Brownies!

Just found this thread. I love the idea of a Brownie section. I shoot with all kinds of toy cameras but I keep going back to my (many) Brownie Hawkeyes, with both flipped and unflipped lenses. They are wonderfully simple, simply wonderful cameras.

2072744394_b1057b9b1b.jpg


2492912767_5714f3dee4.jpg


4210650206_70f8018ed5.jpg


BTW, these three were all shot with old, expired rolls of Verichrome Pan. The last one -- Santa, unflipped lens -- also involved a #5 flashbulb. Mmm, smoky.
 
Last edited:
I recently rescanned the first rolls of film I shot through my Kodak No.2 Box Brownie some 3 years ago at a World War 1 Living History event at the Memorial Museum PasschenDale in Belgium.
Back then I used 50 ISO film (I calculated this from the 1/30th shutter speed and thinking the largest aperture was f/11, but it turns out it was f/16) and I learned to cover up the red window the hard way.

When I scanned them 3 years ago, they came out way too dark. My scanner software couldn't handle the dark images. But now that I've got Vuescan I've been able to wring much more detail from the negatives.

Here are some of the results, light leaks and all
zb07-01.jpg


zb07-02.jpg


zb07-03.jpg


zb07-04.jpg


zb07-05.jpg


zb07-06.jpg


Next week the No.2 will get another outing at the same event. But this time I'll be loading it with some Kodak BW400CN.
 
Great thread with lots of info and some great shots too! I particularly enjoyed the link to the service manuals for the brownies! Whilst reading the one for the "welded" series I laughed out loud at the list of tools required for the service,,, number one on the list was a 4oz HAMMER!!! 🙂

Anyway, I have a small collection of brownies which I use when I can, I even used one on a commercial shoot recently and the band picked those shots over the shots taken with my 1DsmkIII ! hehe...

Anyhow I was really inspired by Sanders lens flipping stuff so I have just added a Hawkeye flash to my little collection courtesy of *bay.... I gave it a CLA, well a C&A really, no lube.. (!) just a good clean and I adjusted the flash timing... (more on that later)
I stripped it down, got the lens all clean, flipped it! got the front grey panel off and removed the glass cover and cleaned that, cleaned the viewfinder and mirror and then I adjusted the flash timing after finding this page on the WWW...... http://www.cwclemens.com/ConvertingBrownie/BrownieFlash.html

I will have to wit until I get to the studio tomorrow to see if it works, looking forward to hooking this up to the profoto pack! haha

I taped some greaseproof paper to the back at the film plane and with a dark cloth over my head found the "sharpest" zone of focus to lie around 2 to 3 feet.. perfect for headshots...

Just need to source some screws for the flash terminals.. (will bodge it for now) but living in metric land it might take a while.. back to *bay I think.... watch this space! 🙂
 
Last edited:
A couple of shots from 3 weeks ago at the Memorial Museum Passchendaele in Zonnebeke

Zb100427.jpg


Zb100431.jpg

The photographer of this shot never used a brownie before, so we get a bit of Camera shake...double smartsharpening in PS rescued my handsome good looks *cough* 😉
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom