# "Easiest" photos to take with Kodak Junior Six-20



## Joeywhat (Sep 7, 2013)

I came upon a Kodak Junior Six-20 Series 2 with "Bimat" lens (not sure if that's a brand or design or what...?) that I cleaned up and would like to use. Since I have very little experience with film, and zero experience with 120/620 film cameras, I would like some help in taking my first photos with this. I'd like to use the first roll just to make sure everything works and the camera is capable of good photos. After that I can start experimenting and take more interesting pictures.

So to start, what are some guidelines for using this picture in terms of exposure time in various lighted environments? The manual seems to indicate that in to take a good portrait in a naturally lit indoor room (with good light coming in from the windows) that the exposure should be 4+ seconds. That seems like a long time to me, but is that about right? Is that a good place to start with this camera? Should I try doing some outdoor shots instead? I just don't want to go through a whole roll of film and find out I didn't use it correctly and everything is way under/over exposed.


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## timor (Sep 7, 2013)

Don;t expect too much quality from this camera. Bimat indicates three element lens, better than regular meniscus lens but it is anyway slow lens, maybe with aperture of 6.3. That is hard to tell for me as there is a plethora of Kodak Junior 620 cameras with different lenses and shutters. You manual might not indicate ISO of film used, but presumably this instruction is for very slow films of that era, something like ISO 25-50 range. There is another problem for you; roll film in 620 format is not easily obtainable and then quite expensive. The problem is the spool. regular 120 format may not fit (to big) in this camera. That's a matter of trying. If it doesn't fit you will have to respool 120 onto 620 spool. To do it right you will need some practice and of course you have to be in possession of 2 620 spools; one for the film and one as take up spool. If you will have a lab to process your film remember to request a return of the 620 spool. There is also way of sanding down the outside walls of 120 spool to proper thickness, but as the wall has to be of 0.2 mm thickness it will become very delicate. 620 spools are made of metal. When you ready with this all you can think about taking photos with this camera, but it was intended to be used outdoors in fool sun rather than indoors. Does it have any sort of synchronization with external flash at all ?


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## Joeywhat (Sep 7, 2013)

I'm aware of the issues with the film, I can take care of that. The largest aperture is F11 (largest actual size, that is). No flash sync that I am aware of.

I'm not expecting this to work like an SLR, nor am I going to attempt to take pictures of a sporting event or anything of that sort...I'd just like to see what it can do with some inanimate objects. Landscapes, portraits, etc. What I'm really clueless about is exposure times and such. I have a rough idea of what my digital camera settings would be given certain subject and lighting conditions, but I figure that wouldn't transfer over to this camera.


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## timor (Sep 7, 2013)

Good, that you aware of this "problems" and limitations. F11 that's very slow lens, but taking in account size of the format and fixed focus it's logical; f11 will give sufficient DoF for printing from contact to postcard size copies. Minimum aperture is, I guess, f32 ? 
Try always to go with min aperture for sharpness. There is just a question what do you call good pictures as technically we can talk about sharpness and good exposure. There is so many Juniors 620...I've got to ask: is the shutter of the king you have to cock manually for each picture ? If so, there is always a question of the condition of the spring which controls the speeds. With accuracy of iris is less concerns. So you are right, first film goes to testing. What shutter speeds has the camera ? T, B, 25, 50, 100, 200 ? Indeed, testing without proper light meter might be inaccurate, but it doesn't matter, use always your digital camera for that (which one ?) and you should be fine. For test use two subjects, one darker, the other brighter overall, both with steady lightning (like no clouds suddenly covering sun), shoot according to readings and then add 1 stop of exposure for the next frame and subtract 1 stop of exposure for the third frame. Take notes. After development and printing or scanning you will know if you need corrections or can use straight readings from digicam.


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## Joeywhat (Sep 7, 2013)

I have a Canon S3 IS. Nothing great, but it should allow me to get a good reading on the conditions. I'll make a journal of everything so I can see how the different exposures come out.

I do believe the min aperture is f32, and it has T, B, 25, 50 & 100 shutter speeds. T & B work fine, and it's hard to judge how accurate the other speeds are, but 100 does appear to be faster then 25...so good enough I guess. It is a manual shutter, you can't even cock it really...just press the lever right by the lens to work it. I have another similar camera I'm going to see if I can get working as well that does have an actual shutter button on the body (that is manual cocked), but this one doesn't even have that.

Will the 1/25 shutter speed still be too fast for 400 speed film? I'm thinking of grabbing a roll of 400 and 100 and see how both turn out. Will hook it up to the tripod for the 100 film, and might even get some slower film to play with.

Oh, and it it does have adjustable focus as well...although nothing too accurate (3 zones, for 5-8', 8-15' and 15+).

Realistically I'm hoping for a good "old school" feeling with these photos. Guess you could related it to listening to vinyl (hell, I guess it would've been shellac back when this camera was around...) records over digital stuff. I love the new stuff, but the old stuff has some good character...and editing in the "oldness" is never the same.

We'll see.


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## limr (Sep 7, 2013)

A digital camera can be useful for metering - I've certainly done it before. It does have limitations, however, especially depending on the digital camera. My digital camera isn't anything fancy - a Canon SX130 IS - and it's okay in some tricky-lighting pinches, but I still have to do some calculations at times to figure out what I want my settings to be. The main thing is my camera (and I think your camera will be similar) will only go as small as f8. It compensates with more film speed options than any of my film cameras. But if I want to shoot at a smaller aperture - which you will have to since the Junior only goes as big as f11 - I have to figure out my own shutter speeds. Learning the Sunny 16 rule will help.

For example, the other day I was shooting some TriX 400. I used my digital camera to meter a scene because it was overcast but kind of bright - tricky lighting situation. The camera told me 1/250th and f5.6. Now say you got that reading and were using 400 speed film in the Junior. You don't have f5.6 so you have to compensate. To go to the next smaller aperture setting, you'd then go to the next slower shutter speed: from *f5.6 and 1/250* to *f8 and 1/125* and then from that to *f11 and 1/60 *and then also to *f16 and 1/30. 
*
This website was a bit overwhelming to me at first but if you take it bit by bit and keep revisiting it as you're practicing, it starts to make more and more sense: Ultimate Exposure Computer  And the exposure chart is awesome. 

I think you can use both 100 and 400, just for different situations. 100 for outdoors, sunny days and 400 for lower light conditions.

Just if you're curious, here are the pictures I took that I metered with my camera. I took the same shot with both cameras with the same settings. You're going to see a big difference in the way digital and film handles the shot.

Digital:



Film:


Grrr, these damned thumbnails! I uploaded the wrong picture at first and I can't figure out how to get rid of it now. I was bracketing the shots and I uploaded the 'over' shot by mistake. The thumbnail was the 'one stop over' shot. Ignore it.


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## timor (Sep 7, 2013)

Thank's Leonore. That was my next point, the aperture limitation in digital p&s.
With max aperture of f11 even ISO400 will require at least calculated 2 sec. exposure and after adjastment for reciprocity failure it will be around 4 sec. (plus adjustment in developing time.) Well, still good for set-up portrait.
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/f4017/f4017.pdf


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