The Kershaw Curlew 2 - Simply Quality

[John Seaman]

The Kershaw company had a factory in Leeds making Kershaw folding cameras and binoculars. The Soho cameras like the Soho reflex were also made there but that name seems to have been quietly dropped, perhaps because of negative connotations. There's more about the rather convoluted story on the Wikipedia entry:

LINK ------- http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Kershaw-Soho

Around 1950 the company made three models of their high quality Curlew 6x9 folding camera. These were very nicely made and finished. They also made the Peregrine, a similar 6x6 folder, the third mark of which had a coupled rangefinder and is very rare and expensive. Many Kershaw's were named after birds.

Mine is a Curlew 2. It has a simple Epsilon shutter, red window film advance and a Critak F/4.5 lens which looks to be a triplet. The later Curlew 3 had a fully speeded shutter, a winding mechanism and a Taylor Hobson Roytal F/3.5 lens.

I've seen a number of Curlews, both online and at the local auction, and they often have broken folding mechanisms. Surprisingly as these mechanisms are usually pretty much bombproof. Therefore when I received mine I opened it gingerly, fearing the worst, but no, it opened up and locked in position easily. But I couldn't see at first how to close it. I eventually realised that you just press down the bar beneath the lens, releasing the catches on the inner part of the double struts and enabling closure. It took me a ridiculously long time to work this out. I wonder if many of the broken mechanisms happened because people didn't know this and hamfistedly forced it closed, breaking one or both of the struts.

The Curlew and Peregrine were only made for a few years and are now quite rare, it seems likely that they were too expensive to make and were replaced by a series of 6x6 folders of much more basic design.

No pictures from it I'm afraid, here's the camera, and a happy new year to all.

 

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by John Seaman

[gary green]

Thanks John.  I've never heard of Kershaw cameras before now.  Other than some Kodak models, I don't tend to find U.K.-made cameras here in the States.

The Curlew looks like a good basic folder.  How have the bellows held up?  That's usually the most troublesome issue with the old folders.

Hope you can run a roll through it and show us the results.

[rick_drawbridge]

A nice tidy folder, John. I like its solid, no-frills appearance, not unlike the Ensign Selfix cameras. I had to smile at your experiences with locating the folding mechanism, recalling the many similar searches I've endured! Thanks for the post, and I hope you can post some sample images.

[John Seaman]

On 1/2/2023 at 9:46 PM, gary green said:

How have the bellows held up?

The bellows are fine, everything works. It has rather noisy double exposure prevention, with a red dot appearing in the hole on the top. Film advance is by red window, the later Curlew 3 had a full on winding mechanism. It has the "Leica Nipple" type of remote release. There is no flash terminal or self timer.

9 hours ago, rick_drawbridge said:

I like its solid, no-frills appearance, not unlike the Ensign Selfix cameras.

Yes it's functionally very similar to the Selfix series, but even simpler in this version. The rear lens was only finger tight and unscrewed easily for a light clean. I could only see two reflections, so I think the lens is a triplet rather than Tessar type.

Thanks for the responses.

[chuck_foreman1]

That is is really very nice and as I've never heard of it ..it'S rarity doesn'T surprise me. It does look extremely well made.  I am not known for my patience...but with camera closing..and knowing the consequences... "patience is a gift..." I need to learn 🙂

 

[John Seaman]

1 hour ago, chuck_foreman1 said:

"patience is a gift..." I need to learn 🙂

So do I Chuck.

The folding mechanism is rather complex, with double struts. The inner ones work against latches which are released when the bar under the lens is depressed. I subsequently bought a copy of the manual which turned out to be a four page "Provisional Instruction Leaflet" with no pictures: