This is a very well-made camera of Honduran fiddle-back mahogany with dovetail joints and leather bellows. The patent describes a method of fixing the front standard to the baseboard by rods passing through the standard which clamp to rails on the baseboard.

The shutter has a very interesting action. In making the exposure the top flap of the shutter opens and uncovers the lens. The lower flap rotates to cover the lens. A friction device works on the lower flap to control the length of exposure. The friction pad works against an eccentric disc attached to the lower spindle, this gives greatest resistance, and hence least movement, at the mid point of the exposure. The two flaps are connected with rods, a cam controls the rate at which the flaps rotate. The shutter was shown at the RPS exhibition of 1885. The Photographic Journal Nov. 1885 describes the friction device as an improvement to the shutter.

The lens dates to the 1860s and is much earlier than the camera. The lens has been cut for Waterhouse stops, an area of the barrel that was cut away contained the Ross name and serial number, this has been re-mounted on the lens barrel.