Anscoflex (1953-1956)

The Anscoflex is a simple camera with a waist level brilliant viewfinder. The body is plastic and aluminum. It is similar to the Eastman Kodak Duaflex camera, the Argus Argoflex Seventy-Five and others. It takes twelve 2-1/4" square pictures on a roll of 620 film. 620 film is no longer made, but you can use currently available 120 film re-spooled onto 620 spools. A yellow filter attachment and a portrait lens attachment were available and a 1-1/16" Series VI filter adapter will fit. The later Anscoflex II had the yellow filter and close-up lens built-in.

Front - Open

Back

The lens on the Anscoflex is an uncoated, approximately f/16, approximately 75 mm periscopic lens. A periscopic lens has two matched meniscus elements with the concave surfaces facing each other and the aperture stop in between. The shutter is a rotary shutter with a single, approximately 1/30 second, shutter speed. The film advance and shutter release are interlocked to prevent double exposures. You advance the film by turning the film advance knob in quarter turns back and forth to ratchet the film forward while looking for the picture number through the little red window on the back. You open the viewfinder and uncover the taking lens by sliding the tall front plate up. The viewfinder shows the scene right side up, but reversed left to right. The back is opened for loading film by pressing the red button near the viewfinder. The inside of the film chamber has a label suggesting size 620 Ansco "All-Weather" film, which at the time had an ASA speed of 64. The flasholder screws onto the left side of the camera. A tripod socket is on the bottom. The tripod socket is there mainly to attach the camera to its case. Because there is no provision for a time exposure or a delayed action for a "selfie" there isn't much need to attach a tripod.

The camera was styled by Raymond Loewy and Associates and was made by Ansco in Binghamton, NY. Ansco, part of General Aniline and Film Corporation, was the American film company that ran a distant second to Eastman Kodak Company. GAF got out of the camera business in 1977 and now is solely a building materials manufacturer.

Through the viewfinder.

Battle of Nashville Monument through a red Wratten 25 filter.