A Day Spent with a Kodak Brownie

bmattock

bmattock

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OK, this is off-topic, since the Kodak Brownie is technically not a rangefinder. In fact, it's not much of an *anything,* since it lacks a rangefinder, focus mechanism, shutter speed adjustment, or aperture adjustment of any kind. Oh wait. It does have "B" in addition to the one shutter speed, but with no cable release capability and no tripod screw, I'm not sure what good that is.

The Brownie is a marque that has been used by Kodak since the beginning of the company, but the one I'm talking about is this one, which I bought on eBay for cheap. You could get one for a buck at a flea market...
 
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It takes 620 roll film, which is only available from a few sources these days. However, by happy coincidence, 120 roll film can be re-rolled onto 620 roll film spools - the film is the same width.

Even more fortuitously, this particular Brownie lets me slam a roll of 120 into it, as long as I use a 620 spool to take-up the film with. That's ok with me, I am using it with B&W and processing it myself...

Here's a shot from today.
 
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The camera has what is called a 'brilliant viewfinder', which is kind of like a TLR (twin-lens reflex). You hold the camera at waist-level and peer down into the viewfinder, and you see a reversed image. Not as big an image as the ground-glass from a TLR, though.
 
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Cheaper than a Holga and probably built better. Nice pic, what's the lens size? I have one on a shelf with the flash attatched, cracked lens though.

Todd
 
Todd.Hanz said:
Cheaper than a Holga and probably built better. Nice pic, what's the lens size? I have one on a shelf with the flash attatched, cracked lens though.

Todd
Click to expand...

Todd,

I really don't know the lens size, but I'd guess it to be about an 80mm. Roughly.
 
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I've got an older Brownie Reflex and a Kodak Duoflex IV that I've been eying as shooters. I'd be interested to see pictures from this camera. Who needs a Holga!
 
I did run into one problem while out shooting today...I only have one 620 spool, and I had two rolls of 120 film I wanted to shoot. Ooops.

I shot the first roll, then put the camera in my camera bag and tossed my coat over it. I put my arms in through the armholes and rerolled from the 620 spool onto the empty 120 spool I had just shot. Then I put the 620 spool back in the camera, reloaded, and I was back in business. However, apparently, I got a small light leak.
 
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I found the Kodak Brownie Hawkie easy to use - simple, really. Hard to do much wrong with it. I tried some indoor shots - no dice. You need a flash or just use this in sunny 16 kind of weather. I used a roll of Arista.EDU 100 film and a roll of Kodak T-MAX 400. The Arista was just fine, but it curls like crazy, makes it a bit hard to scan because it does not want to lay flat. But I like it just fine. Developed in D-76 (both rolls) and scanned on an Epson Photo 2400 with TPU (transparency adapter from Epson). I used Vuescan and The Gimp to edit the images.

Hope you enjoyed them!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
This is a fun series, Bill, and you got some excellent shots! My Aunt had one just like that when I was a kid. It looked so cool and 'modern' back then ...

Gene
 
Thanks for the memories, Mr. B! We had a family Brownie when I was growing up. I remember the smooth shutter action :)
 
Not sure, but I vaguely recall that this model Brownie was one of the first cameras with an acrylic lens.
 
Ditto on the Holga comment. Email me with your mailing address and I'll send off whatever 620 take up spools. I beileve I have two old metal spools somewhere.
 
Bill:

Great use of the resource at hand. Kinda of a "back to basics" approach.

This guy:

http://members.tripod.com/~CClemens/Brownie/Hawkeye.htm

has taken the Hawkeye to the extreme end to see what it can do. He even shows how to add an electronic flash sync. It inspired me to go out and buy a second one just so I can modify it. I'm trying to figure out how to install an electronic flash into the flash bulb gun.

I think the last models of the Hawkeye even had a tripod socket.

-Paul
 
Nice images Bill. I've looked at a few of these, seems there's at least one in every antique shop around, but couldn't tell if they worked or not so I didn't buy...
 
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