February
2001
In about 1926, F. W.
Pettifer founded the Coronet Camera Company in
Birmingham, England. In 1946, it became Coronet Ltd. and
the company ceased production in 1967.
During its forty years, Coronet
produced a lot of budget-priced cameras (more than I can
list here), many of which are now very common and
consequently worth very little.
Some of the most attractive of these
date from the 1950s, when Coronet used bakelite and metal
to produce eye-catching cameras for the mass
market.
The Coronet
Ambassador is one such. This camera was produced from
about 1955. It is a box camera, taking 6 cm. x 9 cm.
pictures on 120 film. The back is attached to the front
by snap fasteners - these can prove to be a weak spot -
which allow the whole back to be removed for easy film
loading. The brilliant finders have hinged chromed covers
which both protect the finder when not in use and also
give a degree of shade when the finder is in use. There
is a built in green filter. The Ambassador is not flash
synchronised and in 1955 this camera cost £1 10s.
9d. The synchronised version, the Conway, was £1
13s. 2d.
Another common
Coronet camera is the Coronet Flashmaster. This is a
conventionally styled camera with a black bakelite body,
ornamented with metal bands. It takes 12 6 cm. x 6 cm.
pictures on 120 film.
The Coronet Cadet (picture)
is similar to the Coronet Flashmaster, but without flash synchronisation.
In 1959, the Cadet cost £1 5s. 4d. and the Flashmaster cost £1
9s. 3d.
The Coronet Rapier is based on
the Coronet Consul but has a 4 cm. x 4 cm. mask inside, thus taking
16 pictures on 120 roll film. It has a single speed shutter with flash
synchronisation for the Coro-Flash unit. There are two apertures,
one for colour and one for black-and-white film. Colour film at this
time was markedly slower than black-and-white. The Rapier was £1
14s. 1d. in 1959.
The Coronet Victor
is designed to take 4 cm. x 4 cm. pictures on 127 film.
It has a two-speed shutter (one-thirtieth and
one-hundredth of a second) with flash synchronisation and
two apertures (f/11 and f/16). The Coronet Victor cost
£2 12s. 8d. in 1959
The third common type of Coronet
camera is the "reflex". These have a large, brilliant
reflecting finder as the viewing lens and a simple
fixed-focus taking lens and are in no way in the same
category of camera as a twin-lens reflex camera like the
Rolleicord or Microcord.
The 12-20 and similar
F-20 Coro-Flash cameras take 6 cm. x 6 cm. pictures on
120 or 620 film. They have simple Time/Instantaneous
shutters, three-point focusing lens and a built-in green
filter. The F-20 has flash synchronisation. In 1953 the
12-20 cost £2 0s. 5d. and the F-20 was £2 5s.
1d.
Pictures of other Coronet cameras etc.
Coronet 44
Coronet
IIa 9.5 mm. cine projector advertisement (1939)
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