flaws that will affect typical use.’ For example, in the Ricoh 35 K Rapid, ‘The bulb doesn’t work and there is some oil on the aperture blades,’ but it came with two Rapid canisters, and ‘otherwise it is in good working condition!’ The Agfa Iso-Rapid IFs had some haze on the lens and viewfinder, but otherwise were also in working condition. Both came with one Rapid canister each.

The Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras are basic little fixed focus point and shoot cameras from the 60s and 70s, a bit like an updated Agfa Clack but with that typical boxy 60s styling. They have two shutter speeds, 1/40s for cloudy  weather or flash sync, and 1/80s for sunny conditions, and three apertures of f8, f11, and f16. 

The Agfas were in nice condition, though the viewfinder was hazy in one and the other had a hazy lens. I removed the lens assembly from the hazy lens camera to reveal a primitive looking aperture/shutter assembly, very close to the Agfa Clack in design. The lens was a single-element lens and was very easy to clean with a cotton bud.

The Ricoh 35 K Rapid is a different type of camera altogether to the Iso-Rapid cameras, although it still uses Rapid films. It’s a manual focus compact camera made by Ricoh in 1964, and it’s heavy. It’s made of a lot of metal and features a glass three-element 40mm f2.8 lens. A much more sophisticated camera than the Iso-Rapid cameras, it has shutter speeds from 1/25s to 1/200s (plus B, though this doesn’t work), and an iris aperture from f2,8-f16. 

It also features primitive DX coding, which will show the speed of film loaded. Agfa Rapid cassettes featured a little metal tab, and depending on the design of this tab could tell the camera the type of film loaded. In the wind-on side of the camera is a small metal pin that sticks out and when the Rapid cassette is inserted connects with this tab. On the top of the Ricoh is a little wheel which shows the ISO and DIN of the film, and the aperture that you should be using.

One pleasant discovery with the Ricoh was the ‘found film’. I nearly missed it when I first checked out the camera, but sticking just 1-2mm out of one of the Rapid canisters was a little tab of film. Clearly a roll left behind by its last owner, this is always a wonderful find in any new camera, and one that doesn’t happen very often with products from the Kamerastore. 

Actually, you can see the tab of film in the item photos on the Kamerastore website, but if you’re not familiar with what you’re looking at it’s easy to miss. Guessing from my expired Rapid film that this was taken any time up until the 90s, I’m hoping that the roll hasn’t been used for practising with and has remained untouched. I’ve transferred the film to a 35mm cassette, and next time I’m in Aveiro I’ll pop into the lab and see if they can develop it. 

I also spent an hour or so this week decanting (I read that term somewhere and just liked it) some Harman Phoenix film from 35mm to Rapid cassettes. I had pre-planned my technique but it was much easier than I had expected. With a little force the films generally slide smoothly into the Rapid cassettes. Of course, I had to Redscale a couple of the film strips, too.

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#FrugalFilmProject, an introduction to the Golden Wonder: The Welta Penti II half frame camera

After a week or so fiddling with the Welta Penti II I’ve selected it as this year’s camera for the Frugal Film Project. I’m going to experiment with half-frame. Not just any half-frame, of course, but half-frame with Rapid cassettes. It’s an odd little camera, and not a purchase I’d originally planned to make. On the Kamerastore website I came across a Lomography 75mm glass lens for the Diana F+, which I had been after for a while but was always too stingy to order from Lomography. 

To make the shipping cost more palatable I took a look at the ‘Not Passed’ items, and right near the top was this little golden beauty. Intrigued, I clicked on the entry and discovered that it was a Penti II, a half-frame camera introduced by Welta in the 1960s. Although it uses 35mm film, the Penti II uses Agfa Karat rapid film canisters. Well, that was enough for me, and I pressed ‘Buy’ straight away. Of course, being in the ‘Not Passed’ category it has, ‘flaws that will affect typical use’, in this case, ‘fungus inside the lens and viewfinder [and] the exposure meter does not work.’ I wasn’t too worried about the exposure meter, this is also a manual camera, though the 3-element lens might be a challenge to get into and clean.

