127 Day January 2026

Ikonta 520/18 with Kentmere Pan 400

For a many years on this blog, I've followed the 127 Days faithfully, until January 2024, which was the last time I observed one of these calendrical oddities. There are a number of reasons as to why I'd not taken photos on any of the three 127 Days since then, with perhaps a little regret, which applies in general to the Photo-Analogue blog itself. I resolved to shoot at least one roll on Janauary 27th this year, two weeks ago today. This turned out to be a working day, and in addition heavily overcast: I had anticipated needing a fast film for the day, and cut-down a couple of rolls of Kentmere Pan 400 to cover the possibility of less-than-ideal lighting conditions. I also chose the Baby Ikonta camera, with a full range of shutter speeds and a relatively fast lens in comparison to some of my other 127 cameras, more limited in that respect. With the cloud cover at the time of day I left the house in the morning, it wasn't fully light; at the other end of the working day it was after dark. The lens and shutter were sufficient to accommodate the former conditions; for the latter, on my way home, I found a few places to prop the camera and use the shutter's T setting for a few long exposures to use the roll of film. In between, I managed a handful of frames around the working day; if nothing else, it served as a reminder of the appeal of using the Baby Ikonta.

127 Day January 2024

Kodak Baby Brownie with Fomapan 200

Last weekend's 127 Day provided an excuse to use the Kodak Baby Brownie, the subject of my previous post. I had cut down two rolls of medium format film to 127 size and rolled these with the appropriate backing paper and spools: one roll of Kentmere Pan 400 and one of Fomapan 200. I shot the Kentmere Pan 400 first, then the Fomapan 200, but developed them in the reverse order. The lighting conditions had been light cloud giving way to hazy sunshine. When I took the roll of Fomapan 200 from the tank, the negatives looked very thin, something that I had noticed with the film shot in the Baby Brownie last summer. With hazy sunshine, and a nominal exposure of 1/50th at f16 (or however close to this the Baby Brownie's aperture and shutter speed are), a 200 ISO film should have given adequate results. Although a stop faster, given that the lighting was perhaps a little less bright for the Kentmere Pan 400, I extended development time to push it another stop. 

Kodak Baby Brownie with Kentmere Pan 400

The results from the Kentmere Pan 400 were much denser, and this push was probably unnecessary. I had used Kodak HC-110 for both films; a little research online reveals lots of comments about Fomapan 200 and HC-110 not being a good combination. I had used the times from the Massive Dev Chart, and when subsequently developing another roll of Fomapan 200 (not from the 127 Day), I pushed this a stop, and the results were much better (it would probably be preferable to rate the film a stop lower instead however).

Another aspect of using the camera again was checking the lens' angle of view.I had suspected that this was wider than the viewfinder–probably to give the casual user a margin of error not to lose heads from the top of the frame–and took a couple of photographs with this in mind, particularly the one below. Here the shot was framed with the second pillars from the centre at the edge of the viewfinder, demonstrating that the actual shot is notably wider than what the viewfinder does show, although one wouldn't chose a Bakelite box camera from the 1930s or 40s if accuracy was really important, but worth bearing in mind.

Kodak Baby Brownie with Kentmere Pan 400

I had a few problems with development thanks to the slightly uneven cut edge of the film: the Kentmere Pan roll was a little taller once cut to fit well into the developing spiral, causing a little buckling and a few section of negatives not processing properly due to contact while developing. This also created a bit of a 'fat roll' with some light leaks as a result. By contrast the Fomapan cut much more smoothly, but scratched more easily in the process of being cut down, due I think to the emulsion being softer, and possibly the film substrate too. The thin negatives of the Fomapan film in combination with the choice of subject–as in the image at the top of this post–was vaguely reminiscent of Pictorialist landscape work, something not entirely unsympathetic in the use of a camera such as the Kodak Baby Brownie.

