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Ansco Memo (1927 Version)

While the Memo name would pop up several more times over the following decades, the Ansco Memo of 1927 was the first of its name. A vertical, leather-covered, wooden box camera that used 35mm film - the Memo of 1927 is a curious contraption. It came at a time when 35mm photography was still very much in its infancy, when the design of 35mm cameras was heavily influenced by cine cameras. It would be another seven years before Kodak introduced the standard 135 cassette and, along with it, the "full frame" 35mm cameras that produced the now common 24x36mm frame size. Given this context, the Ansco Memo was quite at home in its own era, though today it may seem a bit odd.

As noted, the Ansco Memo makes use of 35mm film, however, that film had to be loaded into proprietary Ansco cartridges. At the time, photographers could buy pre-loaded cartridges, or they could hand-load their own. Running vertically, the film records an 18x23mm frame, arranged in landscape orientation. A full cartridge of film nets the user about 50 exposures. Composition is performed via a tubular viewfinder atop the camera. A few select shutter speeds and apertures are adjustable around the front of the lens. Some models of Ansco Memo allow for focusing, while others are fixed focus. These cameras can also be found with a few different lens options: either a 40mm f/6.3 Wollensak Cine-Velostigmat or an Ilex Cinemat. The Memo boasts an automatic frame counter, no small feat for a box camera. The film advance is done via a pull-down knob on the back door of the camera that engages a claw hook style assembly that very much resembles film transport mechanisms found in motion picture cameras.

The Ansco Memo today is a fun find. They are of relatively simple build, which helps them continue to function, even a century later. Generally, the worst a new owner has to deal with is haze or fungus in the lenses, but even these are moderately simple to clean up to functional condition. If you do go after one of these Memo cameras, make sure it comes with its cartridges!

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Ansco Memo: A Time Machine

The Ansco Memo (the 1927 version) is kind of like a prehistoric insect frozen in amber. By close inspection we get a peek at a snapshot in time, to a moment when photography was undergoing an evolution, but had not quite fully developed into what we recognize today - this evolution, of course, is referring to the rise of 35mm photography. Perhaps the two defining qualities to 35mm photography are the standard frame size of 24x36mm and 135 cassette in which the 35mm film is packaged. The 1927 Ansco Memo predates both of these features.⁠

⁠In regard to that 24x36mm frame that we now think of as "full frame," it is actually more akin to a double frame version of what early 35mm cameras, like this Ansco produced. They were modeled after the full frame 35mm motion picture format, which was commonly 16x22mm. For comparison, the 1927 Ansco Memo makes an 18x23mm frame. Slowly and surely, more and more cameras were built to use strips of 35mm film, at first to produce test shots on movie sets and later, increasingly for consumer use. While they are not the first company to introduce the 24x36mm format, Oskar Barnack and Leica helped popularize the format as the new standard at the same time this Memo was circulating the markets of the North America.⁠

⁠Meanwhile, the cassettes that contained the 35mm film varied from company to company. Once again, Leica provided some leadership in this area with their own standard cassettes for their early Leica cameras. Ultimately though, it was Kodak that invented the 135 format and the now-ubiquitous film cans that we all know and use.

Once again, this Memo hearkens from a time before Kodak changed the 35mm game. The Memo requires film to be loaded into a pair of proprietary and blocky canisters: one for unexposed film and the other for take-up. ⁠The Ansco Memo also used a claw-driven film advance, much resembling a motion picture camera, as opposed to the sprocket-toothed spindle now used widely.⁠

The historical fascination with this camera is palpable. It is a time machine you can hold in your hands and be teleported back to a bygone era in film photography. This camera allows you to see how things were before they became how they are.