# 120 brownie cam help



## lathamemmons (Aug 9, 2006)

i bought a brownie hawkeye and im going to use 120 on a 620 spool
but i dont know any thing about 120 so plz tell me whats going on.
what size is the negitive ? i have a old enlarger with a 2x2 inch neg carrier is it the right size.
i have three 620 camera's whitch one should i use   brownie hawkeye flash model-agfa synchro box-kodak duaflex iv with the kodet lens.


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 9, 2006)

You negative will be 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 I am pretty sure.  You can tell by how many shots your camera will take... 12 shots is 2 1/4 x 2 1/4    8 shot is 2 1/4 x 3 1/4.. Your current enlarger will work you just have to make a carrier that size usually you can make one from poster board.

I think the three cameras are pretty much equal all things considered.

I have a hawkeye and a duoflex and have shot the duoflex once I converted it to a pinhole comera.  I have never shot the brown hawkeye


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## lathamemmons (Aug 9, 2006)

hmm thx alot man my current carrier will work if it will shoot 12


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 9, 2006)

yes and it will also work if you want to print most of the 8shot size.  But its really easy to make a negative carrier so you might do that.

the main thing is your lens will cover either negative so you are in good shape.


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## lathamemmons (Aug 9, 2006)

so do you just cut a hole in 2 pecies of white card board or something?
i have 2 50mm lens and a 80 or 90 im not sure


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 9, 2006)

the 90 is for the 2inch wide negs... get a piece of poster board cut it in the shape of your negative holder and then make the opening a half inch larger on each side than the 2 inch opening you have now.  You should be able to fit it in the enlarger and go to it.

You can also scan them in on a flat bed scanner.  If you just want to proof them before printing.


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## journeyman (Aug 10, 2006)

I was told by my photo store guy that it's diffucult to shoot with browines because it was sent in to the manufactuer where the film was removed developed and then a fresh roll was put in and sent back to you with your pictures.

However, he has not been very reliable in the past so he may be just ignorant to the fact.


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 10, 2006)

I have never tried to shoot an old brownie box but if it is the brown hawkeye flash that im thinking of its a 1950ish plastic camera meant to be opened and processed.  

At least thats what I thought he meant.


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## terri (Aug 10, 2006)

lathamemmons, if it looks anything like this, you might find this handy. 




aside: What is it about those old manuals? They just wring my heart. :love:


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## lathamemmons (Aug 10, 2006)

yep terri thats the one
journeyman you photo guy is on crack man my dad owned one when he was a kid and you deff didnt ship it back to kodak every time you shot a roll,think how much shipping would cost every few days.
thx for the help


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 10, 2006)

yeah thats the one i thought it was.  If you go father back with the brownie it was a sealed box camera and had to be shipped back to the factory.  Long before this one though.  In those days they were wood with leather over them.  Sometimes terri ie was red leather.


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## Luke_H (Aug 10, 2006)

I've been using my BHF for a year now.. I put 120 in the 'giving' side and it works fine. No need to respool onto 620 spools.  Format it 6x6cm or 2.25x2.25" so your negative carrier will work fine. 

however, if you pay to have it developed, make sure to get your metal spool back.

Some models require you to respool because the 120 roll won't fit in the camera.. They made the things from the late 40s to late 50s.

C A M E R O S I T Y
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

You can look at codes inside of yours and match the letters to the numbers to determine what year yours was made.

eg: CARM = 1253, December, 1953

I flipped the lens in mine to get the tunnelvision effect:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/luketrash/tags/brownie/

Some of my shots out of my camera.. I have three I guess.. One is my wife's and the other is not modified, and I have not used it yet.

This is the camera that took all the photos:


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## Luke_H (Aug 10, 2006)

Oh, by the way, the Duaflex will indeed require you to spool 120 film onto 620 rolls in order to use.

However, it's easy once you've done it.. spool 120 from one roll to another unused 120 roll.  Then to the 620 roll.  You MAY (I never need to) untape the 70mm film from it's position and retape it at frame #1 due to a discrepency in thickness of the spool core.

I use a changing bag and do multiple rolls at once and listen to the televison while I do it.


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 10, 2006)

I'm glad to know it's six by six i never shot mine...


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## terri (Aug 10, 2006)

Luke_H said:
			
		

> Oh, by the way, the Duaflex will indeed require you to spool 120 film onto 620 rolls in order to use.
> 
> However, it's easy once you've done it.. spool 120 from one roll to another unused 120 roll. Then to the 620 roll. You MAY (I never need to) untape the 70mm film from it's position and retape it at frame #1 due to a discrepency in thickness of the spool core.
> 
> I use a changing bag and do multiple rolls at once and listen to the televison while I do it.


