Kodak ‘Brownie’ 127 Camera

I was given one of these when I was in the Cubs, to use when we went away to camp. The film was not always easy for young fingers to thread, but I got the hang of it. I remember that the photograph’s number was printed on the back of the paper roll at the required intervals, and as you wound the film you saw countdown markers through the small round red window in the back of the camera. You stopped winding when the number was centered in the window. It was a durable design, if only because it was so unsophisticated. I still have a few of my pictures, somewhere. I don't think I was any good at photography, but this camera started my interest in the hobby.

— Derek Bryan

I started work in 1962 in a photographic shop in Keighley, Yorkshire. The first camera I ever sold was a 127 Box Brownie like the one shown here and it cost £1.5s.6d (£1.30 in today’s funny money). I always had an interest in photography from these early days and my last job before early retirement was as a self-employed photographer.

— Dave Busfield

I was given the Brownie 127 as a boy in the 1950s. I have still got negatives and contact prints of the period. I recently had some enlargements made and the quality is surprisingly good. If I knew then what I know now I would have taken a lot more photos!

— Dennis Wills

I took one these cameras on a school trip to London Zoo in 1971. I didn’t realise how old it was. My mum had the box Brownie which my dad used to use for ‘trick’ photography. I loved this camera best though, it was straightforward to use and sturdy. I think you could only fit eight pictures on the film though, and it took a week for them to be developed at the chemist. It was exciting to collect the pictures to see what you had managed to get!

— Catherine Dillon

I was given one of these for passing my 11plus in 1962. It was a good and fairly foolproof 'starter' camera which kicked off my lifelong interest in taking photos. The fixed focus and fixed shutter speed were very limiting, but the wide angle lens took good group portraits. I used my Bownie 127 for 10 years before upgrading to a Rollei B35.

— Christine

I still have my Kodak Brownie 127 safely kept all these years from when I used to take photographs as a young boy at Beadnell and Lindisfarne on the Northumbrian coast and at Kielder Forest before the reservoir came. A great little camera from the 50s, so simple to use, but as always it is the instant that you click the shutter, avoiding camera shake, and what you have in the viewfinder, and getting as close as you can to your subject, that made the difference. I've now a Nikon D70s but still own and use a Nikon N8008 and a Canon 3000 which gives excellent results with its 100-300 USM lens, having moved on from a Canon AE1 Program. But it was the Kodak Brownie 127 that gave me a head start in photography.

— User: Graham Bardgett

I am still using one of these on a daily basis.

I have many cameras, but this is as fun as it gets, and, without modification, happily accepts 35mm film in canister. Kodak got this one right first time!

— User: John Cumisky

The Brownie was my very first camera when I was 7 years old. It was straightforward to use and I still have lovely moments from childhood captured for ever.

— CMaryOhLord1!