Dad's Lancer

About a year ago I loaded my dad's Ansco Lancer with some Efke R100 B&W 127 format film I got from Blue Moon Camera in Portland, OR. My original idea was to take some amazing photos, get them processed and framed and give them to him as a Christmas present. However, the processing and mailing back and forth of the film took a lot longer than I originally thought it would. And it was way more expensive. And most of the photos didn't turn out as well as I wanted them to.

Moral of the story: it's probably better to develop film yourself if it's a specialty format and you don't want to spend a lot of money.

The germ of the idea still resonates with me, even though my plan totally failed in every conceivable way.

There's something poetic about taking photos with old cameras that were intensely loved at one time. Since I don't make a lot of money, all the cameras I've collected have been gifts or heavily used. They're not worth as much as a mint model, but I don't mind. They've got more energy attached to them.

And I gotta say, even though my venture with my dad's camera was such an epic failure, my heart fluttered when I looked at my prints for the first time. Even though the photos are not that technically impressive, they have a texture of affection that some of my other photos are lacking. Just the fact that the Lancer's little unimpressive lens captured the feeling in the air on that autumn week is really magical to me.

Ansco Clipper

What? Two posts in one day? Making up for lost time, kiddies.

So this weekend was the epic and wonderful Vancouver Camera Swap Meet and Trade Show down at the Cameron Community Centre in Burnaby. As usual it was very busy and very dangerous for your wallet. I bought three cameras in about 15 minutes, but don't worry I called it quits soon after. I also picked up an original lensbaby for $35, and then got the heck outta there! It was a good haul, though! Besides the Ansco Clipper, which I will be writing about here, I picked up a Zorki-4 and a little half-frame Yashica rangefinder. Both were good deals and great items for any collection... Gotta love the camera show!

However, a word of warning to anyone who wants to check it out next year... You will find so many amazing deals, and a lot of beautiful, rare cameras, but you will also find a lot of potentially terrible purchases. Always double or triple check everything on the camera before you buy, and even then, try to talk down the price if you can. I've almost bought things a few times, and then looked inside the camera to see the film transport is all dirty, or there's batteries melting the inside of the camera, or something. Be careful!

Here's a little example, though not as big a concern:
I bought this Ansco Clipper from an extremely friendly and talkative guy, and he said he researched the camera and that it takes 620 film, and it even had a sticker on it that said "620." However, it is a 616 camera! If you look at it for two seconds you can see that it takes much wider film than 620, and I didn't really notice while I was there. If I was really set on getting a 620 camera, which are fairly simple to get film for, I would have been devastated, since 616 film is virtually impossible to find, let alone process. So... caveat emptor. I don't blame the guy at all, this is an honest mistake, but there are dealers at that show who will sell you crap with an innocent smile.

All that being said-- apparently you can easily rig this baby up to take 120 film... One day I'll give it a shot and post the results.

Anyhow, this is all well and good, but let's talk about my new little friend.

It's a cheap little metal box, with retractable "bellows." It has a glass lens and two shutter speeds: B and around 1/50. Fixed focus, fixed aperture. The man who sold it to me called it a point and shoot but it's basically a box camera. Nuffin special! I'll have to take er for a test run and see what the lens looks like!

It's a very cute little art piece, though. The shutter release lever has a little red bead around it, and the name plate is super cute.

Marcy at Junkstore Cameras has experimented with the Clipper using 120 film. Check it out!

Moral of the story: be innovative, be creative and never spend too much of your hard earned money!!

xoxo
CWB

Ansco Lancer

This week's camera is the Ansco Lancer, a relic from the 1950s. The model I have is my dad's camera, and it was actually his first! As you can see, he must have thought at some point that a camera strap made of string was a good idea. I found this guy in my parents' basement collecting dust.

So, while the Lancer was sold by Ansco on this side of the Atlantic, it's actually a Bilora Bella 44-1 minus a B setting, manufactured in Germany. It's a very simple viewfinder camera with zone focusing, along the same lines as the Agfa Silette. It has a whopping two shutter speeds (50 and 100) and an impressive two f stops (8 and 16). It has a Sconar lens, although I'm not sure what focal length it is. This guy takes 127 film, which, again, is available from The Frugal Photographer (see the link on the right), but is otherwise pretty obsolete. I wholly intend to test it out one day, but today is not that day.

The Lancer was a pretty cheap camera, but it has some fun quirks. The cheapness itself is kind of a quirk, actually, since the lens is so basic that you can see through it perfectly. It's kind of hard to believe that it's doing anything at all! And then the winder makes a clicking noise once you've wound to the next frame, but then you can just keep on winding forever if you want to, so that takes some getting used to. Also the name, "Lancer"...  really... It's easy to see how it would be perfect for a kid learning how to take pictures in the 50s and 60s, though.

You know... it's also kind of interesting that my dad used this camera for years and still has it, and that his family used their Brownie for even longer. Almost every camera I had growing up ended up breaking in a couple of years, and with so many chips and digital bits, newer cameras are a lot harder to salvage, I think. Maybe.

So, I will continue to dig through my dad's belongings and see if I can uncover some of his old photos, and maybe I'll run some film through it myself. However, Marcy at Junk Store Cameras has an amusing review of the Lancer as well as some test shots. Check it out!


Cheers!
Caity