Kodak Brownie Reflex 20

Specification

Art Deco Credentials

Limited: Minor and insubstantial

• Designed after the main Art Deco period
• Wrap around horizontal ribbing on the Bakelite body
• Lined pattern on camera face
• Aluminium lens bezels
• Aluminium hood
• Chrome highlights on sides
• Curved Streamline Moderne design

Description

The Brownie Reflex 20 is a twin-lens reflex style box camera from the 1950s. It can be described as a pseudo twin lens reflex camera. It isn't a true TLR because the top lens is just part of the viewfinder and does not aid focussing. It has a moulded plastic body with a large brilliant waist level viewfinder with a hood. The viewfinder has a dotted square guide for use with slide film. A tripod mount is not provided.

The aperture control is labelled with the numbers 13,14 and 15. These are not F values but EV values. It offers a choice of EV13(f/11), EV14(f/16) and EV15(f/22). The shutter speed is 1/60s. The camera has front focussing and is labelled as Scenes (12ft-INF), Groups(6ft-12ft) and close-ups(4ft-6ft).

The film is loaded by moving a lever on the base so that the whole of the film transport system can be removed by lifting the top off the camera. It has an shutter interlocking system that avoids double exposure. When the film is loaded, the red window is used to locate the first frame. There is no need to use the red window again. The camera will move to the next frame and lock when the film is advanced by the wheel. The red window can't really be used to check how many frames have been taken because the auto advance and the annotation on the film get out of step. Not sure how you are supposed to know when 12 frames have been taken. The red window has a spring loaded sliding cover.

Many different Kodak flash holders can be used with this camera as a screw and pin flash connection is provided.

How to Use

See the User Manual here:- Kodak Brownie Reflex 20 manual

This camera takes 620 film which is still available from selected photographic outlets. Although the actual film is the same as 120 film, the spools are different. The 620 spools are slightly shorter and have a smaller diameter. Do not use 120 film in this camera because it will jam and may snap. It is possible to cut down a spool of 120 film to fit or to re-spool some 120 film onto 620 spools in a darkroom or changing bag.