"Philosopher" - Found "Brownie" Cam - Any Modern Replacement for Verichrome Pan 620 ?

Take one out of a rather cheaper camera perhaps or use a phone spare part.

ISTR that you can get 120 film and wind it onto 620 spools if you are doing it all yourself

But its all nostalgia, even a crap mobile phone will take a better image than a brownie

-- “I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”

― Leo Tolstoy

Raspberry Pi camera, of course! But you may find the sensor a little small for a full 35mm frame. Would be fun to see what happened though.

Theo

On the absolute cheapest feature phones it's surprising how bad they can still make the cameras. I think a Brownie might win against some.

"Brownies" were 6x6 ... not 35mm. In theory you'd want a 6x6 sensor, LOTS of pixels, though the LENS isn't THAT great. 6x6 with a GOOD lens is usually pretty spectacular.

I have a Pentax 6x7 - "The Big One" - like a giant SLR. Alas they never made a 6x7 sensor for it. Modern 'tiny' sensors with theoretically similar pixel counts still just don't reproduce the look and feel of 'real' 6x7 medium-format film alas. Modern sensors are "sharp", but film had a better 'tonal' range.

It's the old 'analog'-vs-'digital' arg. Digital is technically 'more accurate'. 'Analog' however is often more 'aesthetic' - better tuned to human senses. Digital sound is technically more accurate, but tube amplifiers/vinyl are more aesthetic. Similar with image sensors -vs- film. Using film you get basically 16+ bit tonal range ... and it's not quite "linear", but more in tune with how the human eye sees things. A medium/large format film, say Plus-X, just LOOKS better, more "real".

Can be done, of course. Done it. But it's a pain.

But that's not THE POINT ! :-)

Cleaning out my office I also found some far older cams - one looks like a 3"X9" vertical format folder from the VERY old days. The shutters still work. I'll look at them more closely soon and give you the exact specs.

The one in the GOOD case was a 4x5 "Press Camera". I'd actually used that a bit back in the day. The lenses were kinda small but the pix are just great. You see 'em in old movies all the time. Alas do not have the flash add-on - but don't know if you can get those exploding flash-bulbs anymore. MIGHT be able to dup the illumination profile with LEDs ... but those bulbs were VERY bright.

Hmmm ... the "$5000 Brownie" is sounding better. So absurd that it's attractive :-)

Would need at least 12-bit range in order to fake Verichrome Pan however ... and then a 12-bit PRINTER. Do they still make those dye-sublimation printers ???

Found almost the original digital camera, Casio 640x480, deep in my office lately. Alas do NOT have the proper connecting cables. Look like "stereo sound" jacks ... likely some serial format. As I remember they did NOT have an IR filter ... asphalt sometimes looked GREEN.

Anyway, old cams ARE attractive. I have a number of them ... and no, SOME film formats are just NOT in existence since the 40s. I even found a "Polaroid Back" for 4X5 ... mostly meant for the old B&W that produced both a positive AND negative. Got some very old real Polaroids too ... that are also optimized for that old roll film. I have ONE spool of that film left. Shoot, wait, peel ... and then apply the acidic 'fixer' to the positive.

They were not.

Very few cameras use 6x6.

they were generally about 2.25" x 3.25 " on 620 film. I only remember 127 class cameras generating square negatives

IIRC today's 'half plate' (Medium format) cameras are only 5x4"

I'd count Hasselblad as a "significant" exception ...

Though 6x7 is "better".

A lot of the cheap 620 cams did 6x6 ... I had a number of them. Big square negs.

Ummmmmmm ... look again.

IMHO, "medium-format" is at least 6x4.5 (Mamiya 645) to 6x9

Basically, it's about 35mm X 4 area

Does wonders.

I have a Mamiya 645 and Pentax 6x7 (original model). Beautiful pix. Puts 35mm to shame.

One of the antiques looks like maybe 6x12 ... one of those really really old vertical formats. Likely would have to physically fabricate from 4x5 roll film. Serious pain !