About

A blog about box camera photography inspired by the cameras above. These Ensign Ful-Vue cameras are about as simple as it gets. They have one shutter speed and one aperture. You point them at your subject and take the photo. That's not to say they take poor quality photos though. They are capable of fantastic shots and can be bought on Ebay for just a few pounds. The tricky part is choosing the subject matter, gauging the light conditions, and recognising the limitations of the cameras. That said, their limitations can force you to slow down, think, and grow as a photographer. They each take 120 medium format film (apart from one that takes 620), which is easily available online, and produce 6x6cm square images, so you have to get accustomed to composing in squares. For all their limitations it is still possible to be creative. Double and long exposures are super easy and that's just the beginning. There are countless makes and models of box camera out there. They're all good fun and relatively inexpensive. If this blog inspires you to give this kind of photography a go, just make sure you get one that takes a film format that is still easy to find (120 and 620 are common, but you'll struggle to find 127 for example). Obviously I have a bias towards Ensign box cameras. My partner has a nice collection of Ilford Envoys. See which one's take your fancy and inspire you to go out shooting pictures.