Alex Klein's request for information on Coronet (Digest 1774)

[P3D <Farady@xxxxxxx>]

Alex Klein in Digest 1774 asked for information about the Coronet camera Co.
 He wanted to know:

(1)    Something of the background,  (2)  The cameras they made and  (3)
Origin / history of 127 film.

(1)  The Coronet Camera Co., Birmingham was founded by FW Pettifer in 1926.
 It became Coronet Limited in 1946 until it closed down in 1967.  Throughout
most of it's lifetime it was associated with another company, Stanard Cameras
Ltd.  Both produced some cameras (less than 5 models) under the Conway brand
name.  They also had some sort of scam going after the end of the (!939-45)
world war with a French manufacturer beginning with 'T', something like
Tiffany, for avoiding import or export tax. 

(2)  Essentially the companies caterd for the lower end of the market mainly
making box cameras with only a few bellows-types.  They also made flash
equipment and produced 120 and 127 roll films under the Coronet label.  If
the one piece of flash equipment of theirs that I have is anything to go by,
their equipment was very basic, to say the least.  My reflector consists of a
piece of pressed anodized aluminium which crudely slots into the camera. 
    
They only made one 3-D camera to my knowledge which was a basic, fixed-
everything box made of a green/black mottled bakelite.  It took 4 pairs on a
roll of 127 film.  It was my introduction to 3-D photography, and crude it
might have been, but I loved it as a young lad and took as many reels of film
as my parents could afford.  My 'outfit' came with a fold-flat viewer very
similar to that described bt Ray Dobbins for viewing 3-D cigarette cards
(1775?).

Of the 50 or so models Coronet made , three stand out to me: the Dynamic (TLR
type), the Vogue (bellows) and the Midget.  The latter was produced in brown,
green and blue bakelite and I would be prepared to pay $100, $200 or $250
(plus carriage), respectively, to anyone who has one for sale in good
condition. I'd also be interested in a Vogue at $150 or a Dynamic at $50.

(3)  I don't know much about films but I have a Houghton Ensignette (about
1905-1910) which I've been told was the first camera to use 127 film, but the
source of that information was the vendor so it might not be reliable ! But
it could prove to be a useful start if you have nothing better to go on.

Hope this proves interesting and useful, more camera details could be
provided by paper mail on request to my (UK) E-mail address.

Regards

Peter




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