I have always had a strong interest in various OEM cameras and am constantly searching for them. The Asnco Autoset introduced today falls into this category. Its prototype is the Minolta Hi-Matic rangefinder, the company's first automatic exposure camera, launched by the Japanese company Minolta in 1962.
Although it was produced in Japan, this Ansco Autoset was much more famous than the Minolta prototype, because in 1962, American astronaut John Glenn took this Ansco Autoset camera into space! Although John Glenn was the third American in space, he was the first American to orbit the Earth. In 1962, he flew around the Earth three times.
Ansco was formerly known as E. & H.T. Anthony Co., a daguerreotype gallery in New York, USA, founded by Edward Anthony in 1841 (some say 1842). It later developed into a supplier of photographic equipment in 1847.
In 1870, Ansco began manufacturing cameras and was the first company in the world to patent a film cartridge that did not require installation in a darkroom. In 1902, Anthony Co. and Scovill & Adams merged to form Anthony & Scovill, whose abbreviation was Ansco. This is where Ansco comes from.
In 1928, Anscogssi was acquired by the German company Agfa, and the company name was changed to Agfa Ansco. However, after the United States entered World War II, Agfa Ansco was placed under the control of the United States' "Alien Property Custodian". From 1943, its cameras were sold exclusively under the Ansco brand. Eventually, Agfa Ansco was sold as "enemy property."
After the end of World War II, Ansco's camera production reached its peak, with an annual output of up to 2 million units! Since the 1950s, Ansco's main business line has shifted to selling imported OEM cameras, including Agfa, Chinon, Ricoh, Minolta, etc.
Speaking of the Japanese company Minolta, I believe everyone is familiar with it. The domestically produced Seagull DF series SLR cameras were developed based on imitations of Minolta's SLR cameras. The Minolta company was originally founded by Kazuo Tashima in Osaka, Japan on November 11, 1928. Of course, the name at that time was not Minolta, but Nichidoku Shashinki Shōten (Japanese independent photo machine store).
It was not until 1933 that the name Minolta was applied for and registered for camera products. The name Minolta is actually the acronym for "Mechanism, Instruments, Optics, and Lenses by Tashima", which translated into Chinese means "machinery, instruments, optics and lenses manufactured by Tashima".
In 1937, Nichidoku Shashinki Shōten (日立photograph machine store) was renamed Chiyoda Kōgaku Seikō K.K. (千亿田光SEMiko㈱). Although the name "Minolta" had been registered for camera products as early as 1933, it was not until 1962 that the company's name remained. It was officially renamed Minolta. Therefore, you will see the words "Chiyoda Kōgaku" on many Minolta cameras in the early years, as shown in the picture below. In 2003, Minolta merged with another Japanese camera manufacturer Konica to form Konica Minolta. company. In 2006, Konica Minolta completely withdrew from the camera industry, and all its digital camera assets were acquired by SONY. A world-famous camera brand came to its end...
as Minolta's first An OEM machine equipped with an automatic exposure camera, this Ansco Auoset rangefinder has a built-in selenium light meter (selenium light meter). The part in the red box in the picture below is the electric eye of the light meter, the selenium light meter. The advantage of light is that it does not require batteries, but it is prone to aging, especially if it is exposed to bright light for a long time. Therefore, many cameras using selenium light metering today have basically no accuracy at all. If there is a reaction.
Align the red arrow next to Auto on the camera's exposure adjustment ring with the white arrow below (Picture 1 below). At this time, the aperture selection under the lens is also in the Auto position (Picture 2 below) , at this time, the aperture and shutter speed of the machine are automatically set by the light meter based on the light metering results.The camera can also set the aperture manually, but the shutter speed is only 1/30 second.
From Figure 2 above, it is not difficult to see that this machine is equipped with a Japanese Citizen shutter. In addition to the shutter being automatically set by the photometric device, there is also a B door available.
This Ansco Autoset is equipped with a Rokkor 45/2.8 lens. This lens should have a structure of five elements in three groups. Although there is only Ansco's brand logo on the lens ring, I believe anyone who has used Minolta cameras knows that Rokkor is definitely another "business card" of Minolta.
According to the information I have seen, Minolta Hi-Matic was equipped with two lenses at that time, namely 45/2.8 and 45/2. However, the Ansco Autoset I saw is equipped with a 45/2.8 lens. It seems that there is still a difference between the prototype machine and the OEM machine!
There is also a set of numbers from 20 to 340 on the left side of the lens mount (when facing the lens). This set of numbers is the exposure index (Flash Exposure Indexes) when the camera uses flash.
In order to obtain the correct exposure, the film sensitivity must be set accurately. The film sensitivity adjustment knob is on the upper right side of the back of the camera (when the lens is forward), as shown in Figure 1 below. The metering results of the camera can be displayed as a pointer in the viewfinder, as shown in Figure 3 below.
Although it is Minolta's first automatic exposure camera, the technical specifications of Ansco Autoset, which is branded from Minolta's Hi-Matic rangefinder camera , seem to be nothing worthy of further explanation today. After all, it is a product from 60 years ago. However, the camera's shutter button is quite unique, it's just a boot (as shown in the picture below).
When I got the Ansco Autoset, it came with an original English manual and outer packaging carton, which was relatively complete. In addition, the gray leather trim of this machine is not very common, at least in my opinion. Such.
This Autoset is OEM-produced by the Japanese company Minolta for the American Ansco. I bought it from an American seller on eBay in December 2009. The price of the camera is only $0.99, plus the international shipping fee of $29.52, the total price is $30.51.
Author: Zhang Yi