When it arrived it was really ‘love at first sight’, the Penti II is just so cute. This is an all metal camera, and it shows. From its gold stippled facade and lens to the black trim, it’s all metal, cold to the touch and heavy. When you’re used to lightweight plastic cameras, to turn the Penti II over in your hands is an experience. It also has a really unique method of winding on the film. Sticking out of the side of the camera is a metal rod (gold, of course). When you push the shutter button the metal rod pops out, and when you push the rod back in this winds on the film and cocks the shutter. The only thing to remember is to hold the camera in a way that when you fire the shutter the rod doesn’t hit your hand.

The Welta Penti II was a successor to the Welta Penti launched in the late 1950s. It is a 35mm half-frame camera that uses Rapid film cassettes, not normal 35mm cassettes. Released in the early 1960s until about 1967, the Penti II featured selenium cell metering and was equipped with a Meyer-Optik 30mm f3.5 Domiplan lens. With apertures between f3.5 and f22, and shutter speeds of 1/30s, 1/60s, and 1/125s, the user would dial in the combination of aperture and shutter speed that would move a mark visible in the viewfinder. When the settings mark matched the position of the selenium cell mark your exposure was correct. Of course, the selenium cell in my Penti II doesn’t work, but fortunately I can use the camera manually with a meter.

On the top of the camera is the film counter, which needs to be dialled in manually when loading the film, and a cold shoe which holds the flash. On the bottom of the camera is a tripod screw. And that’s it. There are no wind-on or rewind knobs, just the metal ‘plunger’ protruding from the side, because when the film is wound on it’s just fed from the full Rapid cassette to the empty one by the action of pushing the plunger, which also cocks the shutter for the next exposure. 

Normally, Agfa Rapid film came in 12 exposure cassettes, which means that a typical Rapid cassette would give 24 half-frame images in the Welta Penti II. Originally VEB, the manufacturer of the Penti II, made Agfa Rapid cassettes, so it was natural, when producing their own cameras, to use the Rapid system, which they called the ‘Schnelladekassette’, Speed Loading, or SL cassette. Nowadays these cassettes are no longer available, although you can pick up expired films and empty Rapid cassettes from eBay or vintage camera retailers. Expect to pay a premium, though.

I managed to source some dirt cheap Agfa Iso-Rapid IF cameras from Kamerastore (we’re talking 8€ here), and fortunately between them these contained four cassettes, so I’m up and running. Filling a Rapid cassette from a roll of 35mm film is quite straightforward, though of course you’ll need a darkroom or a dark bag. A 12-exposure roll of film is about 60cm long, so I place a 30cm ruler in the dark bag and cut the end from a roll of film to make it fit into the slit of the Rapid cassette. I’ll slide the end of the film into the Rapid cassette, then in the dark bag use the ruler to pull a length of 30 cm of film from the 35mm cassette and feed this into the Rapid cassette. Once the first 30cm is inserted, I’ll repeat the process then add a few more cm and snip the film. Back in the daylight I’ll cut the end of the film in the Rapid cassette so that it’ll slide nicely into the empty cassette in the camera. 

To load the film in the Penti II, I take the empty cassette and slide a bit of film from the full cassette into it. Just a little bit, one cm or so. Then I’ll insert the cassettes into the back of the camera and make sure that the sprockets are catching on the wind-on tab before closing the pressure plate. Oh, before you close the back remember to reset the frame counter to 0 using the little knurled knob. Then close up the camera, wind on the film until the counter reads ‘1’ by pushing the plunger and firing the shutter a couple of times, and you’re good to go.

The weather is a little unsettled at the moment, with heavy wind and rain much of the time. But next week promises to be better, so hopefully I’ll be able to get out with the Golden Wonder and put it through its paces.

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