Best films for Brownie and other

[BubbaBear]

What are the best films (ISO) for Brownie and other vintage non adjustable cameras?

 

[Light Guru]

Choosing the ISO for your film is just like choosing the ISO when shooting digital. It all depends on the lighting conditions of what your going to be shooting. The type of camera especially when shooting film has no impact in the decision at all.

 

[BubbaBear]

OK, it has been a long time for me. But I was thinking that with the slower shutter and larger aperture that a fast film would be over exposed in these older cameras. Where are I getting it wrong? Thank you.

 

[timor]

Not quite. Brownie is not a digital magic, it has very limited capabilities in any terms.
But I think you are asking this question second time, right ?
Nevertheless. Brownies vary, some models, most, have single shutter speed, single aperture. Some have two or even three aperture choices, some have focusing, but all have single shutter speed (and B ). Usually the shutter is 1/50 - 1/60 of a second. That combined with the largest aperture of 8 gives good universal spot for ISO 100. If you shoot family on vacation, as it was intended with Brownies. The idea relies on film latitude, film unlike digital is not clipping highlights and it is always possible to print even very strongly overexposed negative. The problem is, if you want to use Brownie as a creative tool you may want as much quality of negative as possible ( even with Brownie ), heavy overexposure is not a good thing. There are two ways to control the negative density; by development, the question is how much experience do you have with that and by use of filters, if you have any. ( Filters like neutral density or so called contrast filters; red, orange and yellow ). You can't go any faster with Brownie, but you can push the film or you can go slower using optical density of filters instead of aperture.
There is still enough roll film on the market, from ISO 25 Rollei to ISO 1000 Delta 3200. If you know conditions in which you will shoot, choose film accordingly. If you don't the most universal would be FOMA 200 ( or Arista Edu 200 ) of practical ISO about 160. FOMA also would give you look of the photographs most proper to the era of Brownies.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I usually go with whatever film would be closest to what would have been used when the camera was made.

In general I usually use 100/125 or 400 in SLRs/rangefinders, but with older cameras I use 100 or slower (fast films wouldn't have been available yet depending on the age of the camera).

I usually use older cameras outdoors on a nice sunny day to get plenty of light. (But I took a few pictures once at a hockey game with a Brownie so I guess anything's possible! lol)