I own four Box Brownies. I want to play with them. 620 film is dead. I have heard a rumour that you can cut (?) 120 or 220 film down to fit? What is the process who can tell me???????? Thanx,

HUw.

-- Huw "is very famous" Crosby (crosby@magna.com.au), June 21, 1999

Answers

You might try looking at the Brownie Pages: http://users.aol.com/Chuck02178/brownie.htm. There's a forum called Brownie Talk and there are posts from Chris Eve there explaining how to use 120 film in a 620 camera. Also, 620 is still available, just more expensive. It can be purchased from Film For Classics at: http://www.frontiernet.net/~joankay/

Happy shooting!

-- H.A. Forester (haf@conjectrix.com), July 15, 1999.

On some other of these forums I recently suggested, that you can use available 120 format film, if you have an empty spool of 620. The film is similar, but the spools of 620 are a little bit different: the sprocket holes in the ends are smaller on 620, so the camera cannot draw the film on 120 spools.

You have to make the holes of full 120 spool smaller with pieces of some suitable diameter plastic tube to make it fit with the sprockets of the Brownie, but it is easy. Take-up spool has to be an original 620 spool.

An other possibility is to spool 120 film on old 620 spools in dark, but it is more troublesome - 120 spool fits nicely in Brownies.

Sakari

-- Sakari Mdkeld (sakari.makela@koulut.vantaa.fi), August 09, 1999.

Hi Huw,

It is quite easy to reroll 120 film onto 620 spools. The film fits perfectly and the numbers even line up thru the little windows, no matter what camera or format!In these cameras it's always better to use the correct spools, they sometimes jam. As HAF kindly said, go to The Brownie Camera Page and on the home page there is a link to "It's easy to roll your own 620 film". There are instructions there. Also, in the gallery are examples of what can be done with old cheap cameras! If you get some images think about submitting them to the gallery.

Have Fun,

Chuck Baker The Brownie Camera Page

-- Chuck Baker (chuck9toe@aol.com), October 01, 1999.

I have an old Kodak Tourist 6x9 that takes 620 film. As I only have 1 620 reel and didn't feel like finding another one, respooling didn't seem very practical. You can make some simple modifications to a 120 roll so that it will fit into the camera, and works fine for me. 1) Use a toenail clipper to cut around the edges of the 120 spool-ends, making the diameter the same size as a 620 spool. 2) shave the top and bottom of the spool so that its the same length as a 620 spool. I do this with a knife, but i suspect it would be a lot easier with a sander of some sort (just be careful with the dust). That's it. sounds tricky, but its really quite simple, and doesn't require the use of a darkroom or anything else, so you can do it in the field. takes about a minute to convert a roll. Hope this helps.

-Nat

-- Nathanial Trienens (ntrienens@bigflower.com), October 19, 1999.

Glenn E. Stewart's web pages have an excellent tutorial with pictures on respooling 120 film to 620 :) http://www.inficad.com/~gstewart/respool.htm There are also links to sources on purchasing 620 film and processing.

-- Loran (nocontact@nocontact.atall), May 15, 2002.