Good morning to everyone. Does anyone here have any recollections of using a
Kodak Brownie Hawkeye camera?
Yesterday, while sorting through the last of my parents boxes of photos and
documents, I came across a paper pouch containing b&w negatives of a size I had
never seen before. The negatives were “family life” shots from when my family,
before I appeared, lived in Peru around 1954 - 1956. The film stock was just a
hair wider than 2 ¼ inches and was cut in frames of about 4 inches in length. I
tracked the Kodak film stock dimensions down to either #161 or # 616, and the
web site that I was using listed the Brownie Hawkeye as being one of the models
that would have accepted these films. I then went and found what the Hawkeye
looked like, and I have memories of seeing and handling such a camera in their
attic decades ago, but that was long before I had an interest or a basic
understanding of photography.
My question for anyone regarding the use of those simple box cameras was how an
image was sighted, since there appears to be no focus mechanism on the outside
of the body. The only knobs appear to be to advance the film stock, and then
there’s a grey push-button for I guess the shutter release.
There is a curved, or domed glass-like element on the very top of the front,
immediately in front of the carry strap - its almost like a prism, from what I
can make out. On the front of the box there are two ports - one for a lens and
the other, immediately above it, for another round prism-like piece of glass.
I’m guessing that the round front glass above the lens is a part of some type
of basic viewfinder assembly that works with the prism on top - but that is
purely speculation.
I’d like to know for certain how that little camera worked as I think it would
explain a lot as to why most of the images in the negatives look
blurred/unfocused. I guess those little devices were not as “action-tracking”
friendly as David’s Oly EM2 or Howard’s Nikons…and Mom, it appears, was trying
to keep up with a dog and three little kids running around a Pacific coast
beach. :)
Any explanations would be welcomed. Thanks.
Best regards,
Peter S------
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