Twenty Eighth Edition: The Most Basic Box Camera
A century old box camera
The Camera:
I was gifted a Kodak Hawkeye No. 2 Model C by Elizabeth’s cousins, Rachel and Sophia. The Hawkeye camera, which strongly resembles a brownie, was first created by the Boston Camera Company. They were bought out by the Blair Camera Company in 1890, which was then acquired by Eastman Kodak in 1899. The Model C was introduced in 1926 as a very basic box camera made of leatherette-covered cardboard. It has one portrait viewfinder and no other controls except the shutter release lever and film advance knob. The shutter lever works both ways, releasing no matter if it is pushed up or down. There is no glass or plastic lens in front of the opening, making the camera function like a sort of fancy pin hole camera. Each roll of 120 film yields eight 6x9cm images.
The Film:
Since this camera takes 120 film, I was able to use a roll of Kodak Panatomic-X that expired in 1967. The film has an astonishingly low ISO of 32, which means it was truly designed for direct sunlight. Introduced in 1933 as sheet film, Panatomic-X evolved over the years until it was discontinued in 1987.
The Process:
For the black and white films I use Kodak HC-110 black and white developer at Dilution B, which is 484mL of water with 16mL of developer concentrate (this gets the most use out of one bottle of concentrate). HC-110 is affectionately referred to as “the syrup” and is one of the best developers for old films.
Load the film in a Paterson reel and tank in total darkness.
Wash the film in water that is roughly 68°F to cool it down to temperature and prepare it to evenly receive the developer.
Mix the developer concentrate into water that is cooled to 68°F.
Pour the developer in and agitate (invert or rotate the tank) for 30 seconds, then agitate for 5 seconds, every 30 seconds for 9 minutes.
Wash for one minute under running water.
Fixer (I use Sprint) with the same agitation pattern for 4 minutes.
Wash for 5 minutes in running water.
The Results:
I was very surprised to find the camera in full working order 98 years later, and by how sharp the images turned out with film that expired in 1967. Apparently Panatomic-X is known for defying aging and producing great results at box speed. The camera worked best in direct sunlight but handled overcast lighting well.
Fun Fact:
In 1930, Eastman Kodak made new Hawkeye Model C cameras in different colors to commemorate the company’s 50th Anniversary. They even gave away a free Hawkeye anniversary model to any 12-year-old child that wanted one. In total, around 550,000 were handed out.
