Ensign Ful-Vue Super Camera
c.1954 (post-war British)
A c.1954 Ensign Ful-Vue Super medium-format pseudo-TLR camera, manufactured by Ross Ensign Ltd. of London. One of the last and most refined models in the celebrated Ful-Vue range — Britain's best-selling camera family of the post-war era — the Super features a cast alloy body, collapsible viewfinder hood, and takes 6×6 cm photographs on 620 roll film. The interior bears manufacturing mould reference codes P2802 BDC and P2804 BDC, consistent with die-cast British production of the period. Internal mechanisms operate as expected.
The Ensign Ful-Vue Super is the penultimate model in the Ful-Vue range, one of the most beloved and commercially successful British cameras of the 20th century. The Ful-Vue was first introduced in 1939 by Ensign Ltd. of London, and the redesigned pseudo-TLR format — with its large brilliant viewfinder mounted above the taking lens — became the best-selling camera in England during and immediately after the Second World War. By the time the Ful-Vue Super was produced in 1954, the manufacturer had become Ross Ensign Ltd., a merger between the Barnet Ensign camera company and the prestigious Ross optical firm of London.
This example is identifiable as the Ful-Vue Super — the 1954 model — by three distinguishing features: the 620 roll film format (all earlier Ful-Vues used 120 film), the flat front plate extending around both the taking lens and viewfinder lens, and the collapsible pressed-steel viewfinder hood, which replaced the fixed hood of the earlier Ful-Vue II. The body is cast alloy with a pressed steel back. The camera takes twelve 6×6 cm square exposures per roll, using a fixed meniscus lens at approximately f/11 and a single shutter speed of approximately 1/30th of a second, with a Bulb setting for longer exposures. Focus is adjusted by physically pulling the lens forward for close subjects, with three distance settings.
Inside the camera body, the two interior walls are stamped with manufacturing reference codes: P2802 BDC on the left wall and P2804 BDC on the right wall. These are mould tooling reference numbers from the die-casting process used to form the alloy body — standard practice in British precision manufacturing of the era. A manual accompanies the camera depicting an earlier Ful-Vue body style; Ensign issued general-purpose instruction leaflets covering the whole Ful-Vue range rather than model-specific guides, which accounts for the visual mismatch between the manual illustrations and this camera's appearance.
The internal mechanisms have been tested and operate as expected — the shutter fires and the film advance functions correctly — which is noteworthy for a camera now over 70 years old. The camera has been stored indoors on a shelf for approximately ten years prior to acquisition. While 620 film is no longer manufactured by major suppliers, standard 120 film can be re-spooled onto 620 spools, meaning this camera is fully capable of producing photographs today.
The camera was acquired as part of a lot described by the seller as belonging to a relative who was a frequent and enthusiastic photographer.
Significance
The Ful-Vue range holds a special place in British social history as the camera through which millions of ordinary people first experienced photography. Affordable, simple, and distinctive in appearance, it was the camera that parents bought for children, the camera at birthday parties and seaside holidays, the camera that made personal photography a truly mass-market habit in Britain during the austerity years after the Second World War. The Ful-Vue's pseudo-TLR design — which gave the user a large, bright viewfinder image while keeping the mechanism simple enough for a child to use — was a genuine design innovation that was widely admired. Ross Ensign's eventual decline in the late 1950s, under pressure from cheap Japanese 35mm cameras, marks the end of an era in British camera manufacturing.
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