Kodak Brownie

whereto now

Wondering if anyone knows where I can get a brownie repaired, its been sitting in a cupboard for 40 years and a friend noticed it yesterday and we took it down. He looked and said its broken inside, I don't know much about these things but would love to have someone look at it.....

DaireQuinlan

whereto now wrote: »

Wondering if anyone knows where I can get a brownie repaired, its been sitting in a cupboard for 40 years and a friend noticed it yesterday and we took it down. He looked and said its broken inside, I don't know much about these things but would love to have someone look at it.....

What's wrong with it ? If it's a box brownie there's not much that CAN go wrong.

whereto now

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

What's wrong with it ? If it's a box brownie there's not much that CAN go wrong.

Like I said I don't know much about these things.... what does a box brownie look like ? I'm not at home now to look at it but I'm pretty sure its got the number 127 on the front... I'll have a look at it this evening.

Effects

I know the springs in the shutter in mine rusted a bit and that caused a problem. Fixed it myself though.

DaireQuinlan

whereto now wrote: »

I'm pretty sure its got the number 127 on the front...

This might be a bigger problem. Couple of brownies that I have all take readily available 120 roll film. 127 is a little more difficult to come by. There are a couple of B&W emulsions you can get, including one from Efke, but you'll have to source them online somewhere. You might try www.thephotoshop.ie, see if he can source it for you.

whereto now

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

This might be a bigger problem. Couple of brownies that I have all take readily available 120 roll film. 127 is a little more difficult to come by. There are a couple of B&W emulsions you can get, including one from Efke, but you'll have to source them online somewhere. You might try www.thephotoshop.ie, see if he can source it for you.

Thanks for that DaireQuinlan, although at the moment I'm looking to have this camera repaired so I was trying to find someone who could do this. When I posted originally I was'nt sure of the problem but on checking last night I saw that the spindle for the film is missing on the right hand side. The knob for rewinding the film on the top does'nt work as a little bit is missing so it does'nt grip the little piece of spindle that comes out of the camera.

So if anyone knows of someone who could repair this camera that'd be great.

CabanSail

You should only have one spool. The other is in the roll of film.

Unless this camera has sentimental value you may be better off buying one that is working.

DaireQuinlan

Best bet if you want to get it working is to buy one on eBay and use it as a parts camera, or, y'know, just use it, and convince yourself it's the same one. Or you could fashion the missing piece from a piece of brass shim or wood or sugru or something similar.

Not entirely clear from your post, but there most likely should be one spool in the camera already in the loading spindle. If so you're good to go, moved it into the feed spindle once you're finished your repairs. If there're none at all you'll need to pick up one empty one as well when you're buying the film.

Heebie

120 film is compatible with 127 spools. As long as you have one 127 spool, you should be able to shoot with a brownie. (That's what I do when I use it.)

You can actually buy some film still in 127 format, which will get you a spool, and any photolab that still develops medium-format film can probably provide you with a 120 spool, and maybe 120 film as well.

Once you have a spool, you need a darkroom or dark bag in order to manually respool the film on the 127 reel onto the 120 reel, if you don't have any 127 reel to use to shoot with.

Once you have an EMPTY 127 spool/reel, you just shoot with it from the 120 spool. The film winds off of the 127 spool, and onto the 127 spool, and you have to be VERY careful that when you get it developed (If you don't do it yourself) that they give you the 127 spool back, so you can use it again. One 127 spool is enough as long as you're not going to shoot more than 12 6x6 format shots. (that's what brownies take)

220 film will fit in the camera, but it doesn't have a backing through the entire roll of film, so the window on the back of the camera that lets you see the exposure numbers would cause the film to be exposed, ruining it, so stick with 120.

whereto now

Thanks for all the very helpful replies folks..:D