A few weeks ago I acquired a 1954 Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye camera from a local seller. It’s actually the second Bull’s-Eye camera that I own. The first in black Bakelite plastic (pictured above), the second is featured in my You Tube video below.
The camera takes 620 roll film, has a fixed 1/50th Sec Shutter at f11 and was “designed by Arthur H Crapsey (who also designed the highly successful Kodak Brownie Star series). The body featured an eye-level viewfinder and a large shutter-release button on the front vertical edge, in front of the winding knob. It was available in black (with light-gray winding knob, focus & shutter-release)- from 1954-1958, or a beige color (called “gold”, with black controls) from 1958-1960” —camerapedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Brownie_Bull%27s-Eye
I took a bit of a gamble by loading and shooting with a roll of Tower black & white film that expired in October 1963. Tower was Sears and Roebucks “house brand” film. Al Kaplan on Photo.net said (of Tower film) – “I think that the (Tower) B&W film is most likely made by Gavaert, a Belgian company. They merged with Agfa towards the late 1960’s. They made a film of about that that was widely available under private labels.” ——photo.net/black-and-white-photo-film-processing-forum/00KCYv
Tower 620 film (image shot 11/17/2010 – film expired 10/1963)
Please don’t think that the images captured on the extremely expired Tower film represents the image capability of the Brownie Bull’s-Eye. Experimentation with other film stocked yielded brilliant 6×9 photos as seen below.
Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye camera / Kodak Ektachrome 100 plus
Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye camera /
Fujicolor HR100
Images © 2010 Michael Raso / My Flickr Photostream
Buy a 620 film camera…they’re fun! Looking for 620 film?