Testing, Testing, 1-2-7

Purchased without any of the necessary forethought or online research required when buying vintage cameras, this lovely 'deco'-style Italian pocket/handbag snapper was very much a spontaneous purchase for Mrs Fed Kandi. Because she likes that kind of thing, and in truth it was never likely to replace her beloved iPhone anyway. Nevertheless this sweet little Bencini Comet II is a worker, and therefore something of a shameful disappointment to me that it's never been used.

So a 'pretty' little camera it may be, but it's also a pretty basic manual Viewfinder with little in the way of features, or so I thought!...

Almost every description I've seen of this camera suggests that it comes with a single fixed Shutter Speed of (approximately) 1/50s, and a (probably) 60mm Lens that's fixed at (somewhere around) f11. There's also a 'B' setting for flash and manual exposures, and it does have a satisfyingly smooth, fully focussing lens now that I've cleaned and lubricated it. So for normal daylight photography, not much in the way of exposure control.

I'm guessing that this example may be a slightly later model though, because it has at least one significant difference...

The main difference from the perspective of actually using the camera is the little serrated wheel at the bottom of the lens marked '9' and '16' (above). As can be seen in these two images, this adjustment introduces an oblong mask to the lens aperture, presumably stopping the lens down from f9 (left) to a huge depth-of-field busting f16 (below). Wow! My guess is that this was a short-lived modification on the way to the next Comet model, or perhaps Bencini's 1953 camera the Koroll 24S which also came equipped with these two aperture options.

Better optical experts than me will know what a horizontal oblong for an aperture might do for picture quality, but this seems like a step forward to me. Other less interesting differences on this model are the inclusion of a screw-on filter for the lens, type unknown but always welcome for protecting the lens at the very least, and for some reason that escapes me there's only the one red window on the rear of the camera when all the others that I've seen have two...

So a seemingly fully working camera, with the bonus of a potentially useful f16 aperture, and a cool retro design that looks pretty damn good in his/her hand. So why the lack of use?...

Well for those not familiar with this or other smaller cameras of the time (which includes 'me' at the time I bought it), the little red window on the back is the big clue. Through this window we're supposed to follow the progress of the film as it goes through the camera, a film that arrives on paper backing with printed numbers that conveniently line up with the window. Sadly it's also a film that until quite recently was very much a dead format, the once very common 127 Film that sits somewhere in size between 35mm and 120 'Medium Format' film stock.

127 film is available again if you know where to look, though I'm not sure whether my preferred developers can easily handle it (they're looking into this). There are also a number of 'hacks' for cutting down 120 film or re-spooling 35mm film onto a previously used 127 backing. These are all possible options, but in the mean time I'm trying an even cheaper hack that may or may not work in practice.

The diminutive size of these 127 cameras is certainly an advantage in use, this one comes with a collapsible lens that makes it genuinely pocketable. But unfortunately the dinky size is a definite drawback when it comes to adapting the camera for the more common (and cheap) 35mm format. Whilst some 127 cameras such as the old Kodak Brownies have big enough innards to take a standard 35mm film cassette with adapters, the Comet II is just that little bit too compact. I know, I've tried. So my preliminary plan is to re-spool a cheap 35mm film directly onto the 127 spool within the camera, and then rewind it back into the 35mm film cartridge when exposed. In the dark. Sounds simple enough...