Camera Talk

Hi all -

First, happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

My daughter was in the UK for a school program in winter this year. Apparently while in London she went to the Camden Market and found me this for a Father's Day gift, which I received today.



A Made In England Kodak Brownie Reflex. I'd never heard of one of these. 127 format, instant and bulb settings, meniscus lens. Apparently made 1940 - 1941. Like my parents. Seems like these are popular in the lomo crowd. There doesn't seem to be much to go wrong with it - shutter (a rotary one) seems to fire fine. No aperture, no film advance (other than a wheel to wind), red window is intact. Viewing is fine. It's a pretty cool little camera, and Maddie was so excited about it. There's a surprisingly wide array of film available in 127 these days, though finding 100 ISO film for less that $30 a roll is a little sketchy. Bought some Shanghai off of eBay. We're ready. Looked up specs and it seems it's about 1/50 at f/11.

Spending a lot of time (though never enough) in Delaware these days. Will be taking this to the boardwalk in Rehoboth next time we're down. Also have the Fed 5B she got me in Italy that I haven't shot yet. And a Speedex Special R that I've been working on for several years (yep - collecting duin the basement). I haven't shot any film in almost a year - about time to get back into it.

Stay tuned...

Scott

Happy Fathers Day, you have raised your daughter well!

That's a nice way to add cameras to the collection without upsetting your better half
Congrats on the nice new camera.

Daughters are the best for this kind of thing. Mine is the gift-giving champ of the family. Look forward to seeing what you can make of it in Rehoboth!

Robert

Thanks, guys. She was really excited about this one, and the Fed. I have to admit - the idea of shooting without focusing, setting shutter speed or aperture and getting what you get is kind of liberating. We'll see if it pans out in practice.

Should be fun to use. You can get more info here: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Kodak_Brownie_Reflex
It would appear that the model made in the UK by Kodak Ltd London was made from 1946 onwards. This makes sense as Kodak Ltd UK devoted it's resources entirely to military materiel between 1939 and 1946. It looks like yours is the "Synchro" model which accepted a dedicated flash gun.

Shutter and aperture is pretty standard for old box cameras. I've got a few that are all the same set-up. Sometimes you come across a model that will have a built-in yellow filter that comes in handy on a sunny day.

PF