The beginning of this year seems to be about boxes and bags. This camera came to me from a gifted box of stuff. Unlike the bag, this box really was a pile of junk cameras. The giver knew it and even said it, so I don’t feel bad repeating it.

The giver said he didn’t have much hope for anything, but I was welcome to try. The Minolta SLR in the top corner had a common fault needing soldering and stuff. So that was stripped for screws and parts, saving the lens. The flash for that camera did work, so that was the first success. There was another Minolta lens, which was also in working condition. I can attach that to my Sony camera to play with at some point.

The Halina’s lenses were shaking in the mount, the viewfinder one dropped off in my hand. It was beyond repair, but I have kept it for another project I have in mind. It might be brought to life in another capacity…not a lamp. I will let you know more on that in April if that is enough of a clue.

That left the box ensign and Yashica 635, both of which were extremely dirty, and the latter had a jammed shutter.

I decided to start with the Ensign, hence this post. Box cameras are very simple machines, so if I could take the front off, I could bring this one back to life…maybe.

The front was a pain in the behind to remove. It didn’t look like it had been removed in its lifetime. I ended up cracking one side, or it might have been cracked before I attempted it, who knows? The way the camera worked meant it would not cause an issue, though. Then it was a matter of cleaning the lenses and mirrors. I also used some leather replenisher on the handle, metal cleaner on the attachments, and boot polish on the skin. The viewfinder window holder had slipped and become loose, so I glued that back in place, too.

Once all that was done, I put it back together and loaded it with a roll of Ilford Selochrome from around 1970. Interestingly, the same type of film I used in the other All Distance I had tried. This camera was slightly younger than that one, produced around 1931. As with the other one, you can pull the lens of this one out to take photos of things under ten feet. There are two aperture settings: bright or ordinary light. I kept this one on ordinary and instant for the whole shoot. The winder was a little slippy and I had to push it in and wind at the same time to advance the film. With an original spool, a metal one, the camera was easier to advance; newer, plastic spools were slippier.

Then one foggy morning, I went for a walk to Sugar Lane Cemetery. I hadn’t been before, and it was on my to-do list. Given it was a weekday, cold and foggy, there weren’t many other people there.

I developed the roll in Rodinal 1:50 for 15 minutes with agitations every minute, at 21 degrees. Here are the 8 shots you get from this camera.

I love the results, really love them, especially the ones with the visible crosses. The last shot was the only one with some issues. I think that was down to the film’s age.

I have loaded the camera with another roll of the same film, ready for another outing.

So far, from this gifted box, I have received a working camera, 2 lenses, and a flash. Of course, I still have the 635 to look at.