Kodak Baby Brownie with Kentmere Pan 400

Kodak Baby Brownie with Kentmere Pan 400

Kodak Baby Brownie with Kentmere Pan 400

Kodak Baby Brownie with Fomapan 200

Kodak Baby Brownie with Fomapan 200

Kodak Baby Brownie with Fomapan 200

Kodak Baby Brownie

Kodak Baby Brownie

The emergence of plastic in the manufacture of cameras from the late 1920s into the 1930s allowed for the typical shape of the snapshot camera to radically change. The Kodak Baby Brownie with its Bakelite body, updates the simple, entry-level box camera. One imagines that it looked very modern when first produced, in comparison to Kodak's typical box camera, which only recently would have been made with a cardboard body. The Kodak Baby Brownie owes its distinctive styling to Walter Dorwin Teague who designed many cameras for Kodak: the vertical ribbed designs that run around the camera with the central roundel of the lens makes it a little reminiscent of an Art Deco radio set, while the curves and scalloped edges evoke light wooden furniture, a bureau or a cabinet perhaps. It was not Kodak's first plastic camera–according to Art Deco Cameras, Kodak Ltd in the UK had that honour with the No. 2 Hawkette–the Hawkette however was made for promotional purposes, not for general retail; according to numerous sources, 4 million Kodak Baby Brownies were produced over the two phases of its production either side of the Second World War.

It appears that the rationale behind the design of the Kodak Baby Brownie was Kodak's desire to return to the $1 price point of the original Brownie camera of 1900 (it's worth mentioning that this does not of course account for the effect of inflation over the thirty-odd years–a single dollar must have bought a lot more in 1900 compared to 1934, when the Baby Brownie appeared; the low price of the camera presumably reflects the economies of scale possible with Kodak's manufacturing in the mid-thirties). The Kodak Baby Brownie is simpler than the original Brownie too, partly due to the plastic construction. The meniscus lens is fixed-focus, with a fixed-aperture, and the rotary shutter has a single speed. Most sites profiling the camera do not usually provide lens and shutter specifications: Art Deco Cameras lists the lens' focal length as being 60mm, its aperture as f16 and the shutter speed at 1/50th; the manual states that "everything about five feet and beyond will be photographed sharply". It takes 127 format rollfilm, smaller and cheaper than 120, appropriately for a cheap camera appearing during the Depression, although it does use the 'full-frame' of the 127 format, nominally 4x6cm, giving eight exposures on a roll of 127 film–other cameras had already created the 'half-frame' 3x4cm negative size, which provides sixteen frames on a roll.

The Kodak Baby Brownie had two distinct periods of production. Kodak manufactured the Baby Brownie in the US until 1941; subsequently, Kodak Ltd in the UK made the camera between 1948-52. Given that there appears to be no observable differences between the US and UK made Baby Brownies, one wonders whether the dies and moulds were shipped out to the UK after the Second World War to boost the Kodak Ltd's postwar production, with the Baby Brownie, coming of the Depression, now a fitting camera for Austerity Britain, still in rationing. There was a slight variant model Kodak Baby Brownie for export, distinguished by a metal stud or pin above the lens. This is a 'time' setting: pull the stud out, and the shutter stays open when the shutter lever is pressed. The Brownie Camera Page states that this export version was made in the UK during the camera's second production run; my camera has the time setting, although the lettering on the bottom of the camera clearly reads "MADE IN USA". If exactly the same moulds were used for the UK-made camera (the time setting requiring a single small hole to be drilled through the front), this might explain this discrepancy, although I would have thought that any camera made in the UK would have to be marked as such. As well as the 'export variant' there was also a commemorative version made for the 1939 New York's World Fair, which has a rectangular name plate around the lens with this lettering: the camera itself has 'BABY BROWNIE' embossed around the lens.

Kodak Baby Brownie with viewfinder raised

I bought my Kodak Baby Brownie at the Place du Jeu de Balle flea market in Brussels in late spring last year for €10, haggled down from €15 (there were many other cameras there, but I was on a tight budget after a week abroad, and knowing that there's usually very little that can go wrong with a simple box camera, the Brownie seemed a safe investment). I used it last year on the 127 Day in July, but did not scan the negatives at the time, a couple of which illustrate this post below. When I bought the camera I wasn't aware of the export variant, but was pleased that was what I had, a small difference which does increase the conditions in which the camera can be used–although with some caveats, mentioned below. The modest size of the camera, with its curved and ribbed shape, as well as the Bakelite itself, does feel good in the hand, perhaps rather like an over-sized netsuke.

