Even though Ansco had stopped making the Automatic Reflex, this story was interesting enough to turn into an advert for General Aniline. The estimated 65,520 exposures may be an exaggeration but it’s an interesting bit of history.
Here’s the copy from the advert:
65,000 kids … in three years!
Last year a man sent us an Ansco Reflex to be overhauled, said it was sort of run down after 65,520 exposures (estimated).
The Reflex was four years old. As most camera owners don’t take 65,520 exposures in a hundred years, we became interested in Gerald E. Merow, of Malvern, Pa.
Working with a firm called “Childhood Portraits” Mr. Merow takes photographs of children at home … averages seven sittings (or squirmings) daily, a 12 exposure roll of Ansco Supreme film per sitting — 420 shots per week, or 65,520 kids in three years!
His Ansco Reflex, bought in 1949 from Nichols Photo Service at Bristol, Pa., cost $24 to repair, is still clicking merrily!
For fine cameras, Anscos have always had remarkable stamina, and often outlast their first owners. Some are eighty years old and still in use. With every Ansco camera goes the assurance of lifetime performance.
And Ansco “all-weather” film provides the best possible pictures.
