The Ansco Century of Progress is a commemorative version of the Ansco No. 2 Box camera made by Agfa-Ansco to be sold at the 1933 āCentury of Progressā Worldās Fair which took place in Chicago, USA. There were several branded cameras available at the 1933 Worldās Fair including one based on the Kodak No. 2 Brownie as well as the cheap and cheerful āYen Cameraā from Japan.
The Ansco Shur-Shot is a simple, mass-produced box camera made of wood, leatherette-wrapped cardboard, and aluminum introduced by Ansco in 1948. A combination of simple mechanics and large production numbers mean that itās relatively easy to find a Shur-Shot in good working condition even today.
The Ansco Anscoflex is an unusual pseudo TLR camera introduced in 1954 by Ansco. The Anscoflex (and Anscoflex II) was crafted by the world-renowned French-American industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the same man whose portfolio includes the iconic Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, several steam locomotives for the Pennsylvania Railroad, various cars like the Studebaker Avanti, Sunbeam Alpine, and Hillman Minx, the interiors of the supersonic Concorde and NASAās Skylab space station, as well as the livery for Air Force One. Small wonder he was referred to by the press as āThe Father of Industrial Design.ā
The Ansco Memo is an unusual 35mm half-frame box camera introduced in 1927 by Ansco. The āMemoā name has been used by Ansco and Agfa Ansco on several different 35mm models (for example the Memo II Automatic) over the years which can sometimes lead to confusion. To combat this, collectors will usually differentiate these models by including the year of introduction to avoid confusion. This particular modelāwhich was the very first camera to bear the nameācan also be referred to as the āAnsco Memo (1927 Type).ā
The Agfa PD16 Clipper is one of the very first cameras produced by German company Agfa after its acquisition of the American company Ansco, thus forming Agfa-Ansco. Like the early offerings of many photographic company mergers, this camera was sold under both brands as the Agfa PD16 Clipper and the Ansco Clipper although it appears that they were all made in the very same American factory in Binghamton, NY.
The Agfa B-2 Cadet is a simple box camera introduced in 1937 by Agfa. Even though the Cadet is a German camera designed in Germany, it was actually manufactured in Binghamton, New York in the factory of American camera company Ansco since they were owned by Agfa at the time. In fact, the company was known as Agfa-Ansco from 1928 until 1941 when the United States entered the Second World War and seized control of Ansco back from the Germans.
