The Great Little Kodak Brownie 127 Camera

If there was one single camera responsible for recording and documenting in millions of little black and white photographs, the social history of the ordinary British people throughout the 1950’s and early 1960’s, it was the humble Kodak Brownie 127.

With its simple no-nonsense “point-and-shoot” method of photography, the little camera became a common sight throughout the British Isles.

It was there on so many occasions to witness the happy, smiling couple as they emerged from the church into the sunshine on their wedding day, it preserved for all time the precise moment that a proud child collected a prize at the finale of the school sports day, and it bounced wildly on the chests of many a short-trousered train-spotter, sprinting along a railway station platform to record for evermore his favourite steam locomotive before, like his camera, it passed into history.

The Brownie 127 began its life in Kodak’s Harrow factory in 1952, and immediately met with great success among the British public. So successful in fact was the black, shiny, Bakelite camera, that in the first two years of its production, sales had exceeded over two million. And with a low retail price of around £1 5s 0d (£1.25), it meant that every-day photography was now within the reach of most household budgets.

Throughout his design of the camera, Frank Brownell had kept technology and the number of moving parts to a minimum; and therein laid its success.

The camera shutter was a one-speed affair that moved across the exposed film at the exceedingly slow speed of 1/50 of a second, a speed that nowadays only the bravest of photographers would consider hand-holding a camera to take a photo. The lens was a basic 64mm Meniscus f14, which although adequate for middle and distance shots, was somewhat lacking when required to take a close shot.

Film for the camera, more often than not supplied by the major manufacturers such as Kodak and Ilford was 127 roll film, smaller than 120 films and larger than the increasingly popular 35mm.

Black and white was normally the film of choice for the majority of users for two important reasons. Firstly, black and white film was cheaper to develop and print at the local chemist at that time (the Brownie 127 allowed eight exposures on a roll of film) and secondly, due to the slow shutter and lens speed, colour film did not produce photographs of good enough quality.