pictures and words. hopefully more pictures.

Many years ago, my dear Mother In Law gave me a box of old cameras as studio decoration (that’s right….I had a STUDIO!). Some were quite old, others not too old, but I accepted them with great relish since I love old gadgets and such. When I was in college , a few years ago, we built our own cameras that were our ONLY authorized classroom tool for the first year (!) so, I felt quite confident that I could get one or two of these relics back in the game. The one that seemed particularly best for refurbishment (or total destruction…) was a 1956 Agfa copy of Brownie’s 620 camera. made for the American market, but manufactured in Germany it had refinements that the Brownie didn’t have, namely a glass optic (albeit a single element! more like a magnifying glass!). I replaced the shutter spring, sanded all the friction points, and then went to building a way to transport modern 120 film through a 620 gate. That proved the toughest part, but eventually I felt like I had a reliable film transport system and could use film manufactured today as opposed to 620 which saw it’s last production run a while back. In all I put about five dollars in parts into it……hence the name: FDC…..Five Dollar Camera.
I don’t have the first roll I shot through the camera, but I have many subsequent rolls….take a look…..

Now for the real thing:

This camera has made the rounds….and I continue to use it….the venerable FDC, still going strong after 60 years…..