Ansco Cadet II (1965)

Four inches wide, gray Bakelite, and one shutter speed. The Cadet II is the last gasp of the American snapshot box.

Overview

The Ansco Cadet II is a plastic camera that uses 127 roll film. Ansco of Binghamton, New York, made it circa 1965. It produces 4x4 cm snapshots and was designed as a follow-on to the original Cadet, with a complete body style update. The original Cadet of 1959 had its own look. The II arrived with a sleeker, more angular profile, a complete redesign rather than a trim refresh. Historic Camera describes it as an inexpensive snapshot camera made out of plastic with a metal faceplate. That about covers it: this camera was built to a price, not to a specification sheet.

Ansco never published official specs for the Cadet II. The shutter speed is reportedly around 1/50th of a second, inferred from comparisons with known copies of the design rather than from any factory document. There is no documented original retail price. Collectors working from period listings and surviving examples have had to reconstruct the basic parameters by handling the camera. The film is certain: 127 roll, four-by-four centimeter frames, the same squat format that had defined amateur snapshooting for decades.

The Cadet II arrived when 35mm cameras were gaining popularity, yet there was still a market for simple, affordable rollfilm models. It sits at the tail end of the box camera era. It stayed a box, and it stayed cheap.

Key Features

Plastic Anscar Lens, Fixed Focus

The lens is a Plastic Anscar element, fixed focus, with no focusing mechanism of any kind. It relies on hyperfocal distance to keep subjects acceptably sharp from about 6 feet to infinity. The plastic construction introduces chromatic aberration and haze, especially at the edges. That is a real optical limitation. Some collectors appreciate the dreamy, lo-fi quality it imparts, but it is not a lens for technical perfection.

One Shutter Speed, Two Apertures

The Cadet II carries just one shutter speed and two apertures, selected with a switch on the front. The two settings are labeled "Sunny" and "Cloudy" or similar. That is a crude form of exposure adjustment, a binary choice rather than a continuum. Owners report needing to guess the lighting and pick between the two apertures, which could be hit-or-miss. In practice, owners had to memorize which setting worked in which light, and even then results varied. The shutter itself is a simple rotary type, cocked by advancing the film. There is no rangefinder, no focus scale, and no exposure meter anywhere on the camera.

Waist-Level Viewfinder

Framing is done through a waist-level viewfinder that flips up from the top plate. It is not bright, not magnified, and offers no parallax correction. The view is reversed left-to-right, which takes some getting used to and encourages a slower, more deliberate way of shooting. The finder can yellow over time, especially on models stored in sunlight, and that is one of the more common cosmetic complaints on surviving examples.

Bakelite Body in Utilitarian Gray

The body is made of plastic, specifically Bakelite, a material that gives it a slightly grainy, durable feel. It is finished in a utilitarian gray. Collectiblend simply lists it as a gray plastic 127 film camera. The gray plastic has a slightly textured surface that resists fingerprints and adds grip, and the camera feels solid despite its light weight. At H 4" x D 3" x W 4 1/4", it is small enough to disappear into a coat pocket. The plastic can crack if stepped on.

Flash Shoe Powered by Two AA Batteries

Flash photography is supported via a hot shoe powered by two AA batteries. The fact sheet describes this as a modest upgrade over earlier models that used flashbulbs without dedicated power sources. Some examples surface with a removable flash unit and original case, often described in listings as being in excellent condition with the accessories intact.

Historical Context

The Cadet II was designed as a follow-on to the original Cadet camera, with a complete body style update. The original Cadet dates to 1959. The II updated its styling and arrived in the mid-1960s, with Historic Camera placing manufacture at circa 1965. It kept the simple features of an inexpensive snapshot camera made out of plastic with a metal faceplate. Only the shape changed.

The camera's layout proved functional enough to be copied. The Gevaert Gevalux 144 was a compliant copy made in Europe, and the Zina 25 was another derivative model.

Collectibility & Market

The Cadet II is not a rare camera, nor is it particularly valuable. A recent listing on Etsy offered one in working condition for $44.90, including the strap, case, flash unit, and flash bulbs. Collectiblend is blunt about the state of pricing data, noting it does not have enough information to provide an accurate price and offering only a suggestion based on what it has. A LeZot Camera listing showed one in stock, and Pinterest listings describe examples in excellent condition in original cases with removable flash units. The camera turns up regularly enough that supply is not the constraint on value.

One caveat on market data: the eBay completed-sales chart on this page is labeled "ANSCO CADET" rather than "Cadet II," showing a high of $37, a median of $24, a low of $18, and a volume of roughly three per month with an upward trend as of August 2026. The chart explicitly excludes accessories, parts, and non-working units, but its model attribution is ambiguous. It may be tracking the Cadet line broadly rather than the II specifically. Treat those figures as directional, not definitive.

No common failures or maintenance issues are recorded, though the plastic lens elements may degrade over time, and the shutter mechanism can stick if not used, which is the classic fate of any camera that sits in a drawer for forty years. The finder's tendency to yellow in sunlight is the other known degradation. Neither is fatal, and neither requires parts that no longer exist.