Almost nothing is known about this camera, other than its name and where it was made: Chicago. Of course, as well, I have no idea whether this camera was named for the hotel or the salad. I couldn't find anything written about it but I did find a collector's site that has photographs of nearly 50 similarly shaped (but differently named) cameras.
The Waldorf (and its cousins) takes 127 film, producing 16 slightly overlapping half-frame pics by way of two red windows on the back, marked A and B.
I got the camera, with some exposed film inside, in August 2009 from a fellow collector/photographer (thanks, Todd!) who had no way of developing the 127 film himself. I ended up developing it in Caffenol-C, a mixture of sodium carbonate, vitamin C powder, water, and instant coffee.
In addition, there was a problem with the shutter that was easily fixed, once I discovered what was causing it: the plastic assembly that holds the lens and houses the shutter had a slot for the shutter lever that had too short a throw, thus allowing the plenty of misfires (in fact, the found film images are so few because of this problem -- there were many blank frames on the negative). A few careful moments with a file allowed me to lengthen the throw, and then the shutter fired every time.
The images produced from this "found film", and a roll that I shot myself, are posted below. The found film is identified by FF in the cutline. The more recently exposed roll's images follow the found film.
I've kept the found film's overlapped images together to show what the negative looks like, somewhat. Be sure to read the captions that appear when you click on an individual image.
The Waldorf (and its cousins) takes 127 film, producing 16 slightly overlapping half-frame pics by way of two red windows on the back, marked A and B.
I got the camera, with some exposed film inside, in August 2009 from a fellow collector/photographer (thanks, Todd!) who had no way of developing the 127 film himself. I ended up developing it in Caffenol-C, a mixture of sodium carbonate, vitamin C powder, water, and instant coffee.
In addition, there was a problem with the shutter that was easily fixed, once I discovered what was causing it: the plastic assembly that holds the lens and houses the shutter had a slot for the shutter lever that had too short a throw, thus allowing the plenty of misfires (in fact, the found film images are so few because of this problem -- there were many blank frames on the negative). A few careful moments with a file allowed me to lengthen the throw, and then the shutter fired every time.
The images produced from this "found film", and a roll that I shot myself, are posted below. The found film is identified by FF in the cutline. The more recently exposed roll's images follow the found film.
I've kept the found film's overlapped images together to show what the negative looks like, somewhat. Be sure to read the captions that appear when you click on an individual image.
