#Jankuary: Through the viewfinder photography (TTV) with the Ferrania Elioflex pseudo TLR camera, 24 January 2024

#Jankuary: Through the viewfinder photography (TTV) with the Ferrania Elioflex pseudo TLR camera, 24 January 2024

After a couple of false starts, and one experiment that is coming along nicely but still needs some work, Jankuary is getting into full swing. Devised by Azriel Knight, Jankuary (https://www.35mmc.com/15/12/2023/jankuary-janky-camera-january/) is 'a month-long theme of weird cameras, strange hybrids of old tec and new, and general strangeness in photography', and my experiments with Through the Viewfinder (TTV) photography certainly fits the bill. I first learned about TTV photography a while ago from some long-forgotten YouTube video. Put simply, TTV is taking a photograph with one camera through the viewfinder of another camera. You can use any digital or film camera as the image recording device, but the viewing camera is often a vintage TLR or pseudo TLR camera.

Through the viewfinder photography first came to prominence in the early 21st century, and for a few years from around 2010 was apparently quite popular. As usual with these things, I was way behind the curve, and only became interested in TTV during 2023. My imaging camera is a Ferrania Elioflex pseudo TLR, a 'spur of the moment' purchase from the Kamerastore website. The shutter speeds are way out of whack, and there was 'some' desilvering of the mirror, but it does have a large, bright viewfinder and as I discovered it is ideal for TTV photography. The imaging camera is a Nikon Coolpix S8000 digital camera, a 14MP camera from 2010, that I chose because the macro mode focuses nicely on the viewfinder of the Ferrania and if I need to crop the image (which I do) there's still a decent resolution to play with.

The most important element of TTV photography is being able to conveniently photograph a subject through the viewfinder of the imaging camera and for this we use a 'Contraption', a light tight box that contains the imaging camera and holds the taking camera in place. My Contraption was made with 5mm black foam board and it really is a sturdy piece of 'engineering'. I had to take it apart once, in a failed attempt to replace the mirror in the Ferrania, and it was really difficult to get into. Now, it is totally secure.

As I had to pop into Aveiro to pick up some negatives, I thought I would take the Contraption and try some more street art photography for Jankuary. On this occasion I tried to find a variety of street art, some that I have seen before, and some that was new to me. As usual, it was a lovely morning out, and a quite beautiful day. On thing that is clear, wandering around a city with a huge oblong box is guaranteed to turn heads.

#ThroughTheViewfinder, #DigitalCamera, #TwinLensReflex, #WaistLevelFinder, #TTV, #Ferriana, #Contraption, #Jankuary,