lester_hawksby Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 Hi, I've just started messing around with an old box brownie, a Portrait Hawkeye no. 2 which I believe to be 1930s. Wonderfully, it takes 120 film. I went out and took some shots on a bright sunny day, guessing that was what it was most suited for, on FP4 film - ISO 125. I hoped this might be around the right speed, but all my images are seriously underexposed. What am I doing wrong? Surely Kodak no. 2 Brownie film wasn't ISO 400? (I would guess more like 50?) The shutter seems quite fast, but I have no means of testing the exact speed. Could there be something wrong with it such that the exposure is much too short? (in which case I'll just use fast film - I'm contact printing, so grain doesn't bother me) The sheet metal inside the back was somewhat rusty when I got it - I was given it by a junk-shop owner who couldn't shift it - but the shutter mechanism seems OK. I can't see any rust in there. It's all riveted, though, not screwed, so I can't really take it apart to find out. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maury_cohen Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 My educated guess is around 1/80th-1/100th. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_eve Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 Shutter speed on these older box cameras "should be" around 1/25 - 1/50 ... you're correct in your assumption about the original film speed. Two things : maybe you had it set on the smallest aperture, or worse still, "between" apertures ... or is it possible that the film was under-developed rather than under-exposed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lester_hawksby Posted June 19, 2003 Author Share Posted June 19, 2003 The Portrait Hawkeye seems only to have one aperture. It measures about 7mm, perhaps a little under; the lens focal length must be about 105mm so it's probably exactly f/16, which would suggest a correct shutter speed of 1/50 or 1/25 on old slow film in bright sunlight. I suppose a film problem is possible, though I don't think so. I'll have to give it another roll to find out. Probably 400 speed, so if it's a speeding shutter I'll still get good pictures, and if it *was* my development I can recover some kind of image with bleach. I may have to look for a better, unrusted brownie anyway. Not that I need more cameras by any means, but I've kinda got a bug for it now. Thanks for your help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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