Ensign Cupid

The oldest camera in the collection. The Ensign Cupid was produced by Houghtons Ltd, which soon after merged with Butcher. It was in production between 1922 and 1928. It was originally intended to be a stereo camera, but was instead adapted for roll film. It's certainly distinctive, with its pronounced "T" section.

The simple meniscus lens has a focal length of 70mm. If you search online you'll find various claims that the single aperture is f/14 or f/12. These are both wrong though as Ensign's own advert for the camera states it is f/11.

There is a single shutter speed as well as a Time setting. It has a huge frame finder, though there was also an optional clip-on brilliant viewfinder. You cock the shutter by lifting the button in front of the viewfinder, and then you press the tiny shutter release beneath the "T & I" lever. The shutter mechanism has quite a kick.

Originally, this camera took twelve 4x6 frames on 2 1/4B Ensign Speedy roll film. This roll film allowed a total of 6 exposures. The fact that the Cupid allowed 12 exposures on the same roll film was clearly the unique selling point of this camera, as its literature boasted "Twelve Pictures for the Price of Six". There are two ruby windows on the back to assist with advancing the film. There are also instructions on the back explaining how to use them as this is believed to be the first camera to use two windows to double the number of exposures. The original instructions read:

"Wind No. 1 to A and expose. Then wind it to B and expose. Repeat the process with Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6."

However, Ensign must have started selling standard 120 film rolls at some point in the mid 1920s, as the instructions on our model read "...Repeat the process with Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 8". So by the time our camera was made, the double window arrangement allowed for sixteen frames rather than twelve.

The original price was 18s-6d. You're lucky if you find one now for under £100, which is a bit steep for a box camera let's be honest.
Note: I was one of the lucky ones.