Inner Workings of a Box Camera

Submitted by Al…

During a Society meeting, Brian brought in a lensboard from a damaged box camera. I always wondered what the various mechanisms of an old camera looked like, but never worked up the nerve to tear a good camera apart so I could have a look.

Let’s explore it now together…

The first thing we’ll look at is the viewfinder. This particular model uses a combination glass and mirror. Remember that there will be a cover on a working model, with openings for you to view through. See that the glass portion is mounted flush to the edge of the camera body, while the mirror is mounted on a 45° angle? You can see that this mirror is either extremely dirty or the reflective finish is wearing away.

The next thing we’ll look at is the shutter assembly. This style of shutter is known as a “rotary shutter”. Press the shutter release lever, shown at the left side of the photo above, and that will push on the raised cog of the shutter to trip it downwards. The resulting tension on the spring will return the shutter to its original position. Not only have you taken your photograph, the camera is ready for the next shot. That is of course, if you have selected the ‘I’ (Instant) function with the shutter speed selector lever, shown at the top right side of the photo.

You still have to manually wind the film to the next roll position.

If you selected the ‘T’ (Time) function instead, which is your only other choice, then the shutter would stay in the open position until you tripped it closed by pressing the shutter release lever a second time.

The last thing we’ll explore is the lens assembly. This particular one is a “fixed focus meniscus achromatic” lens. As the name implies, there is no focusing involved, however, you can select one of three different aperture sizes by simply sliding the aperture selector back and forth. Smaller apertures will provide larger depth of focus, so closer objects are more likely to be sharp. Larger apertures provide a better chance to get a good picture in dimmer light.

This camera is very simplistic by today’s standards of technology. Of course, it is about 100 years old, so it should be. I still marvel how craftsmen could produce and assemble such delicate and functional components back then. Not to take away from the craftsmen of today, but remember, they didn’t have any computers or robots to help out back then!