Now for the camera
You have film to shoot, now let's look at the camera. On my Brownie the camera is opened by pulling the winding knob out, lifting the forward most knob on the top, and pulling the front of the camera out of the box, as in Figure G.

FIGURE G


Remove the camera from the box to load the film. Roll over picture for a larger image.

The full roll of film gets loaded on the top, with the paper backing facing out, and fed onto the lower spool at the bottom of the camera, like Figure H. The camera is then put back into the box. The upper knob will snap into place, while the winding knob will have to be pushed in and turned until its key seats inside the spindle.

FIGURE H


The full roll goes on top and is wound onto the lower roll. Roll over picture for a larger image.

These box cameras are pretty simple to operate. They have a fixed focus lens that is good from about six feet to infinity and a fixed shutter whose speed I'm guessing is somewhere around 1/25th with a bulb setting. Some of them, like my Brownie, will also have multiple aperture settings.

Composing your image is done with the vertical or horizontal viewfinder, depending on how you orient the camera. These cameras, with their slow shutter speeds, are susceptible to blurring from camera shake. I recommend placing them on a stable surface when shooting.

Here comes the tricky part with these cameras: advancing the film. The films these cameras were designed for were orthochromatic, and the films made now are panchromatic. These are just a couple of fancy words that mean the old film was sensitive to all colors of light except red, and the films now are sensitive to all colors of light.

Some of you may have seen or remember the red safety lights in darkrooms. Well, those are a thing of the past. Because modern film is sensitive to all colors of light, we need to do something with that little red window on the back of the camera. A piece of black electrical tape will cover that just fine.

Unfortunately, this window is also how we know what frame we're on. After each exposure, you'll need to peel that piece of tape up enough to see the frame number as you advance the film. Don't hold it up to the light to see the numbers like I did with the first roll I shot. I burned all but the first two frames of the roll. This is something that is going to have to be trial and error on your part according to your camera and what film you're using, but you should get about eight exposures.

As for what film to use, I recommend sticking with black and white. Not only will it create a more vintage looking image, these cameras were designed for black and white film and just don't offer the clarity and sharpness that color demands.

Conclusion
Those vintage box cameras sitting on your shelf can be more than just a nifty knick-knack. With a minor amount of effort you can reroll modern film for use in these antique cameras and create some very interesting vintage looking images. Good luck and good shooting.

James Booth is a self-taught PC and Palm device user that dabbles in graphics and photography. He can be reached at lizardworks@mchsi.com.