To open the camera for loading and unloading film, on the camera's base is a metal lever which pivots between OPEN/CLOSE (and sweeps over lettering stating the camera was made in the USA). The top slides out from the body with the film carrier attached. Opening the camera shows how simply it is constructed despite its Art Deco stylings: the camera is made from three pieces of Bakelite, the body, top plate, and film carrier, with a few metal fixings.

Kodak Baby Brownie - opened for loading

The the camera has a curved film plane, a common strategy to compensate for the limitations of a simple meniscus lens. The inside moulding is ribbed behind the lens inside counter reflections on the smooth Bakelite surface. One can also see that there's a metal stop behind the lens to reduce its aperture and increase definition, another frequent compensation for the limitations of a simple lens. The film spools are held either side of the lens opening on the film carrier by a sprung metal clip, with an additional piece of sprung curved metal on the supple-side to prevent the film from unspooling. Manual frame advance uses the red window in the middle of the camera back.

Kodak Baby Brownie - opened for loading

The rotary shutter on my camera has some rust as can be seen in the image below. To trip the shutter, the lever has to be pulled to the left from the user's position; it springs back into position with a self-capping function. The time setting works by simply blocking the shutter from completing its swing when the pin or stud is pulled out. The shutter lever needs constant pressure for the shutter to remain open: it will close when the shutter lever is released, or if the time pin is pushed back in. Framing is achieved by a fold-up open frame finder on the top of the camera body.

Kodak Baby Brownie - detail of shutter mechanism

My camera had some damage to two opposite corners, showing the fragility of the Bakelite: the chip on the inside rear corner I thought might possibly cause a light leak, which can be seen in the image above. To counter this, I added a small strip of black tape on the inside of the body. Using the camera for July 2023's 127 Day, the few frames from the Kodak Baby Brownie show that the lens has fairly good definition in the centre of the image, but this does fall off considerably towards the edges. When the camera was produced, most photographs for the typical user would probably have been made as contact prints and the limitations of the lens less apparent.

Kodak Baby Brownie with Fomapan 200

I used Fomapan 200 for the images on this post. Despite the photographs being taken in July, the weather was heavily overcast on the day, and a 400 speed film (or pushing a stop in development) would have been a better choice. The manual states for best results "outdoor exposures should be made with the subjects in bright sunlight", the usual conditions for a typical box camera when these were made; using a faster emulsion allows for a broader range of subject conditions for these cameras than would have been the case when first in use.

Kodak Baby Brownie with Fomapan 200

The one aspect of the Kodak Baby Brownie in use that feels to me not sufficiently thought-through is the position of the shutter lever: placed directly below the lens, this keeps the camera's design symmetrical, with the exception of the winding knob. Here, it feels as though it should naturally be used by the left hand (an illustration in the manual confirms this), and the action of tripping the shutter is to pull it away from the camera's centre of gravity (which must increase the chance of some camera shake). There was a successor to the Kodak Baby Brownie, also designed by Walter Dorwin Teague, though rather less beautiful, in the Kodak Baby Brownie Special. It is notable that the shutter button of the Special is on the user's right, and it pushes in to trip the shutter. The position of the shutter lever on the Kodak Baby Brownie being directly under the lens is also inconvenient when using the time function: the camera does not have a tripod fixing, but the camera's based is fairly flush, allowing for it to be placed on a level surface for long exposures–which makes reaching for the shutter lever less easy–almost any other placement on the camera would be better for this. However, this additional function of the export variant of the Baby Brownie, must make it a little more desirable over the standard model.

