Kodak No 2 Folding Pocket Brownie

I recently ran a roll of film through another vintage camera from the batch given to me by my father on my last birthday. This one is a No. 2 Folding Pocket Brownie.

The overall design and operation is similar to the Number 3 Folding Brownie which I blogged about a few months ago. However, unlike the Number 3 camera which was designed for the obsolete 124 size film, the No. 2 takes 120 film, so no adaptors required, giving eight (nominally) 6x9cm images.

The No 2 is smaller than the No 3 camera:

Rear – Koak No 3 Folding Brownie
Front – Kodak No 2 Folding Pocket Brownie

Camera front opened, before pulling out the lens

Opening the back of the camera confirms the model name, and gives information on the patents used.

The patent dates by themselves do not allow you to accurately date the camera, but since the datae of the last patent used is 1909, the camera cannot have been produced earlier than 1909.

According to brownie-camera.com, the model was discontinued in 1915, and from August 1911, the red bellows used on this camera were replaced by black bellows on models sent to the UK. Hence the date of this camera must be between late 1909 and 1911. So when I used it to take these images, it was about 112 years old!

The lens is a “meniscus achromat” with a focal length of 4.5 inches (114mm).

The lens has just one “normal” shutter speed – or “instantaneous” according to the manual, denoted by “I”. The actual speed is not stated so I guessed it would be around 1/25th of a second. There are also T and B setttings. The apertures are in the “simplified” nomenclature, where 1 is roughly f/11, 2 is roughly f/16, and 3 is roughly f/22.

Since the “I” setting is fairly slow, I used a tripod on each shot to reduce the risk of camera shake.

The focus mechanism has three settings, for 8 feet, 20 feet, and 100 feet. This controls how far foreward the bellows stretch.

There is a viewfinder which can be used for either horizontal or vertical orientation – but I couldn’t see a clear image in the finder and used the Viewfinder app on my phone to get an approximate composition.

I took the camera to Wallington Hall in Northumberland with a roll of Fomapan 100 loaded, which I semi-stand developed for an hour in Bellini EuroHC diluted 1:00.

Aperture setting = 2. Shutter = “Instant” Focus Distance = 100 feet

Aperture setting = 2. Shutter = “Instant” Focus Distance = 100 feet

Aperture setting = 1. Shutter = “Instant” Focus Distance = 8 feet

Aperture setting = 2. Shutter = “Instant” Focus Distance = 100 feet

Aperture setting = 3. Shutter = “T” Focus Distance = 20 feet

Aperture setting = 2. Shutter = “Instant” Focus Distance = 8 feet

Aperture setting = 2. Shutter = “T” Focus Distance = 20 feet

I was quite pleased with the results. They’re fairly sharp in the middle and pretty blurry at the edges – which is fine by me once I know what to expect. I was going to describe the image quality as “Holga- esque” but actually I’m scanning some Holga images as I write this and the Kodak images have much “better” (in the conventional sense) image quality than the Holga images.

One shot is not shown here as it was very underexposed. I might try a roll of HP5+ next time to see how it copes with the limitation of a single shutter speed. Of course I can use B or T setting as well as I but the camera does not have a cable release socket so there is a risk of shake.