My first camera

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 about this camera 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 Brownie 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 two apertures - “SUNNY" / “FLASH” (f13.5) and "CL'DY BR'T" (f8). There were two focus zones, "CLOSE-UPS" (3½-6 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 in Oregon and I was amazed by the deep blue of the water, so I had to go to the gift shop and buy some color film. I did my first panorama, three shots that I later overlapped in my photo album and still have somewhere around here. The camera disappeared sometime during the next few years when I moved up to 35mm. I picked up another Super 27 at a garage sale and it holds a proud place in my camera collection.