Saturday, July 23, 2011

The Ansco No.2 Folding Buster Brown



I have only put one roll of film through this camera so far, and having bought it a few years ago for $10, it's about time that I showcased it here. Produced by Ansco in Binghamton, N.Y. the camera differs from the typical "Buster Browns" in that the front drops down and the bellows travels along a rail and the lensboard locks into a fixed position. The typical Buster Brown cameras are box-camera style. The tiny reflex viewfinder is missing, but they are hard to use, anyway. I just mount this on a tripod and estimate the field of view and fire away. The shutter actually is in front of the lens, so if you have never seen one, don't think that the lens is missing. The camera dates from between 1918 and 1925 or so. 
The camera takes 120 film, making it quite useable. Shutter speeds are T,B, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100th sec. Apertures are from f8 to f64! No doubt that a tripod is required for anything below f/16 @ 1/100 sec, using ISO 100 film. It's a fixed focus camera, meaning that it focuses from about 10 feet to infinity. I am including one shot I took back in May,along the flooded area of Fleming Creek by Parker Mill. I think it was probably at f/64 for 10 to 15 seconds.
Fleming Creek

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