The Box Brownie

The box brownie was first introduced in 1900 and was widely recognised as bringing photography to the masses. Because of its relatively low cost and ease of use, it was the first camera that took photography out of the hands of the trained photographer and into the hands of everyone else. The result of this was the idea of snapshot photography, anyone could now take a photo of anything! The 1900 brownie is the first incarnation of the camera phone (just without the phone bit)


This is my Box Brownie


As can be seen in this photo it is a No.2 Brownie, model f. Although I have no idea about the exact date this particular one was made, from the patent information it's easy enough to guess that this camera is approximately 80 years old.


This image shows just how simple these things are! The metal lever toward the bottom left is the shutter. For instant shooting the lever in the top right stays in the lowered position. When the shutter is flicked either up or down it pushes on the spring which in turn rotates the round disk. The jelly bean shaped cut out in the disk allows light to travel through it, then through the lens behind, and for what I am guessing to be a 50th of a second, exposes the 120 film within the camera. If the lever in the top right is pulled upward the shutter will stay open once the lever is flicked until it is flicked a second time. The lever top center when pulled up, changes the camera between its 3 apertures which I understand to be f.16 f.22 and f.32. The top left hand corner is the two view finders for portrait and landscape.



My particular camera isn't in the best condition, but for its age I'm very happy with it considering I paid £1 for it off of ebay! The little mirror in the portrait vf had come away and was rattling around in the front of the camera. Unfortunatly half of it had smashed into little bits but there was one large bit thatIi managed to glue back in place. Its fair to say its not the clearest of views through either vf, infact you can barely make out anything, just fuzzy shapes, but that just adds to the fun!

This is the first film I have put through it and without really thinking I put an ilford HP5 400 iso roll in, not perhaps the most sensible choice considering that in the days of this camera most film was either 25 or 50 iso. I also perhaps rather stupidly hadn't noticed when I shot the film that I could change the aperture, so shot all day with the largest one. After realising my mistake I decided it best to develop the film for less time than required for 400 iso hp5. The results were fairly over exposed and low in contrast. I then couldnt find the 120 film loader for my scanner so just had to place them on the flat bed and hope for the best. They weren't held flat in the scanner which has, i think, added to the bluryness of the images. It has though also meant that I have been able to scan the whole image right to the edge of the neg and this has framed the images nicely! Also lets face it, if you are going to use a camera from the 20's you aren't likely on the road to perfection!
These photos have been run through lightroom to bring back a bit of contrast, but are otherwise as the scanner scanned them.

This first shot is what you get if you leave the shutter open when you put the film in. Using any new (or very old) camera is a learning curve, I wont make that mistake again! (although i do think it is quite a nice image, and it does make you wonder in the 109 years since the "snap shot" camera first came about how many photos like this have been taken!!)


My house.


Some of the works they are doing down toward diglis.


Slightly wonky shot of the old keepers cottage(?) down at diglis. One of the only truly pretty buildings left down there in the mass of souless architecture that is there these days.


Old dear with stick walking down by the river.


This one I like as I think it's pretty difficult to date.


Older folks getting up off a bench as I pointed my camera at them.


And finally my good buddy Mr. Deacon on his ice cream bike. Damn good bit of mint choc chip available at remarkably good price!!


£1 for the camera £4.99 for the film a few pence on chemicals and a bloody lovely ice cream (Deaks you can buy me a pint or a free icecream for this advertising) a damn good way to spend a friday afternoon!

Also a quick thank you to James and Hannah for providing me with the impetus to get this camera out and run a film through it!