Pete's Photographic Blog

 At last I have found this old camera of mine.  This is the first camera I owned.  Probably purchased around 1967 as a present.  I have no idea of how much it cost at the time but it was most likely in shillings, not pounds.  This is the Debonair 120 roll film camera.  It is of course a copy of the famous Diana camera produced in China in the 1960s. This is a plastic camera with plastic lens.  It takes 120 roll film.  It has very basic controls.  On the side of the lens (above, to left of lens) is the shutter release button.  This fires the shutter everytime it is pressed and is not linked to the film advance.  Therefore multiple exposures are highly likely unless you wind on immediately after each shot. The back of the camera has the red film counter window which displays the exposure number printed on the backing paper of 120 roll film. The lens has two other metal sliders that control the aperture and the shutter.  The aperture has three settings: Cloudy - Hazy - Bright.  Moving thi

 As an ex Kodak employee I have an interest in the cameras that we made.  I saw this Brownie 127 in a charity shop for £2.  The shutter was working so I brought it home. The Kodak Brownie 127 (first model) was manufactured in England during the period 1952 to 1959.  From 1952 to 1955 the front plate was plain (as in my model).  From 1956 to 1959 it had a cross-hatch patterned front plate.  There were two further iterations, the second and third model, with production finally finishing in 1967.  These were a popular camera with over a million produced in the first two years of production.  They are still easy to find and cheap to buy. The camera has a plastic body in what could be described as an art-deco style.  Without film it only weighs 220g ( nearly 8 oz).  It uses 127 roll film.  This is not a popular size anymore though it is still possible to buy it.  It is also possible to use 120 roll and 35mm film in this camera as you will be able to see below.  As far as I have discovered t