This past weekend in Alameda, I couldn’t resist visiting one of my favorite antiques shops, where I found this Kodak Brownie camera for $25.
It’s a Brownie Target Six-20, made in 1946. I didn’t know if it was operational when I bought it, although the shutter fired, so it was a delight to get it open when I got home (because Chris and I both had to find the manual online to see how to get the darn thing open) and see it looking like new.
We’ve already ordered some film for it, which is 620 size, not 35 mm (also takes 120 if you roll it onto the 620 spool), and comes in rolls of 8 exposures. Just 8!
I can’t wait to learn how to use this little thing. It’s already wonderful as a prop for 1910s-1940s costume events, but even better that I’ll be able to take photos with it too. To me, that adds a whole new dimension to spending the day in vintage costume in an effort to connect with history :-).
2 Comments
Katherine Caron-Greig
November 1, 2011 at 11:11 PMI can't wait to see what you do with this!
I've had a 1917-1924 Brownie since August and have failed to do anything with it but clean it. I agree–the idea of using it really does add another dimension to costuming!
Lauren R
November 2, 2011 at 5:42 AMthis one needs a good cleaning too, as you can see, but we've already ordered film for it, so I'm determined! Chris is telling me it's quite hard to take a good photo with one of these, but I guess I'll just have to try it and see. onward!