Sometimes one strikes it lucky when rummaging through a certain auction site's 'bargain basement' in the photographic section. This particular camera caught my eye as it seemed to be in wonderful condition for its age and the very modest asking price. Encouraged by my tendency towards GAS (gear acquisition syndrome), on the spur of the moment I took a chance, not even researching the details of this model before clicking on 'buy it now'.
The camera in question is the Ensign Carbine no.12 from the 1920s, made by Houghton-Butcher. This company, based in London, was founded in 1915, bringing with it an already rich heritage in camera manufacture, went through various iterations before they, sadly, stopped making cameras in 1961.
Houghton and Ensign - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia
When the camera arrived, I wasn't disappointed. It's in beautiful condition for its one hundred or so years of existence. Bright chrome-work, leather-cloth in remarkably good shape and a clear lens. Even the shutter fired ok (albeit with issues on speeds lower than 1/25th of a second). It's even retained its own little cable release that clips onto the hinged lens panel.
The only downside, as I quickly discovered, was that the seller had mistakenly described the camera as taking the 120 film size whereas the actual format is the now long obsolete 116 (they stopped making this back in the 1980s). Fortunately, the upside is that these cameras are adaptable to the smaller(!) 120 rolls with a little fettling, as I discovered after a little trawling around on the 'net.
With the correct spacers at either end of the film spools and appropriate support fitted along the long edges of the film gate, the camera is once again useable, giving huge 105x55mm negatives.
My first roll of film through the old-timer showed considerable promise, though not without issues...
I developed the roll in caffenol using the Delta recipe (link below) a formulation that I'm now starting to get used to, which yields good image density and moderate contrast without seeming to need additional ingredients to combat base fog, a potential risk with faster films in some other brews.
Well, there were six fairly evenly spaced frames on the strip, looking ok exposure-wise considering I mostly used the 'sunny sixteen' rule and my best guessimate. One thing I hadn't fully accounted for was how much of an issue light leaks might be, something quite noticeable on the devved negatives. It turns out that using a red marker pen to 'colour in' a piece of clear tape stuck over the rather pale frame counter window wasn't sufficient to counter this problem, particularly with a 400 iso film.
Having digitised the images on my old Epson 4870 flatbed scanner and carrying out the usual basic adjustments, I was surprised to get three images with little or no noticeable fogging, one that needed a little dodging and burning to hide the issue and only two with a significant fog-flare. I will probably try and find a better solution to darkening the little round window and/or try a slower film, probably with an orthochromatic rendering. Fun for another time.
All in all, a pretty successful first outing.
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Lovely photos!
How wonderful to get such an old camera working again! I look forward to seeing more from it 🙂