Where it all started.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Super 27, a Christmas gift from my parents when I was 13 years old in 1963. What really appealed to me was the flash compartment for AG-1 bulbs (this was pre-flashcubes) with a pop-open door, much like the hidden Corvette headlights which I also thought were very cool at the time. The Super 27 was a viewfinder camera taking square images on 127 film (hence the “27” in its name). It was made in the USA from 1961 through 1965. The Kodar lens had only two apertures – “SUNNY” / “FLASH” (f13.5) and “CL’DY BR’T” (f8). There were two focus zones, “CLOSE-UPS” (3.5-6 feet) and “BEYOND 6FT”. The shutter had two speeds, 1/80 when the flash door was closed and 1/40 when open. Winding the film cocked the shutter, preventing double-exposures. I only used black & white film because color was too expensive for my allowance – until my family took a vacation to Crater Lake and I was amazed by the deep blue of the water, so I had to go to the gift shop for some color film. I did my first panorama, two shots that I later overlapped in my photo album, which I still have. The camera disappeared sometime after I started shooting 35mm. Years later I found a Super 27 at a garage sale and it holds a proud place in my camera collection.