Happy 112th Birthday, Brownie!

[radiophoto]

I heard on the radio today that the Brownie was first introduced on this date in 1900, so a big happy birthday to the good ol' Brownie -- the camera that merely made photography available to every man, woman and child on the planet.  That's all.

[LarryD]

How about in Bronze Pete.

Untitled-11 by inetjoker, on Flickr

[br1078lum]

Got my Brownie Bulls Eye ready for 620 day.

PF

[radiophoto]

Phil, is it this one? (these are neither my photos nor my cameras)


Or this one?


I'm very glad that you're looking forward to Six-20 Camera Day 2012!

[Olypen]

My daughter's grandmother-in-law -- a wonderful woman of nearly 100 years-- died this past summer.  Among her effects was a fine No. 2 Brownie-- a camera I had seen somewhere years ago, but never used. It was given to me so I replaced the horizontal and vertical mirrors-- everything else was in fine shape--and took some photos.  Here's one to contribute to the birthday celebration.  The subject, now known as the Blair Arcade, was for most of the 112 Brownie years known as the Angus Hotel, a residence hotel.  So from Angus to Brownie, Happy Birthday!



(Arista 100 dev. in D-76, 1:1)

[radiophoto]

Very nice pic, Olypen -- nice and sharp.  Nobody could say the Brownies didn't perform in the proper circumstances.

Back on Memorial Day 2009 I took a roll of 50-year-old Verichrome Pan and shot some pics of my boy with a Brownie Target Six-20, which I had converted to shoot 16 frames.  Here's a sample of that:



If you haven't seen the conversion project, click here to check it out.

[Olypen]

That's a very clever modification of the 620 Brownie and it works well -  nice photos of your son and scenes.  My first camera was an ancient Agfa Clipper which was half 616 and I've liked the vertical half frame format ever since.  The Clipper just had a metal frame vf which was a lot easier to use than the tiny, tiny vfs on the No 2 Brownie. 

[LarryD]

I am converting a clipper now. It is going slow as the ORWO project and the flue has smammed me... :-(

[br1078lum]

Phil, is it this one? (these are neither my photos nor my cameras)



I'm very glad that you're looking forward to Six-20 Camera Day 2012!

That be the one, Pete my boy.  It's a big hunk of Bakelite, and feels like a tank.

And get better, Larry.  Don't let the bug keep you down for long.

PF

[radiophoto]

Phil, I owned a Brownie Bull's-Eye for a short while, a couple years back.  Long story short, the seller refused to provide a feedback on the eBay transaction -- he had several thousand at the time, whereas I had only a couple hundred -- saying that he was not "required" to give it out and didn't care whether or not he received any, so I rode him too hard, pressing the point, and he ended up giving me negative feedback (sellers can't do this to buyers anymore) out of spite.  So I sent him his damn camera back with a letter hinting that he wasn't much of a human being.