View allAll Photos Tagged agfa
Photo shows Agfa Isolette ll with rangefinder Watameter.
Photo also shows Fomapan 120 medium format negative b/w film.
Agfa Isolette is the name of a series of compact horizontal-folding camera for twelve 6×6 cm (2¼-inch square) pictures or sixteen 4.5×6 cm (2¼×1⅝ inch) pictures on 120 film.
It was made by Agfa Kamerawerk AG, Munich, Germany, starting in 1937,and resuming after the war (1947-48); the series of cameras continued until about 1960.
Watameter was a widely-sold German series of accessory rangefinders of the photo accessory brand Wata.
A Watameter could be used to measure distances between 55cm and infinity. It could be attached to a camera's accessory shoe.
camera-wiki.org/wiki/Watameter
Foma Bohemia is a photographic private limited company based in Hradec Králové, Czech Republic. It was established in 1921, originally as Fotochema, being renamed in 1995 on privatisation. They are mostly known for their line of black and white films and papers.
Agfa Super Silette is rangefinder camera introduced in 1955. This one has the Apotar 3.5 lens.
Sample shots:
Pictures from the users manual:
A circa 1928 Agfa Universal View Camera 5x7 with a no-name circa 1880-1900 Petzval lens mounted. I've owned the lens for 15 years and finally found a flange for it! With the Waterhouse stop in place, the lens seems to throw about a 6" circle, producing a pleasing vignette on the ground glass; it was probably designed for a quarter-plate. Will test with a paper negative ASAP.
Agfa box camera 1937-1938
I bought it specifically for the expired film inside, which I thought was exposed. It wasn't, so I rolled it back up...cleaned the camera and replaced the film and shot it.
This was pretty much the best of the best. Film was probably 50+ years old. Still cool for 5 dollars :)
A very popular camera by Agfa from the late 70s and a little marvel of industrial design. The "Optima Sensor" name had been used by Agfa for a series of simple electronic consumer cameras since the late 60s denoting the presence of a big, red, feather-touch shutter button (sensor) that adorned the top of the camera and was considered very hi-tech at the time.
This last series of the Agfa Optimas were marketed during the late 70s and production continued well into the 80's being hugely successful in the european market. At least 5 different models exist, including a rangefinder (Agfa Optima 1535) and one equipped with an electronic flash, aptly named "Agfa Optima Flash". The best online source of information regarding these cameras can be found here:
www.edition-oldenburg.de/agfa_optima.html
The Optima 1035 pictured here sits second from the top of the line-up feature-wise. It is a zone-focus camera with a fully automatic exposure system based on the Agfa Paratronic electronic shutter. Despite its introduction at a time when plastic was already being used extensively in camera manufacture, the littke Agfa is mostly made of metal with a very durable black coating. Some parts are made of plastic (like the film advance lever or the focusing ring) but the overall feel is that of a solid, durable camera.
The most prominent feature of the camera is the HUGE and extremely bright viewfinder which is a small revelation for first-time users. It is very close in size and brightness to the viewfinders found in premium rangefinders and makes using the camera a real joy. In the 1035 the VF features three distance symbols and a red needle that moves between them according to the chosen focus distance, the minimum being 0.9m. The frame line is illuminated and there are parallax correction marks for close subjects.
Another unique feature of the Optima is the lack of a rewind crank. With the help of (rather flimsy) toggle switch on the top plate, the film advance lever doubles as a rewind crank, a clever design that made the installation of such a bright finder on such a small camera possible.
Upon opening the film door, another clever feature makes its apperance: When loading the camera, the film is passed under a small shield on the winding side which protects film that has already been exposed from accidental opening of the film door.
The lens is a fast f2.8, 40mm four-element Solitar-S ("S" denoting multi-coating) which is quite sharp under good lighting conditions with good contrast and resistance to flare.
Shutter speeds go up to 1/1000s and in low light the Paratronic can stay open for at least one full second. The high top shutter speed combined with the minimum diaphragm opening of f22 ensure proper exposure of fast film even under the brightest conditions. The shutter is completely battery-dependent, it doesn't open at all if batteries are not installed. The feather-touch shutter release ensures minimum shake when taking the shot, reducing the chance of a blurry shot in relatively slow speeds.
Agfa engineers were clever enough to put the CdS cells of the metering system at the six o'clock position of the lens beauty ring, a fact that prevents shadowing of the sensors when a lens hood is used.
Not everything is good on the little Agfa though. For starters, the ASA setting stops at 400 which can be quite limiting if one wants to push fast film. Also, there is no backlight compensation provision, one has to change the ASA setting to deal with backlit subjects.
Additionally (and most annoyingly) the shutter produces an awful screeching sound when fired, probably the worst-sounding shutter I've ever come across, regardless of camera type.
Another ill-conceived feature of the camera (perhaps imposed by the necessity for small size) is the fact that the battery department is accessible only after opening the film door, so in case the batteries die mid-roll, the film must be rewound in order to change them. To make things worse, there doesn't seeem to be any means of knowing if the batteries are weak. The camera uses an uncommon arrangement of three 625 button cells, but at least its exposure system is designed for the common alkaline ones, not the obsolete mercury cells.
For some reason, Agfa deemed it necessary to equip the camera with a red LED lamp that sits above the lens barrel and lights up momentarily every time the shutter is fired, letting everyone know that you've taken their picture. It also blinks during countdown when the (mechanical) self-timer is activated.
As you can see from the picture, the Optima has no strap lugs, as Agfa chose to equip the camera with a proprietary screw-on neck strap that attaches on the left side, a solution that is a complete failure in my opinion. First of all, if you lose the strap there is no way you can replace it with a generic one. Also, the choice of a long neck strap is very poor for such a small, light camera which would benefit most from a short wrist strap, although a pair of scissors and a couple of rivets can easily remedy that. On top of that, placing the wrist strap on the left side is totally counterintuitive, as it virtually precludes secure single-handed operation of the camera with the right hand. According to the manual, the port for the screw-on strap doubles as the tripod mount, although this obviously implies that the camera can be used only in vertical orientation when on a tripod.
Overall, the small size and all-black color, combined with an accurate, fully automatic exposure system, a good semi-wide lens and an unsurpassed viewfinder, make this little Agfa very attractive as a stealthy street shooter. Still, there are a few shortcomings that make it fall short of being the perfect "little black beauty" a title I reserve for the Olympus XA2, my "golden standard" for this particular category of cameras.
aka Preisbox, 1933-38
controls (top to bottom):
- film wind
- viewfinder (landscape)
- exposure (normal . B_ )
- shutter
Cardboard body with steel ends, wood shutter mount, meniscus lens, steel film insert
Sold for 4 Marks - you had to collect 4 coins spelling out A-G-F-A (the initials of the mint were on each coin)
Agfa made their money back selling film to a million eager photographers
Takes 120 film, produces 6x9 negatives. f.11 ish, 1/50 ish.
In surprisingly good nick for an 80+ year old camera