Sources/further reading
The Kodak Baby Brownie on Camera-wiki
Baby Brownie on The Brownie Camera Page
On Art Deco Cameras with manual (PDF)
Kodak Baby Brownie on Retro Film Camera
Kodak Baby Brownie on Down the Road
A Camera Worth a Thousand Words Cooper Hewitt

Kentmere Pan 400 - part 2

 

Kentmere Pan 400 in medium format

When I wrote my original post on Kentmere Pan 400 in 2019, it was then available in 35mm only; in December 2022, in a surprise announcement from Harman, the film's manufacturer, that the two black and white Kentmere emulsions were now to be available in medium format, having previously been available in 35mm only. I did write in my original post three years ago that "having been around for many years [Kentmere Pan 400] is unlikely to suddenly be offered in medium and large format, although this is not impossible: Ilford's Ortho Plus film, a niche sheet film emulsion for decades, has just been introduced in 35mm and 120." As described in the recent post on its slower-speed companion, Kentmere Pan 100, there's a logic to Harman complementing their Ilford brand with lower-priced films in medium format, to compete–in particular, it seems–with cheaper films such as Fomapan 100 and 400. The original post on Kentmere Pan 400 was written to compare the film with Ilford Pan 400, which I had been told was going to be discontinued (although at the time of writing, this film is still available), and one can see the logic in rationalising Harman's budget film lines. 

After the announcement of the film's new availability in medium format, I bought a couple of rolls and used the film, cut down, for last week's 127 Day (I used the 16mm off-cut in a subminiature camera, but this suffered from successive overlapping exposures due to issues with the film advance, and so not worth illustrating here); I shot the other roll on New Year's Day, with the Ica Icarette II/L. The reason for choosing this particular medium format camera was simply not having used it for a while. As with the comments in the last post on 127 Day, with overcast winter weather, a one-stop push might have improved the contrast of the negatives; the Icarette's Tessar lens–99 years old–is uncoated, and the somewhat hazy conditions were no doubt emphasised in the results thanks to the low-contrast of the uncoated lens.

Ica Icarette II with Kentmere Pan 400

The image above, directed towards the sun, just about discernible on the day through the clouds, shows this quite well (thanks to the weather conditions, there may also–just–have been some haze as a remainder of the fireworks a few hours before). In the original post on Kentmere Pan 400, I did test both pushing and pulling the film, and used Rodinal (or a Rodinal clone) and Ilfotec LC29 for developers, and in particular, having used Rodinal for many years, I was familiar with it and what to expect; with the medium format Kentmere Pan 400, I used Kodak HC-110 (at dilution B here), a developer new to me: with one or two rolls of film and a new developer, there wasn't the opportunity to work out how exactly to tailor the developer to exposure to get the particular result I wanted–or to use a different camera, which might have produced better results for these couple of rolls of Kentmere Pan 400 in medium format (as with the roll shot on 127 Day, the low contrast of the negatives was notable). As with my summary in the original post from just over three years ago, I feel there's nothing really distinctive about Kentmere Pan 400: I ended by writing then that the film is "a perfectly good, competitively priced, all-round 35mm black and white film with a certain flexibility in exposure and development"–which it is, but also now very welcome in medium format too.

Ica Icarette II with Kentmere Pan 400

Ica Icarette II with Kentmere Pan 400

Ica Icarette II with Kentmere Pan 400

Ica Icarette II with Kentmere Pan 400

127 Day January 2023

Baby Ikonta with Kentmere Pan 400

Last Friday was the first of the year's calendrical 127 Days, and I had time during the early afternoon to expose a roll of cut-down Kentmere Pan 400 in the Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18–the 'Baby Ikonta'–a favourite for its small size, relatively good Novar lens and Compur shutter. I used cut-down medium format Kentmere Pan 400. The weather was mostly overcast, and having a 400 ISO film certainly fitted the lighting conditions typical this time of year in the Northern hemisphere. Even then, in a few situations, such as under the dense branches of bare trees, the light levels were pretty low, and I didn't accurately guess-focus as accurately as I might in a few frames, with the aperture wider than I might have liked to provide little assistance in careless focussing. Developing the film in Kodak HC-110 (at dilution E, 1+47 from concentrate) provided low contrast negatives, no doubt compounded by the uncoated Novar lens of the Baby Ikonta, some flare in a few frames (such as in the second image below), on top of the lighting conditions. In retrospect, a one-stop push might have benefitted both the contrast, as well as being able to use a smaller aperture in some situations. However, regardless of the results of this one roll, having an inexpensive 400-speed film newly available in medium format is ideal for the purposes of being cut down to 127 size–a rather cheaper alternative to the few films currently available in the niche 127 rollfilm format, which, somehow, still survives in 2023.

