The MooCam rocks. I did 5 initial shots and all are interesting in their own way. I knew it was going to be a wide angle pincam (my first such) but I didn’t know how wide! The other pleasant surprises are that the images are pretty sharp — clearly within the optimal range for a pinhole — and coverage is much fuller than I thought. I did mess up a couple images by either not pulling the shutter the whole way or misloading the sheet film, but “messing up” in PinholeLand is a relative term. Some people go out of their way to mess up for aesthetic reasons (see the fifth essay of my series — “The Holga Aesthetic” when it is written). In any case, here are the first results:
This was actually #5 in the series, but it shows where MooCam was born. I’m guessing I appear irradiated because of light from my computer screen. Very cool effect — without applying any effects! This is a straight scan of the negative. It’s a bit of a pain to scan these because of their unconventional size (5x9cm?).
Here’s MooCam’s birthplace from the outside. The 2-story über-mod addition on the back of our house is the place of inspiration. Sara’s space is on the ground floor; mine is up. While it looks like I took this from a 100 feet away, it’s probably more like 50.
This is my standard test shot for any new camera, but usually in landscape orientation. However, MooCam’s natural orientation is vertical. Again, I was not that far from the plants (you can see my shadow head about a third way up the right edge).
This is my second standard shot — the Starship in front of the tree in late afternoon sun. I thought I was closer to it! The whole length of the film wan’t exposed; don’t know why, but probably operator error. Nice cut film notch in the lower right corner.
Okay, my theory about the oddity here is that the film got buckled inside and/or I didn’t open the shutter all the way. Taking landscape shots is a little trickier than verticals and this was my first try at it. Clearly, some kind of mess up. But in a good way…
To process MooCam exposures I’m using a Combi-Plan 45, but orienting the film horizontally in the slots so that they’ll fit one of the pre-set notches perfectly. With the top edge of the film coming up barely half way up the tank, I can’t use the top holder that slips over the handle to keep the film sheets in place, but it didn’t present any problem because I stand developed the batch so that there was minimal agitation. Also, I use less chemicals with the film oriented sideways in the tank.
I’ve done three more exposures, but want to do three more before processing together — 6 sheets is the most economical with the Combi-Plan. Although I made MooCam quickly just for fun and the idea of it without thinking I’d use it much, it’ll definitely occupy a niche position in my lens and lensless arsenal….
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