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     *Agfa page 2
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Agfa Agfa Kamera Werke  München a.o. - Germany The Agfa company was founded by Paul Mendelsohn Bartholdy and Carl Alexander von Martius in Berlin in 1867 as "Actien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-fabrikation". Their main line of business were the production of chemical products such as dyes, colors and stain products. At some point they took over the Rietzchel camera company and sold re-branded Rietzchel cameras. The truth is, that the production of chemicals, films, emulsion-materials etc. have always been the core business to Agfa and not camera production. During the 2. world war the Agfa company was accquired by IG Farben and absorbed into this giant conglomerate of almost all chemical companies in Germany at that time. After the war, IG Farben was found guilty in warcrimes, probably because of the use of forced labour etc. and was dissolved by the US administration.  However Agfa came to life again under US administration and control, and primarely sold the almost the entire production of cameras to US personel. Agfa remained under US administrative control until 1953. In 1963 Agfa merged with Gevaert. Development and production of cameras and photographic equipment and components continued until 1983 when Agfa, suffering from the unmercyful competition from Japan, gave up camera production all together. In 2004 Agfa sold off all the photographic activities and continued operating within the healthcare and graphic businesses only. A "new" Agfa company "Agfa Photo GmbH" however appeared in 2004 as a separately owned company, but it went bankrupt only 1 year later.  In Denmark Agfa has been a really popular camera brand through the years, and especially the Silette and Super Silette are very common and easy to find in acceptable condition. I regularely also come across those Isolette's, but sadly as it is the case with allmost all Isolette's the bellows are worn down, and the distance setting totally stuck due to the hardened old grease. If You wan't an Isolette, find one that have been CLA'ed or restored and pay the price. Apart from the accesories and extras for the wonderful Ambi-Slilette I dont have any plans to expand my Agfa collection much. Oh well, a few maybe.. Just a few more.. ;-)

Agfa Flexilette 1960 TLR Serial no.: AH 6647 Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film Optics: 2 x Agfa Color Apotar 1:2,8 45mm Shutter:  Prontor B + 1 => 1/500 sec. no selftimer Believe it or not, but I found this Flexilette in a chicken shack on a farm north of Copenhagen. Besides being unbelievable dirty and dusty, it smelled really REALLY bad. More as an act of mercy I brought this poor farm-girl home and cleaned her up.  The shutter was without function, but after using a can of compressed air and some lighter fluid the shutter sprang back to life, and to this day it fires like clockwork. The only real faults are the brassing on the viewfinder front and the missing plastic covering on the bottomplate support tab.  Maybe i'll get around to fixing that some of these days. Ironic for a farmgirl, Miss Flexilette is "neither bird or fish  " as we say in danish. It is a 35mm camera that looks like an SLR, but are in fact a TLR. It's very heavy, and apart from the totally unique and exceptionally (ugly ?) design, the rare Flexilette it is no revolution when it comes to performance. All settings are situated on the lens base except for the manual reset filmcounter which is  on top of the housing. The rapid winding lever, which also cocks the shutter are on the bottomplate. The real advantage is of course that the folding viewfinder doesn't black out during exposure, there a no mirror moving and the bright viewfinder with its clear splitscreen focussing it just simply great. Apart from the ordinary fresnell viewfinder it offers a magnified sports viewfinder and a magnifying glass for precise focusing. The Flexilette is a massive chunk of metal that is quite well built but it was no commercial succes, and was only produced for one year in 1960.

Agfa Colorflex I 1960 SLR Serial no.: JH 3078 Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film Optics: Agfa Color Apotar 1:2,8 50mm Shutter:  Prontor Reflex B + 1 => 1/300 sec. + selftimer The Colorflex I was Agfa's first attempt to build a SLR. Did they suceed ?. Well, yes and no. The Colorflex has a fixed lens, and uncoupled lightmeter and the Prontor Reflex only goes as far as to 1/300 sec. It is eaven heavier than the Flexilette, and offers the possibilty of changing the viewfinder.  Above is shown the folding viewfinder with a magnifying glass. Seen as a SLR the Colorflex isn't that interesting. Big, heavy and without the option of changing lenses. Actually you might as well stick with the farmgirl Miss Flexilette all the way. The thing I love the most about this camera is the sound of the shutter and the mirror action. That is really how a shutter should sound !!.

