Box camera.....military equipment?

[alessio cammelli]

Hi guys...this camera was found a lot of years ago here in Tuscany....think never been opened from wartime....in your opinion could be it a so call military equipment?

ciao

Ale

[alessio cammelli]

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[alessio cammelli]

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[alessio cammelli]

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[alessio cammelli]

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[alessio cammelli]

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[Allan H.]

Hi guys...this camera was found a lot of years ago here in Tuscany....think never been opened from wartime....in your opinion could be it a so call military equipment?

ciao

Ale

I am quite sure that the pouch is not military. The material is much thinner than military grade canvas and there are no broad-arrow proofs on the camera.
I believee the case is the one sold with these cameras comercially.
Allan

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Ale, I would agree with Allan, the case is certainly a commercial one, as I have seen these before at antiques fairs here in the UK. I am not sure about the WD markings and date on it.

Cheers, Ade.

[alessio cammelli]

thanks for the info...

Ale

[byterock]

Yep not military at all. I have the same one at home in my Brownie Camera collection though mine is made in Canada.

If there is film inside it can be developed maybe.

Quite an interesting hobby collecting these and cheap too.

Kodak made its cameras in the just about every country that is sold them in. My collection is about 200+ in just Canadian made versions of the Brownie. Going right back to the fist and most valuable 1906 (I paid65$ for it)

Most will run about 5$ for the plastic ones the older leather ones can get expensive at 20+ some wartime and special colour models are well up in the 1000s.

IMHO the canvas cover is actually worth more than the camera. A collector might give you 20$+ for it where the camera is a common pre war model (though I am not an expert on the English version of this camera)

Just noticed the date on the bag is 1944 so it might be one of the rarer war time versions. Check the inside for a date of manufacture I will see if I can find it on a similar if I have one

[Mk1rceme]

My opinion is that the pouch is a wartime item. It clearly has a broad arrow between the WD. I've heard the WD stands for War Department. Not 100% sure but I have seen the same mark on other WWII items.

I can't tell you anything about the camera.

[landsknechte]

This is the UK version of the Six-20 Brownie, made from 1934 to 1941. Maybe worth $20-$30 at best.

620 film is wound onto a simple plastic or metal spool, and backed with a protective paper. When you load a camera, you just stretch it from the spool that the roll came on across to an empty roll. The action of advancing the film as you shoot winds it onto the empty roll, which is then removed and processed. The spool that is emptied then becomes the one that the next roll is loaded onto, and so forth.

1.) Don't open the camera. If you already have, the roll is toast.
2.) Turn the winding lever (the thing that looks like a thumbscrew) clockwise. You should see the numbers advancing through that little window in the back.
3.) Keep doing that until you pass all of the numbers, and go through a bit of blank paper.
4.) Eventually, you'll fell a break in the tension as you advance it. That will be the film coming unhitched from the reel.
5.) Wind a wee bit more, just to be safe.
6.) Pull the advance lever out, and unhook the hooks that the camera has at the seam between the two halves.
7.) Remove the spool with the film on it, and secure with a small bit of tape.

You should be able to get the film developed anywhere that develops modern 120 black and white film. Once you get the film out, post a few pictures of the roll and I might be able to get some more information for you.

Here's a scan of a manual for that model, that might help to illustrate what I'm talking about:

http://www.brownie-camera.com/manuals/six20buk.pdf


--Chris