Testing the Kodak Brownie No. 0 Model A

It seems that camera naming conventions have never been simple.  The Kodak Brownie No. 0 Model A was manufactured between 1914 and 1935.  It was a small cardboard/wood and box camera with a rotary shutter and two reflecting finders. It sold for $1.25 and is said to take remarkably sharp 6 by 4 cm exposures, “if held correctly.”

Kodak No. 0 Brownie Model A

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This particular one, a gift from my parents, was made between 1914 and 1917. You can tell by the square decorative markings on the front, and the location of the tension spring that holds the roll of film in place.

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A few weeks ago I loaded this one up with one of my last remaining rolls of Efke 127 film and carried it around on my next couple of photowalks. As tends to be the case when I use these old box cameras, a few of the shots were ruined because I didn’t take them in bright enough light. There is a little lever you can pull that allows you to keep the shutter open for a timed exposure, but I’m not confident enough to do that; so I need to use enough light to get into the f/11 aperture and 1/60s (or so) shutter. Here’s what I ended up with:

In the Shade

Wagon Wheels

The first couple of shots are from Marina Beach in Chennai – a couple of kids trying to catch some shade, and the wheels of one of the dozens of snack carts that ruin sit on the beach. I also tried a couple of shots of a pedestrian bridge, thinking the patterns would work well in black and white.

Bridge

Bridge

And finally, a shot of Thousand Lights Mosque, and a human subject, again on the beach.

Mosque

Gaze

I thought the camera did OK for being 100 years; but given what I have seen other people do with these old cameras, I still feel like I’m not quite getting the hang of it. It’s a shame the film for these things is starting to be in such short supply – many of the cameras that use 127 film still work perfectly fine. And on top of that, they’re cute!

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