Kodak Brownie Holiday
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to drive up through Lancaster County with a camera. Ostensibly I drove up to visit my favourite restaurant one last time before it closed forever (today). Sadly, they were understaffed and so open only for takeout. We went next door for ice cream and soft pretzels instead.
Of course, my other reason for the trip was to take some pictures. I have had this Kodak Brownie Holiday sitting idle for way, way too long, and I had every desire to correct that.
One of the reasons for this camera's lack of activity was due to the film size; the Brownie Holiday uses 127 format film, which is larger than 35mm, but smaller than 120. I happened to find a fellow on eBay who takes 120 format Ilford film, cuts it, and re-rolls it onto 127 spindles. Win!
The film I used was an Ilford 400 black and white. The subject material was the train station at Strasburg Railroad. The developer I used was an instant coffee based "caffenol" developer. Seriously. Coffee. Is there anything it can't do?
I need to say, this time, I'm very happy with the results. I really, really am. My goal was to create a set of vintage looking photos through the use of a vintage camera and a developer that would leave grain. This is exactly what I was looking for.
The film in this camera allows for 8 images. 5 of them turned out. 3 did not. I'm pretty happy with that result. Of the "to keep" photos, this is the one turned out the most poorly.
I was lucky enough to see the train come in real time. The Strasburg Railroad is pretty awesome; not only does it have a collection of steam engines, but it also has the original train station. This one.
Finally, there was also this one steam engine idling on it's own, waiting to be put to good use.
I am going back to Strasburg in October, and I'll take a different camera with me. The place is just chock full of photo opportunities. I've recently come into possession of Minolta X-370 which I'm looking forward to using, and still have film in an Argus C=44 that needs finishing.
My other film cameras:
- Kodak Duaflex II
- Kodak Tourist
- Agfa B2 Cadet
- Agfa Pioneer
- Brownie Special Six-16
- Kodak Flashmite 20
- Exakta VX
- Graflex 22
- Kodak Retina II
- Canon FT QL
- Zenith Comet
(c) All images and photographs, unless otherwise specified, are created and owned by me.
(c) Victor Wiebe
About Me
Sometimes photographer. Wannabe author. Game designer. Nerd.
General all around problem-solver and creative type.
Creator of What I Learned Today Hive community: https://peakd.com/c/hive-131257/created
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beautiful series and again the strange looks Kodak Brownie camera :-) 💜
i never used 127 format film
lovely grainy vintage results
I remember the Brownie. My parents had one. My brother and I have all the family photos from 1944 on (the year my parents were married) and a number of them are in small packets as they came from the developer. Often there are 2 or 3 photos in the packet because the developer had humans monitoring the process and they didn't print the 'ooppss' views. My parents average was about 4 of 8 developed. It's no wonder they embraced 35mm like they did...
BTW, I have a fair number of photos that resemble yours. A bit fuzzy at the edges and incredibly light sensitive.
I've got a couple/a few workable black Brownie box cameras, too, and break them out every now and then. I'm actually going to a pre-civil war army fort this weekend; that might be a great place to try it out again.