Brownie Hawkeye Lens Flip
Preparing for our Cheap Shots photo exhibit opening this Friday, I realized I'd never posted a description of the Brownie Hawkeye mod which I used to take all the photos I submitted to the show.
These cameras have a piece of flat glass as a protective cover on the outside; but the image is really formed by the lens behind the shutter. To reach that lens, you look inside the film gate, and unscrew the two phillips-head screws flanking the lens. The whole funnel-shaped film gate will come off as a unit. The lens is held in a recess at the front of this.
It may seem non-intuitive, but the original orientation is to have the concave side facing the front. The modification is to turn it around so the bulge outwards faces the front. Don't lose the ring of springy metal, it goes between the lens and the front of the camera. (This photo shows a 1960 BHF with a one-piece molded plastic lens. Earlier models will look a little different, but the idea is the same.)
After putting the camera back together, the distance of sharpest focus will be much closer (for mine it is about 2 feet, for some it's more like 5).
The reason to do this is to get photos that are fairly sharp in the center, but whose corners dissolve into a dreamlike blur. Since these BHFs are pretty easy to come by, it's a nice technique to experiement with if you haven't been lucky enough to find an affordable Diana...
Brownie Hawkeye Lens Flip
Preparing for our Cheap Shots photo exhibit opening this Friday, I realized I'd never posted a description of the Brownie Hawkeye mod which I used to take all the photos I submitted to the show.
These cameras have a piece of flat glass as a protective cover on the outside; but the image is really formed by the lens behind the shutter. To reach that lens, you look inside the film gate, and unscrew the two phillips-head screws flanking the lens. The whole funnel-shaped film gate will come off as a unit. The lens is held in a recess at the front of this.
It may seem non-intuitive, but the original orientation is to have the concave side facing the front. The modification is to turn it around so the bulge outwards faces the front. Don't lose the ring of springy metal, it goes between the lens and the front of the camera. (This photo shows a 1960 BHF with a one-piece molded plastic lens. Earlier models will look a little different, but the idea is the same.)
After putting the camera back together, the distance of sharpest focus will be much closer (for mine it is about 2 feet, for some it's more like 5).
The reason to do this is to get photos that are fairly sharp in the center, but whose corners dissolve into a dreamlike blur. Since these BHFs are pretty easy to come by, it's a nice technique to experiement with if you haven't been lucky enough to find an affordable Diana...