Ansco Lancer

(35mm roll for scale only) image by McFortner (Image rights)

The Ansco Lancer was made in Germany by Bilora for Ansco, and is a slightly modified version of the Bella 44-2 . It makes 12 4x4cm exposures on 127 film. The Sconar f/8 doublet lens includes a Waterhouse stop that swings into place for f16.

Differences from the Bella 44-2 include:

• The Bella shutter provides a "B" option in addition to 1/100 and 1/50th sec., whereas this is blocked off on the Lancer
• The Lancer provides flash sync via hot shoe where the Bella has a PC connector protruding from the lens barrel
• The Lancer omits a distance scale in Meters and instead adds zone focus labeled Portrait, Group, and Scenic
• The Bella shutter release is threaded for a conventional cable release where the Lancer has this permanently capped with a ¼" diameter button
• The Lancer's top housing is slotted to accept neckstrap lugs, where these would be provided on the leather case of the Bella

At some point Ansco upgraded the camera to add a simple Selenium light meter screwed onto the face of the camera between the lens and advance wheel, and added the LG (Light Guide) suffix to the model. The packaging was changed to match: an LG sticker was placed on the corners of the box, and a small folded card explaining the light meter was included. The card told the user to disregard portions of the instruction manual related to guessing the exposure, and use the meter instead. The meter itself was uncoupled and had simple zone markings: Bright, Hazy, Caution, and Flash.

Links

• Lancer and Bella compared by Peter Fricke on Flickr (and a detail of the Bella 44-2 by Karel Julien Cole)
• Ansco Lancer manual at Butkus.org
• Ansco Lancer on www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand (in French)
• Ansco Lancer video presentation by YouTuber The Camera Collector
• Ansco Lancer LG commercial on Archive.org