127 Day December 2022

Baby Ikonta with cut-down Rollei Superpan

Despite neglecting this blog for a few months now, I couldn't not observe last week's 127 Day. I used the Baby Ikonta again, but had just a couple of rolls of Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film cut to 127 size, and a short off-cut from a previously-cut-down roll of Rollei Superpan 200 (when cutting down 120 film to 127, the length of the 120 roll is longer than that needed for 127, meaning that with every cut down roll of 120, there's a remainder of film long enough for 5-6 'half'-frames on the '16-on' format); the image above is from the beginning of the short roll which shows that I hadn't accurately lined up the cut end of the film with the start of the numbers on the backing paper. The frames on the Superpan film were hand-held; the Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film when used as a negative film has a workable ISO of 2. I took most of these photographs in the Victoria & Albert Museum, without a tripod, placing the camera on any level and stable surface I could find that might provide an interesting viewpoint, mostly parapets and benches. I did take one frame, handheld outside, at (I think) 1/10th at f3.5 (the image of Second World War bomb damage to the museum's exterior; another photograph taken outside with this film was made placing the camera on a brick wall).

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

On a winter's day, the light levels in the museum are often quite low: exposure times were between 8 seconds and approximately 1 minute. When I developed the film using PQ Universal, it was clear that I could have bracketed more, and, possibly at longer times, the film does exhibit some reciprocity law failure. Scanning the negatives, there was a lot of digital 'spotting' to do: the extremely clear shadow areas show up any specks of dust or dirt incredibly well. The blue-sensitive high-contrast nature of the film also shows how the daylight entering the galleries from skylights caused the floor appearing in some of the frames to appear very bright in comparison to almost everything else in the image, with the exception of some of the plaster casts (such as Michelangelo's David). 

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

There was also a denser band along one side of one roll of this film, which I haven't found the cause of, but this may be fogging due to cutting the film down by hand under safelights in an insufficiently-dark darkroom, with something partially shading the film. I did think that this could be due to not using enough chemistry when developing, but usually this would show up as a pattern with the image of bubbles from the surface of the developer. This line can be seen to the left of the cast of the architectural façade in the image below.

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

The Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film may also have benefitted from flashing before exposure to raise the shadow values, perhaps something to remember for January's 127 Day. The Rollei Superpan film was less problematic (despite not being taped at quite the right place to the backing paper), but I did use Kodak HC-110 to develop the film, having previously tested this with Rodinal, and worked out a time/temperature/dilution regime to get the best results for my own approach, which I haven't done with HC-110, merely taking the Massive Dev Chart's single recommendation: 6 minutes at dilution B, 1+31 from concentrate.

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

Baby Ikonta with Rollei Superpan 200

Baby Ikonta with Rollei Superpan 200

Baby Ikonta with Kodak High Resolution Aerial Duplicating film

127 Day July 2022

Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 520/18 with Rollei Superpan

Although I've not devoted much time to this blog of late, I didn't want to miss 127 Day earlier this week. This occurred towards the end of a spell of hot humid weather, with a dip to slightly more comfortable temperatures and humidity, a lull before the forecasted extreme heat in a few days' time. Taking some photographs on a walk in the early evening, it was still very warm, and the lighting had a peculiar heavy overcast quality (I was also recovering from a second Covid-19 infection, which, with the weather, gave a slightly soporific feel to the evening, and possibly as a result I wasn't really giving that much sufficient attention to subject matter and composition). I used the reliable Baby Ikonta, and a roll of cut-down Rollei Superpan 200, a film I've used a few times before, and had tested a fair bit in Rodinal to get a workable time/dilution; however, the roll of film I shot on 127 Day I developed with Kodak HC-110, a new developer for me, and so I went with the Massive Dev Chart's recommended time/dilution. Somehow, to me at least (and it may just be my own associated memory), the resulting negatives convey the airless quality of the day, with glimpses of the grass looking bleached by the sun, the foliage of the trees beginning to get the dusty dark tonality of high summer, possibly in part thanks to the extended red sensitivity of Rollei Superpan. Possibly most of the images might also have benefited from a yellow filter too, although I don't have any filters which fit the Baby Ikonta's lens: the constraints and conditions of exposing just a single roll on the day didn't really allow for any of these considerations.