The Brownie Hawkeye
Brownie Hawkeye Flash Model by Kodak
By Polly Cole
12 October 2007
The Brownie Hawkeye, a classic point and shoot camera, was introduced by The Eastman Kodak Company in 1949 and was discontinued in 1961. With its cheap and simple plastic design, the Brownie was the ideal candidate to be the photo tool of choice for the Baby Booming families of that era. It has a rotary shutter, a 'brilliant' viewfinder (a convex piece of glass on top of the camera), a manual film advance knob, and requires 620 film.
I was given my Brownie Hawkeye as a gift by my Uncle Danny in Portales, New Mexico. I was there visiting family and with a little bit of my free time, I had gone antique camera hunting around town looking specifically for a box camera. Shop after shop had old SLR's from the 1970's and 80's, but no box cameras. The next day, upon hearing that I had come up empty handed, my Uncle Danny presented me with the Brownie. He had rummaged through some old boxes in his house and found the camera which he had used as a boy.
When I got back home to Los Angeles, I took my new jewel apart. (With much help from my husband, considering my nickname could be Clumsy McButterfingers.) The Brownie was covered in five decades of dirt and grime, and I meticulously wiped and Q-Tipped every crevice of it. Next, I set out on the task of finding the required 620 film - a format which is no longer produced. In my internet research I found out that 620 film is basically 120 film wound onto larger spools. I had the option of purchasing 120 film (which is pretty easily found) and respooling it myself - but considering my aforementioned nickname - I opted for Option B, aka e-bay. On e-bay I found a seller in Georgia who had my desired film and I purchased two rolls.
When the film finally came (three weeks later!) I ripped open the package and loaded my Brownie right up. The 620 film only has 12 exposures, so I chose my subjects with the utmost discrimination - my husband, the cat, the alley down the street, etc. You hold the Brownie at hip level and look down into the viewfinder... so cool! I felt like such a bad ass. That is - until I got the first roll developed. Now, the manuals I found online said that my pictures would be sharp from 5ft. to infinity. Lordy, this was not so. The only photo that had any degree of sharpness was the alley - a long expanse of far away-ness.
So as I loaded up my next (and last) roll of film, I kept this in mind. Only take pictures of things far away. Hmm. Where could I do this and get interesting and antique seeming images at the same time? I know! Downtown. Downtown Los Angeles is a cornucopia of amazing old art deco buildings, a perfect place for a Brownie Hawkeye adventure. Later, as I stood on the crowded city streets, looking down into my hip level box camera, I kept the wise words of the camera's manual in mind.
"Always stand steady, hold your breath, and release the shutter..."
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