Hello,

I'm new to collecting, but I recently came across a Baby Brownie Special at a thrift store and bought it on the spot. I even went to Freestyle and got film for it and they told me it was easy to load. However, when I went to load the film, I started from left to right (assuming it was like all cameras that way). I put the film on the left and hooked it to the spool on the right, but had no way to wind it! The wind mechanism appear to only "rewind" the film (right to left) and not advance it (left to right). Am I doing something wrong?

Thank you in advance for your reply

-- C Dolan (fpd1@mail.com), September 03, 2001

Answers

Response to loadind film in a Baby Brownie

Assuming that you are looking at the back of the camera, and "right" is your "right" in holding it, the camera should have the full film spool mounted on the right side. I believe you may be loading opposite of what it should be. Just mount the fim as described, and pull it straight over the back of the camera and start it a couple turns on the empty 127 spool. Using the red window as a guide, carefully turn the film until the number "1" is centered in the window. Advance the next frames from there as you make your exposures. I believe there are 12 frames in that format. When you are finished, the film will now be completely spooled to the next reel. You end up leaving it that way as opposed to rewinding it. That is why the knob turns one way only.

One other thing you might want to do is to keep a small piece of black electical tape over the red window in between film advances. I've also founf that a minimum of 8-10 feet between you and the subject is required to insure sharp images.

Ned

-- Ned Fenimore (nedfh@home.com), September 03, 2001.