Film Photography – MikeHawkey.com

Today’s post is a family relic – my late Uncle Bills Kodak Six-20 Brownie Junior (Portrait Model). As the only one left shooting film(once in a blue moon now) in the family, I inherited one of his cameras he had from new.

Brownies had a long production run – in its various variants which were largely unchanged in complexity, they ran from about 1900 to 1986, initially ‘Eastman Kodak’ and later simply ‘Kodak’. The first models were wood and card (as this one is), later moving to sheet/stamped metal in later years as well as the bakelite and plastic offshoots of Brownie variants. Initially costing USD $1(about $40 now), they really were some of the first cameras truely responsible in bringing the magic of photography to the masses.

Uncle Bills Six-20 Brownie Junior (portrait) was released in 1939 and discontinued in 1943 – so a longer production run than your typical smart phone now days. It uses 620 film (literally the same as 120, but Kodak’s smaller reels to keep the $1 spender coming back to them for film) and features a basic meniscus lens with a pull out portrait lens which places itself between the lens and film when leave is pulled – flash stuff! It has a single speed shutter of about 1/40th – 1/50th and a T/Bulb option.

Until this year, it had been sitting on my shelf unused – entirely because the landscape mirror had detached itself and I was reluctant to open it up being it is nail pinned closed. But I wanted to revive it and give it another go out of retirement… so I opened it up. Overall it was a straightforward job opening up, gluing in the mirror, dry lubricating the shutter and giving the lens, mirrors and viewing windows a much needed clean – removing 80 odd years of tarnish. Putting it back together, nails back in and a light rub in near ancient ‘KIWI Shoe Polish’ (made since 1906, recently discontinued … and wow – expensive to get hold of now after I figured I needed more soon!)

Though I have re-rolled 120 onto 620 reels many a time, digging through my remaining film stock I found a roll of 100ASA Shanghai GP3 620 film! – a black and white panchromatic film, made in China, it is said to give a very old-fashioned feel to the photos (and is sometimes compared to Kodak Plus-X). Well… Im shooting on a camera in its mid-80’s, so that checks out fine.

Out in Auckland’s seaside township of Devonport, I climbed my well documented North Head/ Maungauika – roaming its old wartime setups. I then ventured to nearby Bayswater, its wharf area and the old Takapuna Boating Club building both reclaiming from and slowly falling back into the sea.This building as a side comment was technically not able to be restored historically due to some restrictions in a 1923 act in Law saying it was only for community purposes. The act has since been lifted and in theory allow the potential for it to be worked on…but its in a pretty serious state! Below are 6 of the 8 images from the shoot (the last two were portrait tests at home)

View to Devonport village and Auckland’s CBD

A combination of the GP3 film and raw simplicity of the 80+ year old box with a lens and single sliding shutter were fun to shoot. This really was the camera design that started it all off for us hobby shooters. Is it pin sharp – usually not, but it’s not horrible either. It carries a special look and feeling. Shooting it does with the challenge of a small dim viewing box and the risk of camera shake as you fumble for the toggle to release the shutter. At the same time, it’s silent. It needs you to think about your framing and slow down to try and get your levels right. In todays world, 8 shots of film is nothing – people chose their photos carefully.

I do love the raw simplicity of box cameras, and this won’t be the last time I shoot one. But for now, Uncle Bills camera can sit on display repaired, CLA’d and settled in the knowledge it can still capture a moment in time all these years later.

Boat locker view to Bayswater fishing wharf.

I’ve been slowly whittling down my film camera collection, keeping almost only units which have personal family history to them now. Whilst my fridge stocks of film are not exhausted, they are starting to run slim and at last count, my 120 film outnumbers my almost exhausted 35mm.

Today’s shots were from the last run I had with my Minolta X-570 before I sold it on. It does not have any family ties nor early learning days links. A fabulous manual camera to use. Minolta remains one of my favourite brands of the 60’s -90’s. If they had not been brought out by Sony, I likely would have remained with them into the digital era (assuming they kept up development).

One limiter to film nowadays is simply cost. Whilst I tend to home develop and buy lower end B&W film, it still all adds up. The ‘film feel’or look is real, but then, we digitise it anyway to share nowadays. Removing the pure film finish in a re-digitised master. I used to print my shots too (as in from an enlarger to photo paper in a darkroom) – another great hobby to get into if you have time and space!

On the flip side, film is less convenient, environmentally worse (*though producers like Kodak have some great sustainability and environmental practice in development) and arguably, surpassed in quality potential by modern equipment (35mm – larger 4×5 or 8X10 is a different topic). Once you are all set up on digital, you can operate near cost free. Film, bar perhaps high enders like Leica and Hasselblad, is pretty cheap to enter into, but expensive to shoot and develop. Fire off (and pay to have developed and scanned) 20 rolls of a half decent film stock now days and you are on your way to buying a nice’ish digital base. Dwell in the older used digital era like I now do and the options comparatively could be vast.

But regardless of my rambles, film is not dead. The movie industry has helped keep it alive way more than the revival of the still camera movement. Many films. At 24 frames per second, allowing for re-takes, edits, different cameras for different angles – it puts the conservative modern still film shooter as a blip on the map. So thank you to the film industry for keeping things classic! It will be a sad day when Kodak (in my opinion the only main one left) moves on.

There is something special about slowing down, taking the shot and waiting to see the result. Entirely possible to replicate this in the modern digital age – but most of us lack the patience and willpower to do so… also – if you have taken a bad shot or someone blinked, you can just take another few hundred and chose the best now – that just was not a practical possibility in the film era!

With that, I farewell the Minolta X-570

Away unplugged for 5 nights from tomorrow, so for those who do get email prompts and have been overwhelmed in the last 7 days of activity, I plan to cut back on my return. Perhaps several times a week. Lets wait and see!