{"id":4118,"date":"2017-01-30T20:14:43","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T19:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=4118"},"modified":"2025-10-16T14:13:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:13:41","slug":"the-no-2a-folding-pocket-brownie-still-going-strong-after-105-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=4118","title":{"rendered":"The No. 2A Folding Pocket Brownie: still going strong after 105 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No.I<\/a>\u00a0have most of my collection of 100-plus cameras on a couple of shelves made from old Indian doors whose multiple layers of paint was peeling. \u00a0By collector standards it’s not many, but it’s enough so that they grab your attention when you walk into the room. \u00a0Eventually they ask, “Do any of them still work?” and are surprised to hear that in fact\u00a0most\u00a0<\/em> of them still work. \u00a0“Yeah but can you still find film for them?”<\/p>\n

Yes, but sometimes you have to get creative.\u00a0\u00a0 Definitely the case for this camera.<\/p>\n

The “No. 2A” (don’t ask me how the numbering works) is oddly called a “pocket camera” – odd because you’d need pretty huge pockets. \u00a0The camera is 8.5 inches wide, two inches deep, and nearly 4 inches tall. \u00a0I suppose back in 1910 when they started making these, competing cameras were all significantly larger, so maybe it was all relative. \u00a0But for 7 bucks ($170 in today’s dollars) you had an attractive camera that was relatively portable and simple to operate.<\/p>\n

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According to the website Brownie-Camera.com,<\/a> they made about 120,000 of these, starting in February 1910 until about November 1915. \u00a0They are all serial-numbered, and mine is 57635, which puts it around mid-1912 because in November 1912, starting with serial number 62,551, they manufactured them with black bellows instead of red. \u00a0I like the red bellows.<\/p>\n

This camera used one of the many film sizes that existed in the early days of cameras – 116. \u00a0It was a bit smaller than some of the other film spools of that time but still bigger than 120 film, which is the largest you can reliably find nowadays. \u00a0So one way to make this camera work is to find an old roll of 116 film where you can salvage the backing paper and spool (it’s not always possible – sometimes the old film is fused to the paper); and you get a roll of 120 film – easily orderable by mail.<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in trying to use 120 film in place of 116, 616, or any other old spool film that’s at least as wide as 120, check out this video.<\/p>\n