Ensign Selfix 820 with One Roll of Fomapan 100 - by Steve Phillips

A year ago, on holiday in Cornwall, I took a box camera with me on a coastal walk, and published the results here. One year on, and a camera or two later, here we go again. This time it was a bit more of a leap into the unknown. The camera in question is an Ensign Selfix 820, from the early 1950s, which I had bought a few weeks before and not had a chance to test. I already owned a Selfix 1620, which had produced some decent images, (sixteen on a roll of 120 film) so I gambled on its big brother. This one gives eight 9cmx6cm shots, which certainly concentrates the mind on getting it right first time. It does come with optional folding frames, to reduce the size to 6×6, but for this trial I went big. It comes with a Ross Xpres 105mm f/3.8 lens, which has a good reputation. It came from the usual auction site, with only the usual “all seems to be working” assurance. When it arrived, I was pleased to see that it did indeed appear to be OK. I could see through everything I was supposed to, and nothing that I […]