Agfa AG603000 Photo Analoge 35mm Foto Kamera black

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Fast forward a decade and a half, and film photography was more popular than ever before. Features like automatic exposure, motorized film advance, and fully flash synchronized shutters simplified film photography to where little to no knowledge of exposure was required to get a good image. Companies like Kodak and AGFA were looking for the next big thing in film, and in 1963 Kodak would strike first with a new format of film called type 126 Instamatic film. Kodak’s new Instamatic film was heavily promoted to help simplify and speed up the film loading process. I’ve used the 35mm Color-Ambion lens (incredibly slow, with a maximum aperture of f/4) and the more common 50mm Color-Solinar (f/2.8), and both performed well. Performance from the 50mm, in particular, was exceptional. The lens’ built-in depth-of-field scale makes zone focusing a breeze, and the distance scales in feet and meters are beautifully etched and individually painted.

Sometime in the late 1960’s, when I was attending college, I had added a Minolta Autopak 700 to my otherwise-Nikon 35mm set of cameras. It was OK, cheaper than a Kodak Instamatic 700/800, with similar features. The limits of Kodacolor-X/Kodachrome/Ektachrome/Verichrome Pan in 126 became apparent, since “available darkness” photos with ASA 80-125 film was limited, even with electronic flash. Although both Instamatic 126 and AGFA Rapid film are no longer made, since both use film that is the same width as current 35mm film, they can be easily reloaded and used. AGFA Rapid cameras are very easy to reload as they simply require bulk 35mm film to be pushed into an empty cassette in the dark and loaded as normal. If you own a Rapid camera and have some bulk 35mm film, two empty Rapid, or even Karat cassettes, this is something you can do yourself. Lens: Agfa Solinar 3.5/50 (pre-war, 4 elements) or Agfa Apotar 3.5/55 (post-war, 3 elements); both front cell focusing

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These may not be the strongest selling points for the average photo geek or for the photographer simply looking to buy a nice camera to casually shoot some film, but for those of us who love both shooting and collecting, they make the Ambi Silette just that much more appealing. Takeaway Similar to the Karat 6.3, the Karat 4.5's most noticeable difference is the use of brushed aluminum top and bottom covers. This model has an improved lens when compared to the two earlier models.

Strap on your Halcyon angled-glass goggles, because we’re about to condense a hundred-and-fifty years of company history into just three small paragraphs. That’s fast. Agfa Vista used to be a good alternative if you didn’t want the sunny hues of Colorplus, which not everyone would. When it was a budget film, you could choose based on the look you wanted. While that low cost used to be a shared attribute though, it’s now another difference. If there’s one thing I’ve read consistently about Agfa Vista Plus 200, it’s that it was for a long time available in shops like Poundland in the UK. Sources vary as to the introduction of the Karat 12, most stating either 1941 or 1945. The example shown here has a pre-war Schneider Xenar lens dating from September of 1935, indicating that the Karat 12 was probably in production well before 1941. At any rate, due to the war, introducing a new consumer camera as late as 1941 seems unlikely.But none of that is the point. That’s just me, and a lot of other people will prefer and will have formed an attachment to it. Sadly for AGFA, shortly after the time when Karat film and cameras hit the market, war broke out in Europe and people’s attention turned away from new developments in film. Kodak had just enough of a leg up in popularity that by the time Word War II ended, most everyone had forgotten about Karat film. Although AGFA would resume production of both their Karat camera and film, they would concede defeat in 1949 by releasing a variant of their Karat camera called the Karat 36 that used Kodak’s type 135 cassette. AGFA would continue to produce both versions of the Karat camera for a short while before abandoning Karat film altogether. You’ll get the best results from the Agfa Camera on a bright day. Keep at least 1m away from your subject. Ideally, keep the main subject in the centre. Avoid direct sunlight into the lens. In cloudy weather or indoors the flash is recommended.

Another common failure in the post-war Karats are pinholes in bellows. It is very difficult to source replacements and thus temporary repairs must be performed. The Agfa Ambi Silette was first produced in 1957 and discontinued in 1961, a remarkably short four-year lifecycle made even more remarkable when we realize just how good it is to shoot. Shooting the Ambi Today And even considering these unmitigated disasters of ergonomics and design (I’m being dramatic), the ways in which the Agfa Ambi Silette succeeds far outweigh the ways in which it fails. The Karat IV upgrades the Karat 36 with a more conventional superimposed rangefinder and revised top cover.

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The second camera is Agfa’s own Karat 12 with the four-element (uncoated) Solinar, and which I aquired a couple of years ago just for its quasi art deco looks. I was surprised at just how small it is for a FF 35mm film camera. Karat film used a simpler cassette without a central spool that was easier and cheaper to manufacture, and since cameras that used it did not require the ability to rewind the film, Karat compatible cameras could be made cheaper as well. The downside however is that it wasn’t compatible with established cameras like the Leica and Contax, and due to the way the film advanced, no more than 12 exposures could be loaded at one time, down from 36 in Kodak’s film. Nowadays, the only real Agfa film – made by Agfa and branded as such – is produced for B2B aerial photography use. It is available at a consumer level, but under the Rollei label, just to muddy the waters even more. Agfa Vista Plus 200 getting discontinued was a real shame, although possibly not unexpected seeing as Fujifilm were the people making it.

You could go for an ISO 400 colour negative film, but then you’d be paying more and getting away from the advantage ColorPlus has and Agfa had, which was their low price. Rapid film, much like Kodak’s Instamatic was meant to be a simpler film than 35mm, and cater to novices who thought that extending a film leader across a film plane and attaching it to a take up spool was too much of a burden. Most Rapid models were of the scale focus point and shoot variety, with a few rangefinders, the highest spec of which was a model by Canon with auto exposure, a coupled rangefinder, and a fast 30mm f/1.7 lens. Agfaphoto APX 400 is rated ISO 400 but with the potential to be pushed to 1600 without a significant drop in quality. Common observations tend to point out good sharpness and detail in mid-tones and shadows, although highlights are prone to being a touch blown out. The grain is there but not overbearing in any way; especially when you consider you’re shooting, you know, film. This new format used film that was physically the same width as regular 35mm film, but instead of two rows of perforations, only needed a single perforation per frame to help identify the beginning of a new exposure. Instamatic cassettes came in a completely sealed plastic magazine that contained both a supply of new film and a take up spool. Installation into a camera merely required the user to open a door, drop in the cassette, close the door, and advance the film to the first exposure.

It’s developed using the regular C-41 process. Unlike some other films I’ve reviewed, the data sheet was easy to find online. You can go to it right here. AgfaPhoto Vista Plus 200, to give it its full name, is (or was) a DX-coded colour negative film that was produced in both 24 and 36 exposure rolls. Without much control over exposure, I was limited to “Shade” and “Sunny” settings which was good enough to get properly exposed shots on a mostly cloudy day with occasional sunlight. If you wanted to try shooting this camera, I’d advise using something with good latitude like Kentmere 100. Exceptionally fast or slow films, or slide film would probably not work as well. One variant of the 1958 basic Silette has a different, elevated top plate that announced the style of the later models. Unless you have a film shop near you with a reasonably-priced supply, I don’t think the cost is worth it. Not for me anyway, when I can spend the money trying out different and higher-quality film instead.