Sent in! Toy and Box Cameras, Part I.
The first in a series, check out this Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash! Lovely!
In the words of it’s caretaker:
Recently, there are a lot of hooplas about toy and lo-tech cameras, thanks in part to websites like the Lomographic Society. As alternatives to the Holga and Diana cameras I thought I try the original point and shoot vintage cameras of the 1940s and 50s. They can be gotten from Ebay or flea markets much cheaper and are better constructed.
The first one I got was the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash, a simple bakelite box camera from the 1950s. It has a simple meniscus lens with one aperture, approximately f16 or f22, two shutter speeds, about 1/30 of a second and a B setting for timed exposure. The image is viewed through a small bubble window on top reflected though a polished mirror in front of the camera.
The camera is designed to take the practically discontinued 620 medium format film, however, my Brownie Hawkeye can take 120 film rolls provided the 620 take-up spool is used at the receiving end. It produces 12 6X6cm images. An accessory flash gun (hence the name), close-up attachment and yellow filter are also originally available with these cameras.
And finally, my favorite part, some photos taken with it:
For the second photo, the lens of the Brownie Hawkeye was flipped to produce the soft edge effect. Uber cool!