Agfa Ambi-Silette 1957 - 1961 RF Serial nos.: FZ 5523 + VZ 6222 Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film Optics: Agfa Color Solinar 1:2,8 50mm (Agfa bayonett mount) Shutter:  Synchro Compur B + 1 => 1/500 sec. + selftimer Accessory lenses: Agfa Color-Telinear 1: 4  90 mm  Agfa Color-Ambion 1: 4  35 mm  Agfa Color-Telinear 1:4  130 mm Misc.:  Coupled rangefinder - no built in lightmeter It is not very difficult to find positive things to say about the Ambi Silette. It is truly an exceptionally wonderful camera. Many collectors praise this rangefinder, and not without reason i might add. It's wellknown that the Ambi Silette was also called "the poor mans Leica", and allthough you don't get Leica quality, you do get a rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses (and damned good ones too !), a coupled rangefinder in a big bright viewfinder AND brightlines for 35, 50 and 90 mm. By choosing the desired focal length on the sliding selector on the topplate, the respective brightline appears in the viewfinder. The body feels good and comfortbale and not a all heavy. The Synchro Compur shutter are SO quiet that you can almost doubt if it works. The 130mm Color Telinear ar the most difficult to find of the lenses, and there are no brightlines for this lens, however Agfa made the most superb auxiliary viewfinder (see above) that is a piece of art in its own rite. You might have noticed the sunshade on the picture above, which is not an original Agfa, but an US made Ednalite. It looks very cool though... The lightmeter shown above are a BEWI that looks really good on the Ambi Silette (hhm looks better that it perform...). The only 2 annoying things I can mention about the Ambi-Silette is the strange spring operated nameplate that covers and protect the viewfinder/brigthline window on the front, and sencondly the shape of the rapid advance lever, that have to be "attacked" a little from above. On the positive side I also have to mention the bayonett mount which is simply pure geniuos. No wild turning or twisting, no fiddeling around,  nor any locking rings or strange contraptions. You just have to align the two red dots, and press the lens inwards, a slight twist clockwise and "click" its secured !. I can only recommend that you get yourself aquainted with this beautiful camera. Stephen Gandy has made a really good page on the Ambi Silette which I am sure you will enjoy, and I can only agree on evrything he has to say about this charming lady. Stephen Gandy on the Agfa Ambi Silette Agfa Karat 36 2050/314 (1954) RF Serial no.: U1 6200 Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film (135 film cartridge) Optics: Agfa Solinar 1:2,8  50mm Shutter:  Syncro Compur B + 1 => 1/500 sec. + selftimer     I feel it is difficult if not impossible to compare the Agfa Karat 36 with any other Agfa camera model. When you hold the Karat 36 You realize that it does not at all feel like f.e. an Ambi Silette. It's a quite heavy folding strut camera which is incredibly well made, and if I should compare the build quality and the finish with any other camera, it would be the folding Retinas mad by the Kodak-Nagel Werke. The Karat 36 are slightly bigger, and offers a (quite peculiar) single stroke rapid advance lever that moves from the forward position and backwards. The advance lever also cocks the shutter. Just left of the extremely solid lens baseplate You'll find the release for the strut, which also unlocks the baseplate when folding the camera again after use. The rangefinder are also quite special as it is a horzisontal  split image rangefinder that divides the entire viewfinder in two equal sized halfs. Very nice indeed !  The Karat 36, the successor to the Agfa Karat series which used the special Agfa cartridge, use an ordinary 135 cartridge, and came in a number of different versions from 1948 to 1954, and with both Agfa, Schneider-Kreuznach and Rodenstock lenses, all of them excellent glass. Personally I think that the Karat 36 are one of the finest classic 35mm folders around right up there with the Nagel Kodak Retinas and the Weltini's just to mention a few. If You want to learn everything there is to know about the entire Agfa Karat series from the 30's to the mid 50's You simple HAVE to visit Dirk Neumann's website: www.karat-kameras.de by Dirk Neumann     Click on thumbnails below to enlarge   Go to Agfa page 2