Putting a Roll Through

Kodak Pony II photos: Putting a Roll Through

By Daniel J. Schneider Posted:
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Kodak Pony II test roll
An apartment building in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)

At long last, the photos from my Kodak Pony II 35mm film camera! I apologize for the long delay since my last Putting a Roll Through post. I’ve been a little busy since Colorado was hit by one of the most destructive wildfires in U.S. history and one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, all in less than a month. That’s not to ignore the significance of a lot of other news lately, and an election year, but it’s really been especially crazy in the newsroom.

I found the Kodak Pony II at an antique mall in Denver along with another inexpensive vintage camera. As usually, I’ll discuss the history and details of the Kodak Pony II in a companion post; this one is more about the images it produced.

I was instantly fascinated by its exposure value calculation system which compensates for its lack of variable shutter speed. As you can see in the photos above, gauging the right focus distance isn’t easy at all. And a guesstimate of distance is the best measure you have of what’s going to be in focus in any given frame without pacing off the distance.

Kodak Pony II test roll
A detail of the large water feature outside the PERA building on the corner of 13th Avenue and Pennsylvania Street in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
The steps and entry of a historic Denver Square (aka American Square) style home in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
The fountain and courtyard of the historic Queen Ann style Pennborough Mansion in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, built in 1891. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
Two squirrels and a tree in a corner on the front of a historic home in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
An entrance to what was probably once a gangway between two tightly-spaced buildings, 11th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
An alley off of 11th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
A door on 11th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
Side view of the Broadway Plaza Motel on Broadway at 11th Avenue in Denver. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
The 11th Avenue Motel on 11th Avenue and Broadway in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
The Broadway Plaza Motel on Broadway at 11th Avenue in Denver. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
The Jonas Bros. Furs building on Broadway in Denver; the ground floor and basement are now home to a nightclub, Bar Standard. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
A door on 11th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
A Capitol Hill apartment building named The Buckingham in Denver. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
A door on 11th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
A house on 12th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
Johnny Cash mural on the side of Bender’s Tavern on 13th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
‘1300’ — an address marker at the PERA building on 13th Avenue in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
The Denver Women’s Press Club, the first women-only press club in the United States, on Logan Street near 13th Avenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
A 1973 or 1974 Toyota FJ-40 Land Cruiser, though aside from the grille badging it could easily by a ’67 or ’68. 13th Avenue and Grant Street, Capitol Hill, Denver. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
I believe this is a 1969 Volvo 144, a car just the right age for a Pony II to have still been in regular service, so I had to put the two together. Grant Street, Capitol Hill, Denver. (Daniel J. Schneider)
Kodak Pony II test roll
Camelita House is a great example of the architecture that lies in the brief gray period between the height of art deco and the beginning of Googie; the Bauhaus school’s influence on art deco is strong, too. Grant Street, Capitol Hill, Denver. (Daniel J. Schneider)

All these images were taken with Efke KB100 black & white film, developed in Kodak HC-110E (1:49 mixture) for 7 minutes at 69°F. I scanned them with an Epson Perfection V600 scanner. Photoshop work included minor dust removal from scanning using the content-aware (seems to help preserve natural film grain while removing unwanted dust) clone stamp and healing brush tools, and slight exposure adjustments on some frames using a levels adjustment layer.

I used the exposure values for Kodak Plus-X film listed on the camera’s EV chart, and the exposures came out very well, with a few being just very slightly over-exposed. Plus-X has an ISO of about 80, roughly half a stop slower than my KB100, so it was no surprise that some of my pictures were 1/3 or 2/3 over. Fortunately the Efke is very forgiving film with medium-to-high contrast and fine or very fine grain, and high edge sharpness due to its classic grain and high silver content. The overexposure was very easy to correct for with minimal adjustment and yielded good contrast in the finished images while preserving detail quite well in the shadows.

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