Flint and Myself on a dog walk. Kodak Brownie Flash III box camera. Ilford FP4 Plus expired 2004. 120 film rolled onto 620 spindles.
Every now and then we like to take an ancient box camera out for a little simple fun. This time it was the Kodak Brownie Flash III. This is a very late box camera from Kodak, dating to circa 1958. Kodak replaced their box cameras during the early 1960s, with a wide range of plastic Brownies, some designed to use 127 roll film.
The box camera had a long and noble history – they were central to the popularisation of photography during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Kodak started making box cameras in their Brownie range in 1900. In 1901 they introduced 120 roll film, that for many years became associated with box cameras. This was film photography at it’s most simple and cheapest. A basic camera obscura – a box, often a cardboard box, with a cheap meniscus lens in a single hole on one side. Behind the lens, a simple spring shutter linked to a lever – a single stop shutter, and aperture. A basic roll film loader that slides out of the back of the box. A red window on the back of the box so that you could see the number of the exposure on the film backing paper. One or two little reflex viewers in the corner of the box to help you point the lens in the right direction. That was just about it. A single stop roll film camera built in a box. An idea that was taken up not only by Kodak, but by camera manufacturers around the World, and that lasted sixty years or more.
It took photography to the working classes, and it often took photography to youth. How many famous photographers started out with a box camera? I wonder if it could teach much to the youth of today, if they were given this, instead of a digital HD all singing dancing gadget camera? After the shock, they might even marvel at the beautiful and simple idea of capturing light in a box through a small aperture, onto a plastic film coated with emulsions of silver salts. Imagine children of the Digi Age … one stop, that means no exposure controls, not even manual. You have to match the camera to the light. Even the film was one stop, ASA 125.
I can just about remember building a camera obscura at school when I was quite young. I hope that they still teach this to kids today.
Returning to the above photo, this Kodak Flash Brownie was a late, and advanced model. It has toggles for two fixed focus zones (under ten feet away, or over), and for a yellow sky filter for B/W photography. It even has a fitting for a flash gun to be attached. High technology in 1958. It was designed to be used with Kodak’s 620 film format. I’ve often posted on this before, but to recap, Kodak 620 film and paper backing were identical to 120. However, in order to encourage consumers to buy Kodak film for Kodak cameras, the 620 spindles were different, so common 120 wont fit in the camera. Unfortunately, 620 film format is now obsolete. Ha ha, we can easily get around this. All that you need is a couple of old 620 spindles (most old broken box cameras have an empty spindle in them), and in a light proof environment (I use a film changing bag), you can roll a 120 film/paper backing off it’s modern 120 spindle, then back onto a 620 spindle. You just need to practice first a little in light, and lift the taped end up – release any slack, and push it back down. Tutorials are on Youtube. It takes five minutes a film.
In the above case, I used an old long expired Ilford FP4 Plus 120 film that needed using up. I’ve since reloaded it with an equally long expired Fujifilm Provia colour roll. Anita snapped away over a few days. Then I quickly developed and processed the film in diluted ID11. The negatives for this class of medium format box camera are huge. Massive 6 cm x 9 cm exposures – nine on a roll of film. Indeed, that’s part of the magic. Although I digitally scanned the film to produce images like the above, in future, should I wish to, I could very simply make a reasonably sized positive print from chemical process. It doesn’t need to be enlarged.
By the way, the Kodak Brownie Flash III camera that we used here – I bought it in a box of cameras and equipment for about five quid at a car boot sale – sold a Konica that came with it for a fat profit, so this box camera was basically free. It is in almost immaculate condition – as new (almost), and in it’s original carry case, with the owner’s address scribbled inside the bag.
We are going to continue using a box camera from time to time, and I’d recommend it to others. It is back to basics.
The Tight Fisted Photographer 