Brownie diary (3)

I'm aware that this is in danger of getting very nerdy.

So ... if you'd like to see the first roll of "proper" photographs from my Brownie, click here for an album or a slide show.

If not, feel free to surf onward to somewhere else.

If you venture below the line, be warned that you will sink up to your waist in minutiae of interest only to people who want to use obsolete childhood artefacts in making pictures the hard way...

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I am still keen to find a 620 spool, but have discovered ways to get around its absence.

First, it's possible to make a spool, using very thin wood dowel as the spindle and disks cut from thin plastic as the ends.

Second, if you have the patience you can grind down an empty 120 spool by working it against glass paper on a flat surface. A bit of dowel once again aligns the centre.

Finally, you can do without the feed spool altogether if you work entirely in the dark. Unroll the 120 film from its spool, carefully rewind it again, place the result in the Brownie's feed chamber and thread it round to the take up spool (you do need that one) and close the camera. Now you can turn the light on, and the whole thing works.

Whichever method you use, the rewinding of the film after removing it from the 120 spool is the difficult bit. The loose end of the film has to be held exactly in position against the backing paper until rewound, or you will get wrinkles which cause nightmarish problems.

In my batch of 120 film, at least, the necessary eight numbers, aligned with the red window for accurately winding on film between frames, are missing. Since it seems better to wind on too much than too little, I only got six frames on the roll.

Brownie diary (2)

Here we go. First result from the Brownie.

Not exactly inspiring, as an image, I have to confess. But then, nor were my first pictures taken with it ... of course, I was only eight years old the first time round and I can't claim the same excuse now.

Only one aperture (measures at f/12) and one shutter speed (seems to be around 1/50 second, at a guess) unless you go for the "B" setting (shutter stays open as long as you hold the button down). The rest is down to exposure latitude.

Lots of sploshing around of chemicals in the dark. Since I'm working with hand trimmed sheet, a spiral is out of the question; the tank would make a perfectly serviceable drum processor if rolled around on its side, but I prefer to start with happy memories of the dish processing basement days before I had even a makeshift proper darkroom.

Still and all ... it's an image, and I'm absurdly pleased with it.

I've had an email from Martin Edwards, who pointed me to a potential source of 620 film and may possibly have a spool for me.

Isn't it exciting?

Brownie diary (1)

In a recent post (and in another, further back, to which it referred) I mentioned my first camera: a Kodak Six-20 Brownie C.

That Brownie is responsible for the whole shape of my whole life. No, I don't mean a box shape ... a wonderfully, endlessly fractal, complex shape.

For many years, the Brownie was only a memory but, as chance would have it, the global tides of history and family movement have just cast it up again on my shores. There it is, on the left.

The 620 film format is lost in the mists of time, but the actual film stock is identical to 120 and 220 which are still available. I only have one 620 spool, which is a stumbling block. One spool is supposed to be in the camera, the film used to arrive wrapped on another. I have the one in the camera, but 120/220 film come on their own, differently designed core. It's not an insurmountable problem, and I shall have a roll of film in there one way or another ... but if you have a spare 620 spool (or even complete roll of film?) about your person, well, you know what to do!

In the mean time, I've chopped down some 5"×4" sheet film to the appropriate size, and painted home made emulsion onto some scraps of celluloid sheet. With black insulating tape over the film window, and a dark bag in tow, I shall sally forth to try my luck in single shot mode.

Watch this space for results.