The Ensign Folding Klito

[John Seaman]

This old Ensign Folding Klito came with a mixed lot of photo items from the auction site. It was “Made in Great Britain” around 1910 by Houghton – later Houghton Butcher. I believe it's quarter plate, the frame size being 4 1/6 by 3 1/8 inches. It has a C.P. Goertz Berlin Syntor 125mm f/6.8 Doppel Anastigmat lens and a Kolios shutter with seven speeds from 1 to 1/350 to 1 second plus B and T. I believe the Kolios was an early design by Gauthier, remarkably it still works perfectly after at least 110 years. There is a tiny logo stamped on the two discs either side of a tube at the top, it looks like an anchor with the letters WK (last picture). The 11 blade aperture runs smoothly from f/6.8 to f/45 in the standard f-number sequence.

The lens standard, which has up / down and left / right movements, slides forward and engages with the focusing rack, when focusing is by turning the knob. A pointer indicates the focus distance in feet on an engraved scale, which for some reason has two slightly different sets of markings in feet. The bellows are perfect with no pinholes.

It has a plate back which slides on, with a hinged rear panel and a darkslide. I'm not sure what type of plate or film this is meant for.

I wodered if anyone might know the porpose of the two differing focusing scales. That's it, here's the camera, and thank you for looking.

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by John Seaman

[kmac]

The two distance scales may have been for plates and film, I really have no idea, I only know that some old Kodak folders with combination backs had scales for plates and film but the two separate scales are miles apart in terms of numbering, whereas yours are very close to each other, about the thickness of a glass plate perhaps. The "A" on the red scale has me baffled. Large format folk might be able to inform you about those scales, and what the "A" is for. Of course you'll need to use a makeshift frosted glass to determine which scale is for the the plate holder, but then you'll need to know exactly where the emulsion surface was situated in the holder.

The camera appears to be a 3 1/4" x 4 1/4" camera and there's sheet film available on Ebay in fresh Shanghai 100, and expired Kodak Plus X Pan (if you're lucky). If there was ever a roll film back for it, it would have been for 118 size film.

Thanks for sharing, the camera looks to be in very good condition ... anxious to see some shots, if you ever get around to it.

Edited June 16, 2023 by kmac

[John Seaman]

16 hours ago, kmac said:

yours are very close to each other, about the thickness of a glass plate perhaps

Thanks for the response, yes that's the puzzling thing, the closeness of the scales, surely even less that the thickness of a glass plate? I don't think I will be spending much time trying to get pictures with it though.  Rather I will pass it down to someone who might be prepared to take it on, via the auction site, and use the proceeds for something more usable.

[gary green]

Nice camera, John.  The "WK" with the anchor symbol stands for Wilhelm Kenngott, the original inventor of the Koilos shutter.  A short description can be found at this LINK.

[John Seaman]

Thanks for that Gary, most interesting. It can't have been a bad design, tiny though it is, it still works perfectly after 100 plus years.

[john_shriver]

Perhaps the red scale is for a roll-film adapter.