I think I got this camera from The Photography Show in Birmingham 2022. If I am right, then I got it at the charity table for £10. Otherwise, I have no idea. But I did know I had a roll of expired Ilford FP4 that I wanted to use in a Brownie and this camera was in my sorting box. If you gave me this film, thank you. I should have written down where I got it from, but I didn’t.

The film expired in 1974, so I wasn’t expecting much from it. Oh, how wrong I was.

Anyway, here is the camera.

The camera was produced between 1957-60. It has a close-up lens, a built-in yellow filter, a tripod socket, and a shutter lock. There is also a flash connector, hence the name, but I don’t have any way to use that. If someone could invent a hot shoe adapter that slots in that connection, that would be great. It takes 620 film and there was an empty spool inside which I switched to the take-up side. I rerolled the FP4 onto another 620 spool and loaded it.

The film was still in the box with all the original packaging. I have added photos here out of interest.

The Brownie gives you 8 shots to a roll of 120/620 and the numbers lined up perfectly with the red window. I took my example to Horse Shoe Falls and Valle Crucis Abbey near Llangollen. I expected the camera to shoot at around 1/50th, but knew the aperture was f14. The very bright sunlight should give me enough exposure, even with 50-year-old film.

The camera was in good condition considering its age, and the viewfinders were still very bright and clear. It made framing the shots easy. I didn’t notice until taking the photos for this blog, but at some point, the back connection must have broken as it is now held on by a wire. It was an effect repair as I there wasn’t any wiggling or looseness.

When I finally got home from camping, I developed the film in Adox Adonol using the information I garnered from this blog post.

I was amazed when I saw the negatives, there were clear images with little evidence of its actual age, as in, no age fogging.

The negatives looked better than a lot of less expired films I have developed.

Here are all of the scanned results.

The shot where you can see the window and the flagstones was taken in bulb mode. The inside shots were ambitious and I should have tried the bulb version once and saved the other two shots for exterior subjects. For a roll I was expecting to be blank, I am very pleased with the results. As for the camera, I love it. I gave away my other, similar Brownie so I will be keeping this one. You have to have a Brownie in your collection 🙂