Rusty Coronet

My friend Caul Audiac gave me this Coronet Consul box camera in June…or July 2023.

Manufactured around 1950, this extremely simple camera features a meniscus lens, only one aperture setting of an unknown value, and two shutter speeds, one of which is, yes, you guessed it—unknown; the second is a bulb.

This is a simple point-and-shoot, medium format 6x9cm box camera that takes 120 size film. You can shoot 8 frames in the 6x9 format.

The camera was quite rusty, to say the least, and needed some attention. I had to act fast... But it actually took me months to get a chance to operate on it. And yes, I managed to bring this rusty beauty back to life. It took me almost 7 hours, and the process was quite fun. I confirm, this device can be fixed with a spanner acting as a hammer, a bit of brute force, three or four (better five) F-words (no, ‘F’ doesn’t stand for focal length here) and a few sips of really good Irish whiskey I got my hands on recently. (Let me know if you want to know the brand).

Once the camera was up and running again, I immediately shot the first roll with it.

What can I say—I am really happy with the results. I love the simplicity and limitations of this camera. The fewer features a camera has, the more creativity an artist can or should produce. I find that the simplest things often work best.

Anyway, developed in Rodinal, scanned with an Epson V600 scanner, and post-processed in Photoshop using only dodge, burn, and contrast. Personally, I wouldn't do anything in Photoshop that I wouldn't do in a darkroom. The results were almost as I envisioned them when I was shooting.

All in all, this camera is great fun. Don’t expect razor sharpness from it nor perfectly composed images, as it offers no high-end lenses, no traditional viewfinder, or focusing screen. But again, perfect imagery is not what this camera is about. Offering an extremely limited set of features (namely, point and shoot), it requires you to take charge of the creative process. You have to rely on your instincts, creativity and skills. I had such a great time and fun using this box.

Of course, it’s not the camera I’ll be using on an everyday basis, but I think it’s nice to have a simple secret ‘weapon’ handy. Oh, and it produces huge negatives—not for the faint-hearted. This camera challenges you to experiment with it, and that’s where you can get really creative. Great camera for artists.