Brownie (camera)

Brownie
Brownie 2
Overview
Maker Eastman Kodak
Type box camera
Lens
Lens meniscus lens
Sensor/Medium
Film format 117 roll film.
Film size 2 1/4-inch square
Shutter
Shutter Integrated
General
Body composition or special features Leatherette covered cardboard
List price $1 (equivalent to $29 in 2017)
Made in Rochester, NY
Chronology
Released February 1900
Production Feb. 1900-Oct. 1901
Successor No. 2 Brownie (1901)
References
Brownie (original model)

Brownie is the name of a long-running popular series of simple and inexpensive cameras made by Eastman Kodak.

The Brownie camera, introduced in February 1900,[1] invented low-cost photography by introducing the concept of the snapshot to the masses. The Brownie was a very basic cardboard box camera with a simple meniscus lens that took 2 1/4-inch square pictures on 117 roll film. The Brownie camera was conceived and marketed for sales of Kodak roll films. Because of its simple controls and initial price of $1 (equivalent to $29 in 2017) along with the low price of Kodak roll film and processing, The Brownie camera achieved and surpassed its marketing goal.

The Brownie is among the most important cameras in history.

Overview

The first model of the camera was invented by Frank A. Brownell.[2] The name comes from the brownies in popular Palmer Cox cartoons. Consumers responded, and over 150,000 Brownie cameras were shipped in the first year of production.[3] An improved model, called No. 2 Brownie came in 1901, which produced larger 2-1/4 by 3-1/4 inch photos and cost $2 and was also a huge success.

Brownies were extensively marketed to children, with Kodak using them to popularise photography. They were also taken to war by soldiers. As they were so ubiquitous, many iconic shots were taken on brownies.

The cameras continued to be popular, and spawned many varieties, such as a Boy Scout edition in the 1930s. Improvements continued, such as in 1940, when Kodak released the Six-20 Flash Brownie.[4] The camera was Kodak's first internally synchronized flash camera, using General electric bulbs. Then in 1957, Kodak produced the Brownie Starflash, Kodak's first camera with a built in flash.[5]

One of the most popular Brownie models was the Brownie 127,[6] millions of which were sold between 1952 and 1967. The Brownie 127 was a simple bakelite camera for 127 film which featured a simple meniscus lens and a curved film plane to compensate for the deficiencies of the lens. Another simple camera was the Brownie Cresta which was sold between 1955 and 1958. It used 120 film and had a fixed-focus lens.

Having written an article in the 1940s for amateur photographers suggesting an expensive camera was unnecessary for quality photography, Picture Post photographer Bert Hardy used a Brownie camera to stage a carefully posed snapshot of two young women sitting on railings above a breezy Blackpool promenade.[7]

The last official Brownie cameras made was the Brownie II Camera, a 110 cartridge film model produced in Brazil for one year, 1986.

Brownie Number 2

The Kodak Brownie Number 2 is a box camera that was manufactured by the Eastman Kodak Company from 1901 to 1935.[8] There were five models, A through F, and it was the first camera to use 120 film. It also came with a viewfinder and a handle.[9] The Brownie Number 2 was made of a choice of three materials: cardboard, costing US$2.00, aluminum, costing US$2.75, and a color model which cost US$2.50. It was a very popular and affordable camera, and many are still in use by film photographers.

Beau Brownie

The Beau Brownie range was available from 1930 to 1933.

They differed little from the popular Brownie cameras, the only technical difference being the introduction of a new doublet lens, allowing the same picture to be projected on a film plate over a shorter distance, making the Beau Brownies nearly 2" shorter than their conventional counterparts.

Visually, they had a different enameled two-tone front plate in a geometric Art Deco design, the work of American designer Walter Dorwin Teague.

They were available in five color combinations: black and burgundy, brown and tan, two-tone blue, two-tone green, and two-tone rose.[10] The rose and green cameras were produced only in 1930 and 1931, and are therefore rarer than the others. They were encased in a faux-leatherette casing.

There were two formats, the $4 No.2 and $5 2A, just like the Brownies, the No.2 measuring 2 ¼" by 3 ¼" and using 120 roll film, and the 2A measuring 2½" by 4¼", and taking 116 Kodak roll film. The 2A had a thicker, bakelite rim and was an inch taller than the No. 2.

Some Brownie camera models

Photographs taken with Brownie cameras

References

  1. ↑ List of Brownie models at George Eastman House Archived April 2, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ U.S. Patent 725,034
  3. ↑ Gustavson, Todd (2011). 500 Cameras 170 years of photographic innovation. Sterling Signature. ISBN 978-1-4027-8086-8.
  4. ↑ Gustavson, Todd (2011). 500 Cameras 170 years of photographic innovation. Sterling Signature. ISBN 978-1-4027-8086-8.
  5. ↑ Gustavson, Todd (2011). 500 Cameras 170 years of photographic innovation. Sterling Signature. ISBN 978-1-4027-8086-8.
  6. ↑ "Brownie 127"
  7. ↑ Bert Hardy snapshot
  8. ↑ Gustavson, Todd (2011). 500 Cameras 170 years of photographic innovation. Sterling Signature. ISBN 978-1-4027-8086-8.
  9. ↑ Gustavson, Todd (2009). Camera A history of photography from Daguerreotype to Digital. Sterling Signature. ISBN 978-1-4027-5656-6.
  10. ↑ "No.2A Beau Brownie rose", www.brownie.camera

Further reading

  • Dowling, Stephen (5 January 2015). "The most important cardboard box ever?". Retrieved 5 January 2014. , gives history of the Brownie camera line
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