2026-09-10 Ansco Anscoset II Camera

 I was phoned by a local thrift store because they had an Ansco (I thought I heard “Autoset”) 35 mm camera I might be interested in. If it was it was from 1961 and that particular camera, it is really famous.
    “Why is that particular camera famous?” you ask.
    The Ansco Autoset camera was one of two cameras carried into space by John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. How it got to be one of the cameras is a cute story. He knew the camera he was going to take was a Leica, but that camera was going to be set up to take ultraviolet images. While he was driving home from training he passed a drugstore and he decided to go in and buy a 35 mm camera that could take snapshots of the earth from his space capsule. The Ansco Autoset was that camera. For $40 he got a camera that exposed correctly for the light using a selenium meter, could focus and could take 35 mm film. 
    NASA modified the camera with a pistol grip so the camera mounted upside down could have the film advanced with its rapid advance lever while being held in his spacesuit’s bulky gloves. NASA also spliced two 35 mm 36 exposure films together and fit the naked film into the cartridge space of the camera. To prevent accidental opening—because the film couldn’t be rewound into the now missing daylight load cartridge—the back had a special keyed lock installed.
    The rest is history. Glenn captured the first colour images of our planet taken from space with his Ansco Autoset. Most of us have seen those images.
   

    It turned out the camera I was picking up was an Ansco Anscoset II in a lovely leather case made the same year as the Autoset. The Autoset and Anscoset cameras were all rebranded Minolta Uniomat cameras.

    While the Autoset Glenn carried set shutter speed and aperture by itself, the Anscoset requires the photographer to adjust a single ring until the green fork in the meter window straddles the meter’s red pointer.

    The Anscoset has a very short base rangefinder. It is all that is required as the 45 mm lens has good depth of focus.

    There  are five letters the exposure ring can be set to. The letters are part of a flash automation arrangement.

    The back of the camera has a Flash Guide Table. For example for the “A” position the camera would have to be set to “X” sync and used with a “strobe” at more than 7 feet (this would be sightly more than 2 m). At less than 7 feet—still on x sync and the A position—you could shoot at 7 feet and less.
    From there on through the letters C, D and E you would use “M” sync with flashbulbs. It would be a big problem if you used the wrong sync with a strobe or flash, but most would start with bulbs and progress to strobes. Switching back and forth depended on how much light you needed for the shot.

    The right side of the lens—from the operators view—had focus ring in the front, EV numbers and then the ring you rotated to set exposure. The shutter progressed through a combination of shutter speed and shutter blade opening to set exposure. The red numbers are shutter speeds so slow they would benefit from camera support and a cable release or a flash. 

    Above the marked dials already discussed there are two coloured levers. The green lever is to set a self-timer. The red lever sets the sync from “M” to “X”.

    The right side of the lens barrel has the focus ring at the front indicate pictograms  of single head, couple full height and mountains for infinity. The same distance setting ring has a white spot on this side you set to the correct distance. Sometimes presetting the distance works better or faster than the coupled rangefinder.

    Notice the advance lever isn’t on the top of the camera? Instead a lever with a thumb tab is on the back and its arm is in a slot under the meter. The shutter button is threaded for a cable release and the accessory shoe has no flash connection (commonly called a hotshoe). The rewind crank is at the left side of the top right above the rangefinder window.

    The tip off you have a Minolta camera is the Rokkor f/2.8 45 mm lens. 

    The selenium meter has a small awning built in to shield the cell from powerful overhead light causing underexposure. I suspect the chrome head under the cell covers a meter adjustment access, although it might just hold the top on securely at a point it might be strained by the advance arm.

    Earlier we showed the meter but this time look at that thumb catch for the advance arm. Tight to the body until your thumb hooks under it and starts it on its way.

    The camera came with its original lens cover… 

…and with a fine leather case that has held up well for 64-years!