Ansco Regent
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| Ansco Regent image by Dawn Anthony (Image rights) |
The Ansco Regent is a folding, scale focus 35mm camera, sold by Ansco. For a period of approximately 15 years, cameras originating with the Ansco company of Binghamton, New York, USA, and some from Agfa in Germany, were branded as Agfa Ansco. During the WWII years, Ansco severed its partnership with Agfa, but by the early 1950s, Ansco was once again importing Agfa cameras, and rebranding them with Ansco product names.
The Ansco Regent is an Agfa Solinette II, made especially for the USA and it was only offered with Apotar (50mm f/3.5) lens and Prontor SV or SVS (1s–1/300 + B with self-timer and X & M flash sync) shutter, both of which retained their original German branding. This camera is a horizontal folder, with unit focusing by moving the shutter/lens assembly using a helicoid, the front of the camera was badged ANSCO but in many examples a plate inside the folding bed states Made for ANSCO by AGFA Camera Werk, München, Germany.
The Ansco Super Regent is a similar camera (also Agfa-built), with the addition of rangefinder focusing, and is the same as the Agfa Super Solinette.
