Kodak Brownie Starflash

I got interested in, researched, and wrote about 127 cameras & film when I received a couple of the classic 127 cameras as gifts a while back. My recent activity with auctions on “shopgoodwill.com” triggered a renewal of my interest in 127 film and cameras when I inadvertently won an auction which happened to include a Kodak Brownie Starflash along with the other items in the “grab bag.”

The Brownie Starflash is a beautiful little camera similar in many respects to my very first camera, the Brownie Bullet. I was given a Brownie Bullet by my Aunt B, when I was just nine years old and it was my constant photographic companion for many years. I recently got another one (I have no idea what happened to my original one) mainly for nostalgic reasons but found it to be a good little shooter even after fifty years of service.

The biggest difference between the Bullet and the Starflash is the huge built in or “on” flash bulb holder on the Starflash. It also apparently has two EV settings, one for color and one for black & white, and a safety feature that presumably prevents double exposures, neither of which were available on my Bullet.

After cleaning the Brownie Starflash up a bit, removing the vintage but corroded batteries from the flash unit and working the shutter enough times to get it moving freely again it appeared that I had a working camera. I bravely loaded it with a fresh roll of 127 film which is somewhat hard to find and a bit expensive when you do find it but still available if you really want some.

The easiest 127 film to find as I write this is the efke 100 black & white, usually available for about $10 from B&H or Freestyle. Blue Moon Camera & Machine also has Bluefire Murano color film in both 160 and 400. The latter looks very much like a “rebadged” version of Kodak Portra. I chose a roll of the efke 100 black & white I had on hand and set to work trying out my “new” 127 camera.

I had already cleaned all the contacts in the built-in flash unit and confirmed that it worked by connecting my multi-meter to the flash bulb terminals and tripping the shutter. With that done I was pretty confident when I inserted one of the M2 flash bulbs I had bought from the Film Photography Project store (http://filmphotographyproject.com/store). I was still overjoyed and amazed when I got two perfect flashes on the first two tries.

Maybe it’s because I started out with 127 film format when I was just a kid but there is just something special about it, at least for me. I wish I could find a deal on a working Yashica or Rollei 4X4. Those are vintage miniature TLR’s that shoot 127 film. They are so cool.

Anyway – stay tuned for the results of my Brownie Starflash experiments.

UPDATE: 4/13/14 As I write this it is getting harder and harder to find 127 film. Blue Moon and Freestyle still have some (when I looked last) but only the Rollei 800 which sells for about $16 a roll. I am on ly last roll and probably will not be shooting 127 much anymore unless I can find a source of a slower film for a lot less money. Still, these old cameras are a lot of fun and take great pictures so I may just have to splurge once and a while.