Excited about my first Kodak Brownie!

Not one, but two!!

SO I heard that this is the most inherited camera of all time, but I guess I was not that lucky. I had to go out and buy mine and got two beautiful brownies ... see the picture above. The cameras were made by the Eastman Kodak Company. The company itself has a cool history, which you can read about here: https://www.kodak.com/en/company/page/history/

There are a ton of different models, to find out more I recommend reading Chuck Bakers website on the Brownie (https://www.brownie-camera.com/ )

The camera ads and posters from over a hundred years ago are just doll!! The camera I am trying today was produced in England between 1947 and 1953 (vertical stripes). The lens is a meniscus lens at f/11, 100mm but I do not have the slide-in portrait lens. A meniscus lens has one convex (curves outward) and one concave side (curves inward) to reduce blur in photos. This combination has been used because it is cheap, and provides a compromise between sharpness and depth of field. I let you decide....see the photos. It does not focus at arms length or even within 2 meters.

As I bought two different models, I tried out the SIX-20 "Brownie" E because it looked easier to open!

The back just has a simple latch and you can take out the film assembly for the take up spool and your film. I found out the 120 film cartridge did not fit, but I had previously bought some 620 cartridges for my Agfa Ansco folding camera. More on that later...seems technology is on a slight back foot with me.

First time to wind the film in the dark bag, straightforward, had my gloves on, unwound the film from the 120 spool, taking care not to lose the end of it from the backing paper (only the front is stuck on) and rewound on the 620 spool, taping it off with a bit of Washi tape. Easy!

Also gave the TWO viewfinders a bit of a clean (I found this is definitely one of the coolest features - one viewfinder each for Portrait Mode, another for Landscape Mode). They are easy to look through and find your subject.

Had a nice afternoon at the beach, had a barbecue with family and friends. The camera sparked lots of interest and everyone had a go. Being a Noob with 620 format, as it's my first time shooting with it, I was surprised to get only 8 frames.....but when I developed the film, oh my! What frames they were indeed! Huge! Totally in love with this format now!

If you have one sitting around, I really urge you to give it a go!