Hi Luke - have you considered buying 620 film? You can get it here in various speeds, color or B&W. This place has a great reputation, though I've not yet tried it for my old Duaflex.


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## Luke_H (Aug 10, 2006)

terri said:
			
		

> Hi Luke - have you considered buying 620 film? You can get it here in various speeds, color or B&W. This place has a great reputation, though I've not yet tried it for my old Duaflex.


 
Nobody makes true 620 though.. it's 120 spools that have been plugged in the middle and cut around the edges.  It won't necessarily fit into a 620 camera with close tollerances like perhaps the Duaflex Kodaks.

I pay $1.29 for a roll of b&w 120 film from Freestyle Photo, so it's worth my while to just reroll it onto a 620 spool. It's really not difficult.. (After you figure out the first time what to do.)


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## terri (Aug 10, 2006)

Sure! Suit yourself - we all do. The films available here include Tmax and TriX which I enjoy, so it's worth it to me in that regard as well as not having to respool.


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## lathamemmons (Aug 10, 2006)

wow luke i love the whole switched lens thing it looks like your useing a lens baby.
so do you just flipp the lens over?


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## Luke_H (Aug 10, 2006)

Yeah, the bakelite is a bit fragile, but using a phillips screwdriver, you can take the screws out of the front silver plate and remove/clean the viewfinder and the lenses.  If you flip it, you get the lensbaby effect.  It seems more interesting than the Holga to me.

Terri, I understand totally.  I've just been warned by others that it's not true 620 film.  They grind plastic 120 spools down to emulate the original 620 size and I think they mention no guarantee that they would fit in all cameras. 

The Brownie Hawkeye Flash and my Argus Super 75 can both hold 120 spools, so it's not an issue there.  But I do have several 620 cameras sitting at home that I need to use more often.


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## lathamemmons (Aug 10, 2006)

what speed of film do you use?


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## Luke_H (Aug 10, 2006)

The color stuff is 160 speed, either Kodak Portra NC or Fuji NC160...  400 speed like Tmax 400 is almost too fast for daylight, outdoors.  I use 100 speed Arista EDU (fomapan 100) in it now.   But 100-400 will work during the day, outside.  Just a guesstimate, but it seems like the fstop is around f13 and shutter is about 1/75th.   And it varies by camera as to how fast the shutter is after all these years.

Everything I've put through it has turned out OK though.


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## lathamemmons (Aug 10, 2006)

so tmax 100 should do ok on a sunny day


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 10, 2006)

there are a couple of articles somewhere on the net about how to make the brownie haweye a x sync for strobe.


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## lathamemmons (Aug 10, 2006)

yea i seen those.
im thinking about making a tripod plate thing to fit the flash screw hole


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## mysteryscribe (Aug 10, 2006)

Thats a good idea to


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## lathamemmons (Aug 11, 2006)

ok i got some tmax 120 on the way


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## burtharrris (Dec 28, 2006)

My girlfriend's dad collects cameras, and actually just gave me a Brownie Hawkeye Flash, in the original box, with all the flashbulbs.  She bought me two rolls of 620.  I'm too nervous to use it, haha. 

Anyway, I figure it's fixed focus: whats the closest focusing distance?

And I assume its auto-exposure: is it always set for daylight balance?  I guess if I ever use it indoors I need the flash?


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## Karalee (Dec 29, 2006)

Shutterspeed is set around 1/30th of a second I believe on the bhf, so yes use a flash if you can indoors, or use the bulb setting. I have 2, on both of mine I can put a regular roll of 120 on the top, and keep the 620 spool as the take up spool.


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 29, 2006)

not that it makes the slightest big of difference but  I think the ss is 1/50... the reason is kodak set most of its. brownies there to keep the camera shake down a little.  I seems to work since picture with those things are reasonably solid looking from the day.


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## Karalee (Dec 29, 2006)

yes sorry your right its 1/45


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 29, 2006)

Actually then you are right and I am wong I thought it was 1/50 so I was wrong sorry...

I should also mention there is a set of directions on how to adapt it to electronic flash.  You can google it.


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## Karalee (Dec 29, 2006)

We were close - you were closer, I had to look it up


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## mysteryscribe (Dec 29, 2006)

I should have looked it up instead of guessing. I did not do that strobe conversion but it looked easy enough.


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