pete.naylor
AGFA Optima
At first glance, this appears to be just another typical AGFA 35mm from the late 50s/early 60s - ie, solidly-built but maybe a bit ugly courtesy of that familiarly-tapered and bulbous top cover, beloved of so many West German camera makers in that era.
However, there's more to this camera than meets the eye. This is an original AGFA Optima of 1959, complete with F3.9 Color-Apotar S triplet lens and Compur Special leaf shutter. So what's so unusual about it, you ask? Well, folks, this was the World's First Fully Automatic 35mm Camera, that's what's so special!
It's a fairly heavy lump of metal at 750 gms and cost around 30 Pnds here in Oz - quite a lot back then for the first 'Point And Shoot'. (In the USA, it sold for just under $80.) For around that same money, you could get an Aires Viscount, Minolta A5, Voigtlander Vito B or Yashica Minister - none of which offered automatic exposure, of course, but I thought you'd like to get some cost comparisons with manual stuff of the era. The Optima's selenium photo-electric cell gave you literally the 'Green Light' in the viewfinder when its shutter speed and lens aperture control reckoned things were OK, and you then just hit the shutter button.
A red light naturally meant too little light was available, but in extreme situations maybe there was too much light - such as here in a hot Perth summer, at the beach. All that reflected glare could occasionally be too much for the Optima's combination of f3.9 - f16 apertures and shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/250th sec, even for the relatively slow films of the day. However, for most situations the Optima could Do The Job.
OK, so although this was an automatic camera and you didn't need to know about its lens aperture and shutter speed range, that's not quite the whole story. You did still have to handraulically set its 3-position zone focussing and also reset its metering gizmology by holding downwards that large lever at top right, after advancing the film and setting the shutter via a conventional thumb-crank lever at the rear. The shutter release is via that slightly recessed button on the top cover, outboard from the accessory shoe.
This sequence maybe sounds like some kind of joke today, but back in 1959 it was indeed a Great Leap Forward, especially for colour slides and prints - because it really WORKED!! You actually got very nicely exposed photos over a wide range of situations, without having to know a single thing about those confusing F stops or shutter speeds. Back in those days, colour film was both expensive and unforgiving in latitude, but here was a camera that could do all the dirty work for you. AGFA sold millions of 'em, and the age of 'Press Here, Stupid' had finally arrived. However, AGFA were smart enough to make their Optima look no different from their conventional non-automatic Silettes of that era, so other folks wouldn't take you for a photographic dumbo - even if you really were ...
This first Optima model was soon updated, removing the need for that awkward separate exposure-setting lever. Now everything was done by the single advancing of the film wind/shutter lever and depressing the shutter button, with the same green/red light warning system Of course, within a few years Olympus brought out their 'Olympus Trip 35' which did more or less the same sort of job, but at a cheaper price and half the weight - and with a lot of advertising support from the likes of renowned fashion photog David Bailey et al. But give AGFA their due - they were the first cab on the PHS rank. Many other Optima models followed, both in 35mm and Rapid format, but all with that consistent theme of automatic exposure. Amazing to think this is all well over 50 years ago now!
AGFA Optima
At first glance, this appears to be just another typical AGFA 35mm from the late 50s/early 60s - ie, solidly-built but maybe a bit ugly courtesy of that familiarly-tapered and bulbous top cover, beloved of so many West German camera makers in that era.
However, there's more to this camera than meets the eye. This is an original AGFA Optima of 1959, complete with F3.9 Color-Apotar S triplet lens and Compur Special leaf shutter. So what's so unusual about it, you ask? Well, folks, this was the World's First Fully Automatic 35mm Camera, that's what's so special!
It's a fairly heavy lump of metal at 750 gms and cost around 30 Pnds here in Oz - quite a lot back then for the first 'Point And Shoot'. (In the USA, it sold for just under $80.) For around that same money, you could get an Aires Viscount, Minolta A5, Voigtlander Vito B or Yashica Minister - none of which offered automatic exposure, of course, but I thought you'd like to get some cost comparisons with manual stuff of the era. The Optima's selenium photo-electric cell gave you literally the 'Green Light' in the viewfinder when its shutter speed and lens aperture control reckoned things were OK, and you then just hit the shutter button.
A red light naturally meant too little light was available, but in extreme situations maybe there was too much light - such as here in a hot Perth summer, at the beach. All that reflected glare could occasionally be too much for the Optima's combination of f3.9 - f16 apertures and shutter speeds from 1/30 to 1/250th sec, even for the relatively slow films of the day. However, for most situations the Optima could Do The Job.
OK, so although this was an automatic camera and you didn't need to know about its lens aperture and shutter speed range, that's not quite the whole story. You did still have to handraulically set its 3-position zone focussing and also reset its metering gizmology by holding downwards that large lever at top right, after advancing the film and setting the shutter via a conventional thumb-crank lever at the rear. The shutter release is via that slightly recessed button on the top cover, outboard from the accessory shoe.
This sequence maybe sounds like some kind of joke today, but back in 1959 it was indeed a Great Leap Forward, especially for colour slides and prints - because it really WORKED!! You actually got very nicely exposed photos over a wide range of situations, without having to know a single thing about those confusing F stops or shutter speeds. Back in those days, colour film was both expensive and unforgiving in latitude, but here was a camera that could do all the dirty work for you. AGFA sold millions of 'em, and the age of 'Press Here, Stupid' had finally arrived. However, AGFA were smart enough to make their Optima look no different from their conventional non-automatic Silettes of that era, so other folks wouldn't take you for a photographic dumbo - even if you really were ...
This first Optima model was soon updated, removing the need for that awkward separate exposure-setting lever. Now everything was done by the single advancing of the film wind/shutter lever and depressing the shutter button, with the same green/red light warning system Of course, within a few years Olympus brought out their 'Olympus Trip 35' which did more or less the same sort of job, but at a cheaper price and half the weight - and with a lot of advertising support from the likes of renowned fashion photog David Bailey et al. But give AGFA their due - they were the first cab on the PHS rank. Many other Optima models followed, both in 35mm and Rapid format, but all with that consistent theme of automatic exposure. Amazing to think this is all well over 50 years ago now!