Last year an old college friend sent me a Jiffy Kodak Six-20, Series II, that had been in his family since new. It came not only with its box, but also a letter his grandmother wrote him telling how she had used it to make family photographs for many years. My friend passed it on to me so it would have a good home, and perhaps see use again.
The camera was in good cosmetic condition. The only easily noticed flaw was that a little of the leatherette is peeling in one corner. But the bellows had developed a lot of pinholes, both in the corners and within the folds. I repaired all of them that I could find using black fabric paint. Then I spooled some expired Ilford FP4 Plus in 120 onto a 620 spool, loaded it into the Jiffy, and took it around with me wherever I went for a few days in late October last year.
I developed the roll in HC-110, Dilution B. I could tell just by looking at the negatives that I had not found all of the pinholes (probably; it’s not impossible there’s another source of leaking light). It wasn’t until I scanned the negatives, however, that I could see that most of the images were too blurry to be used.
Here’s the sharpest image on the roll. There’s a little flare and haze because the sun wasn’t perfectly behind me. The white splotches are light leaks.
Most images looked like this, however. The shutter lever is awkwardly placed when you shoot in landscape orientation, and I found it difficult to avoid shake. The lever is easier to operate in portrait orientation, but even then my portrait images suffered from some shake.
I’m a little put off this camera right now. I’ll come back to it later this year, find and repair more pinholes, and try again — moving that shutter lever very gently.
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