Houghton: Ensign 2 1/4 B (box)

Notes related to specific cameras
bill339
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Location: Southern New Jersey

Houghton: Ensign 2 1/4 B (box)

Postby bill339 » Mon Apr 22, 2019 8:42 pm

The Box Ensign 2¼B was made by Houghton-Butcher in the UK from 1912 into the 1920s. The camera was changed in 1923 by adding a wire frame viewfinder to the front and loading film from the back. It took 2¼×3¼ (6×9cm) negatives on 120 films (Ensign 2¼B film). It has a simple rotary 1/50 of a second Instant/Timed shutter. There was also a 2¼A model, for 2¼ square images. There are at least three models of the 2 ¼ B, one with a meniscus lens, and another with a Rapid Rectilinear (RR) lens. The camera has three (unlabeled but about 5.6, 8, and 16) apertures that are selected by a slider above the shutter release. Some versions have a plug-type lens cap that was made of leatherette-covered cardboard and attached by a string to the lens surround. The third model was manufactured under license for Australia and New Zealand under the "HR Ton" trademark. This model did not include the wire viewfinder and the Ensign model details were only included on a sticker on the inside. Besides the wire frame viewfinder (sports finder) the camera had two waist-level (Watson-type) finders for landscape and portrait. The Ensign 2¼B was available in black, red, or a leather-grain effect brown.

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