Old cameras tend to be designed around ISO100, but my understanding is modern films have wider latitude. I’ve shot Lomography 400 on mine and it works fine in daylight. But I also had the film professionally developed. Order some 620 spools, and re-roll the 120 onto it. They have a smaller diameter, so you shouldn’t experience resistance when feeding the film … looks like you really had to pull on it when loading. And if you get it professionally developed, ask for the spool to be returned, and explicitly that spool you’re handing over. My shop apparently didn’t know it was a 620, and just gave me a random 120 from their discard pile.
I suspect you’ve been unable to remove the finished roll? (And have been somehow unwinding it from the take-up spool while in the darkroom.) I wondered why you would ask a seemingly obvious question, but then I remembered my own experience. If you pull on the spring clip opposite the knob, there’s a little pin holding the film spool in place which doesn’t retract out far enough. I struggled with this myself until I figured out you’re supposed to push the entire spool towards the spring. The spool releases from the knob end.
What I would do is open the camera back in the darkroom and then take out the spool and put it onto the metal thing (for some reason can't remember what that's called atm). My question is that there is no way to rewind the film back after you expose it, so how do you send it to a place for development after you have exposed the roll without ruining the film?
Ah. So it is the “obvious question.” You hand the entire roll, spool and all, to the developer. That’s why the end of the backing sheet has “exposed” printed on it and there’s probably a little piece of tape so you can keep it wound on the spool. If you’re sending the film away for development, then hopefully they can return the 620 spool.
Picture no. 2 looks like the emulsion side of the film touched the base side of the next turn of the film in the developing reel. All of the pictures looked like the camera lens was absolutely filthy. These cameras are pretty easy to take apart and clean. You might want to try that. This is a sunny day with the Sun at your back camera, so keep that in mind when taking pictures.
It looks like the lense Is hazed or dirty. I had to take mine apart and clean the lense. There are videos on here on how to do that. Fun video and camera... Colin
I don’t remember if I had to clean the lens on mine, but I did easily remove the metal bezel to clean out viewfinder optics. Really made it feel like a whole new camera.
try using a light meter app if you haven’t already. with a camera like the brownie you can look up based on the model what the set shutter speed and aperture are and then manually input your film speed/iso and change your lighting to achieve the best exposures! keep up the experimentation and curiosity
Old cameras tend to be designed around ISO100, but my understanding is modern films have wider latitude. I’ve shot Lomography 400 on mine and it works fine in daylight. But I also had the film professionally developed.
Order some 620 spools, and re-roll the 120 onto it. They have a smaller diameter, so you shouldn’t experience resistance when feeding the film … looks like you really had to pull on it when loading.
And if you get it professionally developed, ask for the spool to be returned, and explicitly that spool you’re handing over. My shop apparently didn’t know it was a 620, and just gave me a random 120 from their discard pile.
When you give the film to a professional developer, how do you get it out of the camera without exposing the whole roll?
I suspect you’ve been unable to remove the finished roll? (And have been somehow unwinding it from the take-up spool while in the darkroom.) I wondered why you would ask a seemingly obvious question, but then I remembered my own experience. If you pull on the spring clip opposite the knob, there’s a little pin holding the film spool in place which doesn’t retract out far enough. I struggled with this myself until I figured out you’re supposed to push the entire spool towards the spring. The spool releases from the knob end.
What I would do is open the camera back in the darkroom and then take out the spool and put it onto the metal thing (for some reason can't remember what that's called atm). My question is that there is no way to rewind the film back after you expose it, so how do you send it to a place for development after you have exposed the roll without ruining the film?
Ah. So it is the “obvious question.”
You hand the entire roll, spool and all, to the developer. That’s why the end of the backing sheet has “exposed” printed on it and there’s probably a little piece of tape so you can keep it wound on the spool. If you’re sending the film away for development, then hopefully they can return the 620 spool.
The last pic is great! Maybe not give up and give it another go sometime. But well done either way. 🙂
Thank you so much! I agree about that last photo
Picture no. 2 looks like the emulsion side of the film touched the base side of the next turn of the film in the developing reel. All of the pictures looked like the camera lens was absolutely filthy. These cameras are pretty easy to take apart and clean. You might want to try that. This is a sunny day with the Sun at your back camera, so keep that in mind when taking pictures.
Ok that makes sense, I probably just made a mistake putting it on the reel in the darkroom then. Thanks for the advice!!
It looks like the lense Is hazed or dirty. I had to take mine apart and clean the lense. There are videos on here on how to do that. Fun video and camera... Colin
Thanks for watching! I agree with you in this regard. I'm just scared I'm going to break it if I try taking it apart 😅
@phoenixrose18 It's only a couple of screws to take out Inside. Not to hard...
I don’t remember if I had to clean the lens on mine, but I did easily remove the metal bezel to clean out viewfinder optics. Really made it feel like a whole new camera.
try using a light meter app if you haven’t already. with a camera like the brownie you can look up based on the model what the set shutter speed and aperture are and then manually input your film speed/iso and change your lighting to achieve the best exposures! keep up the experimentation and curiosity
That's actually a really good idea! Thanks!!!! 📸
WHAT THE FUCK I LITERALLY JUST GOT ONE OF THESE YESTERDAY????????????????? this is so weird. we're on the same wavelength
Great minds think alike!!