Jano While-U-Wait Camera.
Category
Photographic technology
Date
1925 - 1935
Materials
Wood, Metal, Leather, Brass, Glass
Measurements
265 x 120 x 200 mm
Order this imageCollection
Fox Talbot Museum, Wiltshire
NT 1524908
Summary
A Jano While-You-Wait self-processing box camera made by M. Janovitch & Co, London. They were specialists in While-You-Wait cameras, ferrotype cameras and materials. The camera is made of wood covered in black leather. The exposed picture is manipulated into a three-compartment ebonite tank by hand through light-tight sleeve. The light-tight sleeve is missing from this camera. The viewing aparatus is missing from the top of the camera. The lens is concealed inside the front of the camera and on the outside is a large circular, metal surround with sliding aperture. There is no maker's name visible on the lens. On the righthand side of the camera is a small, hinged, drop-down flap revealing the compartment to retrieve the finished photograph. Also on the righthand side is a metal hinged lever which releases the plate holding arm in the rear of the camera. The rear of the camera is accessed by a hinged door. Underneath the camera is a slot to feed the individual plates into place inside. There is a 2 compartment ebonite tank affixed to the camera with a long metal screw that runs through the central slot between the compartments.
Provenance
Part of the Fenton Collection. A gift from British Film Institute in 2017. From 1986-1999, part of BFI collection for the Museum of the Moving Image. BFI purchased collection in 1986 from James Fenton's Museum of Photography, Port Erin, Isle of Man 1976-1986