127 day is one of the fun challenges for film photographers to enjoy at various times of year. The idea is to shoot 127 film in a 127 format camera on a date that reads 1-27 and give this often overlooked smallest of the medium format cameras some love. I was fortunate enough to be given a Kodak Brownie 127 a couple of Christmases ago by my daughter who reckoned I would have some fun with it. She was not wrong. However, getting film was challenging to begin with.
I managed to find a couple of rolls of Rera Pan 400 127 film at Bristol Cameras here in the UK. It was tough to find 127 film at the time, I was lucky to find a few rolls with a long use by date and took part in my first 127 day a while later. I thoroughly enjoyed that experience and wrote about it in a blog post you can read via the link below. Sadly I allowed other projects to take over my photography and my Brownie 127 was left on the shelf. That changed in January 2025.
January 27th 2025 dawned brightly and I was determined not to miss it. I loaded a roll of Rera Pan 400 into my Kodak Brownie 127 and headed into town. My compositions are nothing special, just my favourite buildings in town. The fact I took these photos with a 1950's bakelite camera that has a small viewfinder, a meniscus lens and one setting of "sort of" 1/50th at "kind of" f/14 and you have a recipe for an hour or two of fun.
The Kodak Brownie was the "point and shoot" camera everyone could afford in the 1950's. Bakelite was the miracle plastic that was cheap to manufacture and could be moulded to any shape you wanted, within reason of course. The Kodak Brownie 127 was made here in the UK and over 250,000 were exported to the USA and Canada between May 1953 and September 1954, making it one of Kodak's most popular cameras. That's not bad for a basic camera.
It's also a quarter of a million people who perhaps got their first taste of film photography with a Kodak Brownie 127. Many were used for a while and either discarded, given away or just left in a drawer or a box in the loft, never to see the light of day again. They could well be still out there, waiting for a new custodian. Others were used to death before becoming a much loved ornament on a shelf, proudly displayed alongside more technically advanced cameras as the one that started it all.
My Brownie was found in a second hand shop and has been given a new lease on life thanks to my daughters thoughtfulness. To be honest I love its simplicity and the photos, well, see for yourself! It didn't take long to shoot 8, yes 8 photos! There's no snapping away like a tourist with this bad boy. I picked my shots and just managed to get the last of the light before the rain came and sent me home, happy that I had taken part in the first 127 day of 2025.
I developed my roll of Rera Pan 400 in Kodak HC 110 1+31 dilution B for 6 minutes at 20 celcius and soon had it hanging to dry in my bathroom. I digitised it with my Nikon D700, Tamron Adaptall 2 90mm f/2.5 macro lens, Pixl-Latr and A5 size led light pad. I processed the RAW files with Affinity Photo 2.
Here's my 8 photos from my roll of Rera Pan 400 shot using my Kodak Brownie 127 for the first 127 day of 2025. I am happy with what I achieved on the day and will be doing it again when us Brits get our 127 day on the 12th July, (12-7 - get it?). I have more 127 film in my fridge, but I'm not too worried about 127 film being a scarce anymore. The good folks at Shanghai Film are producing Shanghai 100 GP3 127 film which is available from many retailers around the world. Huzzah! As always I have placed all my photos in an album on my Flickr account you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.
127 Day - 27th January 2025
Kodak Brownie 127
