No. 1 Seneca Jr.

No. 1 Seneca Jr. with (original?) canvas case image by Uwe Kulick (Image rights)

The No. 1 Seneca Jr. is a characteristic strut-folding camera from Seneca. It is a compact rollfilm camera of ingenious simplicity, like the contemporary but much smaller British Ensignette. It unfolds easily in spite of omitting any complicated self-erection mechanism. The hinged door of the camera's body was just a cover for the lens standard. After having opened the door, the standard can be pulled out of the body so that the bellows are unfolded and the standard latched in its working position.

The provisions fitted into the the small lens standard are surprising:

• Two brilliant finders, one for vertical and one for horizontal shots,
• A self-cocking leaf shutter by Ilex with release button
• A slider for setting shutter speeds of 1/25th, 1/50th, 1/100th and T/B
• A slider to set the aperture of the eight-blade diaphragm to f11, f22, or f32
• A simple fixed focus lens, perhaps also by Ilex
• Plus, even two collapsible supports, one for a vertical camera position and one for horizontal

The inner side of the front door shows an inscription which refers to patents from 1915, 1916, and 1917. The camera can be used with 120 film rolls which are equal to the Eastman Vulcan type No. 210 film recommended by Seneca. In the removable camera back is a red window for frame counting.