Ansco Reflex (1947)

Little is documented about the Ansco Reflex beyond its manufacturer's own sales literature. That literature is unusually detailed, though, and it supplies most of what we know. Period coverage of the camera was sparse; even a contemporary audio-equipment magazine such as High-Fidelity (September 1971, p.124) devoted its pages to other subjects entirely. The Ansco f3.5 Automatic Reflex was a die-cast aluminum twin-lens reflex covered in black morocco-grained leather with satin chrome trim, built in Binghamton, New York by Ansco, a division of General Aniline & Film Corporation. It took twelve black-and-white or nine color pictures, 2¼ × 2¼ inches, on 120 roll film. The taking lens was a hard-coated f3.5 Ansco anastigmat. The viewing lens was a matched-focal-length f3.2, also coated. The flash-synchronized set-and-release shutter ran from 1/400 second to 1 second plus Bulb. Focusing went down to 3 feet 8 inches, and the ground glass showed the subject at full negative size. Ansco's own catalog priced it at $246.00 plus tax, with a non-synchronized version at $225.00. The Eveready case was $12.50. The leather-cased lens accessory set ran $34.95 and held a sunshade, adapter and retaining rings, UV-16 and Conversion No. 11 color filters, R60/Y49/G35-2 black-and-white filters, and 1+ and 2+ portrait lenses.