Kodak Brownie Starflash Works!

Here’s a photo my son took of me with the Kodak Brownie Starflash on efke R100 black & white film using one of the M2 flashbulbs I bought from the Film Photography Project store in the on-board flash unit. As you can see the camera, the film and the bulb did everything they were supposed to do. This is just one more exciting experiment with vintage camera equipment.

Now admittedly the photo is not very sharp but it is after all a 50 year old camera with a plastic lens. I did notice that several of the pictures came out a bit blurry. I suspect the shutter has slowed down over the years. At 1/40 or 1/50 it wasn’t exactly lightning fast when it was new. These days it may be more like 1/30 or even slower so any movement when tripping the shutter will likely result in a blurred image.  The fact that the two images shot with the flash came out sharpest just kind of supports my theory about the shutter speed.

The thing you have to remember with these old cameras is that really slow shutter speeds were normal back then. Photographers were steadier and more methodical in their picture taking – maybe because they had to be. Most of the manuals for the old folding cameras recommended that portraits be taken at f8 and 1/25^th of a second. Manuals for late 20^th century 35mm cameras recommend using a tripod for anything slower than 1/60^th of a second. I suspect this is just more evidence that modern folks are just too impatient to hold steady long enough for a decent picture at slower shutter speeds like our grandparents routinely did.

In any case I now have another 50+ year old 127 film Brownie that works. Amazing!