18. The Secret Santa present

Most people who were excited about getting a camera for Christmas have been using January to try out a new Nikon DSLR or perhaps a Panasonic Lumix. But for me, a 1931 Ensign Pocket Twenty has been keeping me busy since our family Secret Santa dropped it into my lap!

Made by the English company Houghton-Butcher in 1931, this folding bellows camera sits firmly in the Art Deco period. The geometric design on the front plate is typical of cameras of the 1930s and the main body is metal, painted with a faux leather look finish. The metal case makes it quite a heavy beast to lug about, though lighter than my earlier Kodak No. 1 Autographic. It uses medium format 120 film which thankfully is still available, and takes 8 negatives of approx 85 x 55mm.

The camera isn't in the best shape and needs some renovation, but I expect that. It's missing a couple of small parts and has a broken film view window, making it unusable until this hole in the camera back is fixed. However the bellows, the most difficult to repair, are clean with no light leaks. I found a very cheap eBay twin to salvage some spare parts and set about cleaning and repairing. Sound ON for the swishes, wipes and clicks. If only camera renovation was this quick!

Now it's all shiny and sparkly, it's time to take a closer look.

The controls are sparse.

The aperture size is determined by the amount of light available, marked as 'Brilliant Light' and 'Ordinary Light' but could equally be called 'Bright' or 'Not Bright'.

According to the comprehensive manual I found online (isn't the internet fabulous for tracking down really random stuff?) these vague descriptions equate to f16 and f22. I rarely use such small apertures on my digital camera, but on a vintage camera they are common because the shutter speed was slow by today's standards.

With the shutter open for longer (to compensate for slow film speed), most photos would be a white-out if the aperture was also large and letting in too much light.

So yes, first decision. Bright or not bright?

The second control is for the shutter. There are 3 settings common to cameras of this age:

• Bulb - The shutter stays open as long as you hold down the shutter lever, so a manual shutter speed. Either count and guess, or take out your pocket watch.

• Time - The shutter opens on the first press of the shutter lever and releases on the second, another manual speed. This is ideal for night shots where you would otherwise have to hold down the shutter for maybe 30 seconds or more. Personally I prefer Bulb mode because otherwise I might forget to click the shutter closed again before moving the camera.

• Instantaneous - one press of the shutter lever opens and closes the shutter. The manual suggests the shutter speed is a rather slow 1/25s, so blurring due to camera shake is likely when handheld.

So the second decision is slow or very slow?

Finally, the focus. Well, there isn't one really of course. It's 1931 and the only way to focus is to move the lens closer or further away from the film by opening and closing the concertina bellows. (Or move yourself closer or further away from the subject. Bring a tape measure.)

On this camera there is a great guide to assist this process. As you slide the lens forward, you can stop it at either 'Views' or 'Close ups'. There is no indication as to how close a close up is, but once again the manual comes to the rescue and suggests 3 - 9 feet. Wish I'd found the manual before shooting the first film...

The final decision is therefore close or not that close?

Well, it turns out that the last decision is the most important of course, because an out of focus shot is pretty useless and makes any other setting irrelevant. And as I hadn't read or even found an instruction manual before the first film, all my world class images of snowdrops and other close-ups were indeed useless.

The best I could muster on the first trial run was a lion statue. Frankly, even that was not in perfect focus but I've put it here because at the moment it's all I've got, so I wouldn't zoom in if I were you!

I think I've sorted the focus, so head out again with the second film loaded and ready to shoot.

OK, I haven't sorted the focus, the photos are even worse. So bad I don't even bother to scan the negatives, so it's back to the drawing board.

Am I sure that I'm setting up the camera properly? Yes I think so.

Could it be camera shake as the shutter speed is very slow? Could be, but many of my vintage cameras have a very slow shutter speed.

Is the camera supposed to have a film plate in the back of the camera to hold the film more firmly in place? Photos of the inside of other Ensign Pocket Twenty cameras doesn't show one.

Maybe the lens itself is damaged or not sitting straight? It looks OK to me!

So back out I go, film number 3 loaded, to do a proper test. With the camera mounted on a tripod to reduce camera shake, I take two photos of each subject, one with the bellows pulled completely out (close-up) and the second with the bellows pushed in to the 'Views' position. That's when I discover that the bellows clicks at two different positions, either of which could be correct for 'Views'. This time the manual is no help whatsoever, so I just use the position furthest from 'Close-up' to test the extremes.

It's back to my darkroom (inside bathroom with no window) and then to my photographic lab (kitchen) to develop yet another film.

And finally, the negatives show something approaching a photograph. Yay!!

When I compare them to family photos of my ancestors from the 1920s and 1930s the quality looks similar, so I'm happy with these. It's surprising what you can get from Santa!