The front with the lens and shutter should separate from the main body. Please provide a picture of the side of the camera.
Shortening the length of the actual shutter opening will indeed make the effective shutter speed faster. Half the length would change 1/45 to 1/90, near enough.
One must remember that these cameras were designed when most drug store processing (literally, in the back room of the local pharmacy, at least in much of America, into the 1960s) returned contact prints -- meaning that a given level of motion blur on the negative was less noticeable than it would have been with, say, a 127 4x4 or later 126 28x28 mm frame printed large enough to view in hand. Beyond that, I've had many box camera negatives that were plenty sharp to enlarge 2x or even 3x -- a ratio that, from 35 mm or 126 would still produce a print barely big enough to bother, but from a 2x3 inch negative makes the very comfortable 4x6 or slightly too large for albums 6x9 inch prints.
All that to say, embrace the motion blur. You're shooting in depth of field anyway (correct focus for most of these is 12 feet, hyperfocal from 6 feet to infinity at the usual f/13 to f/18 aperture); once again, calculated for contact prints at 2x3 final size.
This is going to be a very dumb question....it's safe to use color films with these box cameras right? I keep seeing black and white photos and I don't know if that's because of technical limitations or artistic choice from modern photographers using this camera.The Cadet B2 I have had film in it, I actually got some good results developing the Verichrome Pan iso 125 that was in it. Based on a double exposure that had some cars in it, it was from the late 1950's. You can find some examples in this thread:
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/help-me-develop-this-old-verichrome.189755/#post-2516129
I have a posted a roll shot with a Sears Tower box camera on my blog, it's also made by Ansco. I shot Ilford PanF iso 50. I would probably shoot Ilford HP4 next time to give a little more flexibilty with shadows. If you're going to increase the shutter speed, you'd have to shoot something faster than that.
https://www.cameravignette.com/post/grandma-s-tower-34-box-camera-by-sears
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Not a dumb question at all. Give it a try, especially when you have the shutter running reliably. Many years ago I shot color film using an older camera and was very pleasantly surprised at the results.This is going to be a very dumb question....it's safe to use color films with these box cameras right? I keep seeing black and white photos and I don't know if that's because of technical limitations or artistic choice from modern photographers using this camera.
I was looking to test it out with a roll of Kodak Professional Ektar Color Negative Film ISO 100. I wasn't able to come across a color iso 50 film, but would a 10year expired roll of Kodak Professional Ektar Color Negative Film ISO 100 do the job? I know this is seemingly a debatable issue, but it was the solution I had concluded.
A couple of questions though, you say shutter is 1/45th, and f13 to f18 for aperture. I How confident are you about those numbers, because I keep seeing 1/30-1/60 with everyone taking a different stance, and across the board, I've seen this camera stated as f11. I've never really done prints even for digital photos, so is it normal to get the 6x9 negatives printed out at 2x3? I hit up a local Walgreens and tried to ask some questions about printing this stuff, but the guy behind the counter was just as clueless about this stuff as I currently am.
When you're learning, there are no dumb questions. You can use color film the same as black and white. Personally I'm developing B+W at home to save on costs. I would think the 10 year old Ektar would work well, I've heard a rule of thumb that you open up a stop for every decade on expired film.
If you view your shutter video on youtube, you can advance one frame at a time by pausing and using the period and comma keys. The second time you open the shutter, you can see the aperture open with the slot just starting, and the next frame the slot is just past. So about 1/30th.
You can measure approximate focal length from the back of the lens to the film plane, and divide that number by the diameter of the aperture to get an approximate F stop
Kodachrome, the first color film, was introduced in 1936.My biggest concern was that color film didn't exist when this was manufactured and I was unsure if it would be safe to use it for some technical reasons.
The picture of the other camera shows differences in the shutter plate as well. Without knowing the exact model, I would say it may not work like yours. Ansco made these over many years in both Ansco and Agfa names. They often had other features such as different apertures, time exposure, and portrait lenses.
I would concentrate on why the shutter lever is binding. You can carefully unhook the spring between the shutter lever and the rotating plate. The shutter lever should then move easily back up by spring pressure.
If you can't get it to move correctly, the rotating plate is still working and it will take pictures, you just have to move the lever up after every shot
Kodachrome, the first color film, was introduced in 1936.
When colour print film was introduced, there were no colour commercial developing labs (yet) and still lots of labs set up for black and white.I didn't know. Thank you for educating me. Would I be correct in assuming a price difference between color and B/W film is a contributing factor to why there seem to be more black and white photos from before the 60s? Or would there be some other larger factors at play, like accessibility to buy and develop color film being harder to come by?
Well, the Agfa Syncro Box has a cable release socket (and sync for bulb flash).Just picked up an Ansco Cadet B2. Despite the shutter being broken where it won't snap back, I still think it's usable. However, the slow shutter (somewhere between 1/30th-1/60th depending on which resource I check), combined with my shutter having issues, makes me think getting a good shot even on a tripod might be extra difficult. Does anyone have a way to improve triggering the shutter for box cameras for smoother operation and less shake? Like maybe using a rubber band to pull down the shutter or something?
My shutter failing in case anyone wanted to see it.
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