Kodak and Zeiss Box Cameras

Duck with portraits, taken with a Kodak box camera

People who buy vintage cameras tend to fall into three types: collectors, interior decorators/designers and photographers. One camera that suits all types is the humble box camera.

I'm a devotee of the box camera, I once used one exclusively for seveal weeks, photographing village life in Spain. I'm always amazed when I see the results produced by a simple camera getting on for 100 years old. The reason for the exceptional photographs is that the negative size of most box cameras is 6x9 cm, that is huge!

Gold and Ivory Brownie Model F

Most manufacturers made a box camera for the consumer end of the market, there's a bewildering choice, but I've narrowed my choice down to two makers, Kodak and Zeiss. The gold Kodak Brownie above is very attractive but isn't my first choice to use, that honour falls to the Portrait Brownie, Number 2.

An important feature of the Portrait Brownie is the number "2" around the lens. All number 2 box cameras use 120 film, which is readily available. Most Kodak box cameras (like the gold one above), use 620 film, which is not available anymore, but as it's only the spool size that's different, it's an easy job to load the original 620 spool with 120 film.

The No.2 Portrait gets the designation "Portrait" because it has a close up lens built in, operated by a little lever on the front. Originally intended for head and shoulder portraits, it makes this little camera very versatile (for a box camera). The Kodak Number 2 Brownie also has 3 apertures and a time setting to leave the shutter open. I've always wondered why Kodak didn't mark any of the controls on this camera! Did they think it would spoil the lines? Whatever the reason, you have to spend some time memorising what each control does.

There are no tests of memory requird for my other box camera, it's the Zeiss Box Tengor above.
Zeiss made box cameras from the 1920's, mine was made between 1948 and 1956. This was the last box camera made by Zeiss, the end of an era. As you can see all the controls are clearly marked, there's no guessing on this camera.

As for the quality and characteristics of the negatives produced by these camera, each has it's own merits - that's why I use them both, they're brilliant.

Film developing and scanning service

Developed and scanned by Genie

Having lived in Spain for 8 years, I've had to develop the art of patience. Where I lived in Spain I had the option of driving to the nearest city and dropping my films off at a camera shop, then waiting up to 2 weeks to get them back or, do it myself. Now I'm back living in England and I'm spoiled by the fast service I get!

The postman just delivered a package of negatives and CD's that were developed and scanned by Genie Imaging in South London. This is the first time I've used Genie and I couldn't be more happy with the quality of the service which costs £7.90 to develop a C41 or E6 film and scan each negative. The scans are 18MB and using Kodak Ektar 100 in my 35mm cameras, I can have the scans printed to 20"x16" (£7.90 from my lab, using archival photo paper, not inkjet), and the quality is superb. I could probably go larger than 20"x16" but it hasn't been asked for yet.

I currently use 3 labs for different services (dev and scan, printing and mounting), I'd be interested to know if anyone out there uses a similar service - and are you equally pleased with it? I'm always on the look out!