brownie target six-16

I have several cameras and my mother sent me her childhood camera

(the brownie target six-16) as a vintage,family hierloom,gift for x-

mas.I know nothing about this camera but would love to use it. it is

in great condition but needs a little cleaning. can anyone give me

some direction?

i too was given one of these cameras for x-mas and i was thrilled--- but i found out that the type of film it takes (616 film)is no longer made, so its extremely hard to find, and very expensive, too. three places to try for film are, "Central Camera Company," "Film For Classics" or "the Frugal Photographer" sorry i dont hare their URL's, but im sure you could find them by searching Yahoo.

however, ive figured out how to opperate it though. to look thru the lens, hold the camera at waist level, and look thru the little window in the top.

if you are looking at it from this view (from the top with the front of the camera facing away from you) the little circular knob on the right side is to wind and release the film when the roll is used up.

the small metal tab that slides in and out on the bottom corner is used to adjust the shutter speed. there are two speeds, one closes the shutter automatically (when the lever is pushed in) and when the lever is pulled out, the shutter stays open for as long as you hold down the shutter release lever, which is the little metal lever that moves up and down, located directly above the shutter speed tab.

the next little metal tab, that is located on the top edge of the camera between the two lenses controlls the size of the F-stop. there are (again) two settings... big (for less depth of field) and little (for more depth of field) the bigger appeture is used when the tab is pushed in, and the small appeture is used when the tab is pulled all the way out.

one more thing... to open the camera, pull up on the little button on top of the camera that is in the front of the handle.

im sure there are technical names for all these parts that i mentioned to you, but i dont know what they are so i appologize, and i hope i wasnt too confusing :)

enjoy your camera!!!

Wow I got a brownie six-16 from my grandma as well this Christmas.

Now that's a coincidence?

I've already shot two rolls of 120 t-max 100 in it and have developed them myself.

As long as you put a old metal 616 reel in the take up winder position when you load the film it will work. There are some other observations:

The full reel of film must be centered exactly because it is shorter than the old reels were, if you center it exactly when you stick it into the spring holder it will stay there for all the exposures.

Remove the film once wound onto the 616 reel in total darkness because the reel is bigger and you will get light leaks around the sides.

It takes wide 6x9cm format exposures so my first roll was overlapped badly, and the exposure window is right where the numbers are for 4.5x6cm 120 format so what I do is just wind it for two numbers for every frame, ie first exposure at 2 second at 4. Barely any negative overlap.

The prints from my second roll were beautiful: Take in mind the f stops are f14 for the large aperature and f20 for the small one. The shutter speed is between 1/35 and 1/50 of a second. All my photos were taken using the time exposure setting manually at between 1/2 and 1 second. I metered using my Pentax(some photos were inside with little light).

I'm going put wings on the inside of the cone later to crop the image down to 6x6 or 6x7. And I'd also like to modify the reel holders inside and the winder so I can wind onto a 120 reel. Also when opening it don't forget to pull the winder knob out from the body.

I was also given a brownie reflex 20 (which I will have to do some extensive film mods to use as it uses 620) and a Pentax ME super. I had to go out and buy a compete darkroom setup.

One could say that I got bit by the photography bug hard.