Brownie Six-20 Junior questions....

I have a brownie-six 20 junior that Im going to shoot with for a

college assignment. Does anyone know what the set aperature and

shutter speed of these cameras? Im guessing f5.6 @ a 60th. Im using

400 speed film. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

-Adam

Adam,<br><br>More like f/11 at 1/30 to 1/50 sec. Using 400 speed film, you will have overexposure on sunny days. Overcast days will be OK.<br><br>For more info, see <a href="www.brownie-camera.com/69.shtml">http://www.brownie-camera.com/69.shtml</a> and <a href="the owner's manual here">http://www.brownie-camera.com/manuals/six20andsix16bjunior/index.shtml</a>.<br><br>--Micah in NC

Adam,<br><br>Sorry, I didn't put the URL in the correct place in that HTML code. The Brownie Camera Page has camera info <a href="http://www.brownie-camera.com/69.shtml">on this page</a> and <a href="http://www.brownie-camera.com/manuals/six20andsix16bjunior/index.shtml">an owner's manual here</a>. I hope that works for you!<br><br>--Micah in NC

I have a Brownie Target Six-16 camera that I have never used. I guess, I need to get some 620 film.

I respool 120 - works fine.

 

-A

Actually, the Brownie Six-16 is not for 620 or 120 film at all. It uses 616 type film, a variant of 116, and is a long obsolete and no long manufactured film size. There are options that will let you use it, including putting spacers in the camera to allow the smaller 120 film spools to fit (creating cropped pictures in the process).

Is 100 speed okay to use on a sunny day with my six-20?

Actually, the films originally used in these cameras were 25 and 50 speed films. However, 100 speed film will work fine. Any film can be used in these cameras (which had exposures of 1/25-1/60 of a sec at f11-f16), but correcting the exposure during development will be needed, and the results might not be perfect.

Colour films in those days were usually 64-80 asa. Black and white was 125 asa. The shutter /aperture would be set to expose ok on a sunny day. So base your exposures on that. If you use a faster film than that your will get overexposure unless you use an ND filter or shoot on a duller day.

"Colour films in those days were usually 64-80 asa. Black and white was 125 asa."

 

Not quite. We're talking about circa 1934-1941 here. The most common film of the time would have likely been Verichrome (not a panchro film at the time) which would have had a speed of asa 50. Color films of the era were quite slow. An asa speed for most color films back then rarely exceeded asa 40, with asa 10-32 the norm.

 

Micah has it about right for the shutter/aperture of 1/30 at f11.

Yes, I agree that for the time period, 25-50asa is most likely correct. But since I dont have the time to order any Efke film, I bought a couple rolls of Delta 100 that Im going to re-roll tonight.

 

The first roll I shot with was 400asa, and I taped a polarizing filter on the front. For such an old camera, the negatives came out rather good. They are a bit dense, but thats because my professor didnt bother to give me the correct processing time for the film, so most likely I overprocessed (the label on the film did not have a brand on it, and neither do the negatives. I think she got it from www.classicfilm.de). In either case, I looked at the chart at college, and 400 speed film ranged anywhere from 5-7 1/2 minutes, so I went with 6. At least now I have film I can process correctly!

 

Thanks for all the help!

The other problem being that my college uses HC-110 developer, and the site doesnt have specs for that developer. Fantastic.

"I have a Brownie Target Six-16 camera that I have never used. I guess, I need to get some 620 film."

 

Raid, 620 film is about a quarter inch too narrow for the Six-16 (which, unsurprisingly, is made for 616 film). I have one of these, converted to pinhole. I've made a simple adapter to hold the 120 in the supply side, a pair of 120 spool ends cut off to make up half the length each, with folded brass strips glued into the slots so they hold in the slots of the supply spool.

 

I'm reworking my adaptation of the takeup; I had cut the original 616 spool and installed it in a metal 120 spool with the center hole expanded, but this keeps me from reloading the camera until I get the film off the spool and into a tank. Next iteration will be to make adapter like those I use on the supply end, but make them from the 616 spool, so they'll correctly engage the 616 drive key. Then I'll be able to shoot 120 (6 shots per roll, at 2 1/2 frames per shot on the 6x4.5 track) in the Target Six-16 as much as I can afford...

BTW, my recent measurements of box cameras suggests f/22 at 1/30 is closer to correct for their exposure setting. Use ISO 100 in sunshine, ISO 400 under cloudy skies or in deep shade.

Have a Brownie Junior six-20 and some ASA 400 B&W 620 film for it. I'm wondering: For ASA 400, under normal outdoor light (cloudy), should I pull the lever on top to close down the f stop?

 

Thanks

Most black and white films have about a two stop overexposure latitude, so I usually don't worry about 400 film.

 

Remember, expose for the shadows, so even on a sunny day, there might be some darker parts of the scene.

 

But yes, if you have a choice of f/stop, only two on some cameras, you might want the smaller one.

 

If you read the manual for some of these cameras, it says never to use the smaller one with I (instantaneous) shutter speed.

 

At the time, the other choice was to use T, and expose about as fast as you could by hand, maybe 1/10 or 1/4 second.

(And with some way to keep the camera still.)

 

But with ISO 400, you can use I and the smaller aperture, in sunny conditions.

Even though this is an older thread I will contribute since there may be some users of this or similar cameras that might benefit. I would use ISO 400 film and a neutral density filter for bright sunlight. Or maybe a K2 filter. Since the shutter may have slowed down some over the years, I would also bracket (like 2x and 4x filters) and see what happens. I've got an old Kodak twin lens (Duoflex?) that I will try that with as the last time I used it I had Ilford FP4+ loaded