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A week or so ago, I posted a blog about closeups, and life-size reproduction. I illustrated it with a couple of shots of the front of a Kodak Brownie No. 2 Folding Autographic camera, which I’ve owned for at least 20 years, but had never tried to use. I also used it to illustrate the blog on 30 October, with a variety of detailed shots.

In my mind, it took an outdated film size, and the leather bellows had started to leak light before I bought it. Looking again after those two pieces, I realised that it takes 120 film, which is still readily available. So I had to try it…



As I explained in the October piece, there’s a little hatch on the back of the camera that originally allowed the user to write notes between the frames. I gave this a go, but without any result. Modern backing paper is reasonably resistant to light, even without a little red window, and abrading it with a stylus doesn’t make it leak.

Anyway… I loaded up with a venerable roll of Ilford film, and strolled round the garden, trying the autographic feature once. Then I left the camera open and just sitting around the house for several days before exposing the last frame, to see how badly the bellows leaked light.



And they didn’t. The only obvious marks on the film were just after the last frame – where the autographic hatch was. Over days, the backing paper let light through, but I should stress that this was modern 400 ISO film, possibly 20 times more light-sensitive than the films around when the camera was sold.

One last interesting point: the spool in the camera wasn’t the standard plastic 120 reel that I’m used to: it was a fabricated metal spindle, not used for quite a few years – unsurprising, given the length of time I’ve had the camera unused.



There’s zone focussing, and by loosening the screw on the focus scale it’s possible to adjust focus, if you ever need to. I’m not sure why you’d want to, because this relic of 100 years ago seems to give decently-sharp pictures, despite its age.

It’s not up with the latest in ergonomics, but for a camera designed in 1915, it’s not at all bad. Think about it: would you even contemplate driving a car of the same age?