A fun little German one

The analog camera market is very focused around a few certain brands and models such as the Leicas, Nikons, Hasselblads and Zeiss’s. But cameras that does not hit the «name requirement» can be just as good and fun to shoot with. Today, I went out to a flea market run by some friends and I found a little interesting camera that I just had to buy. The camera in question was produced from 1957 to 1961 in Germany. With such a short production span, only four years, it is an interesting little camera that probably didn’t hit the market as well as its producer would have hoped.

The camera is an AGFA AMBI SILETTE. A little rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses and some very clever patents on it. The camera has a Synchro Compur leaf shutter and its highest shutter speed is 1/500th second. When changing between lenses, you can use a little switch on the top to set the viewfinder up with different lines to help you compose while using the rangefinder unit. I found the rangefinder on this camera to work beautifully even after all these years, and the main lens, the 50mm f2.8 Color Solinar is clean and appears to be rather sharp based on this test. The tele lens that also came with it, the 90mm, has severe fungus on it, and I’d guess it would affect the image quality, although, I have not really tried it.

The AGFA AMBI SILETTE – straight from the flea market.

Since I knew that a camera purchase would be a possibility, I brought along a roll of Fomapan 100 and two camera batteries. The Agfa is fully mechanical, so the batteries were not used, but I loaded the roll of Fomapan 100 and went for a little walk at Husodden, to try it out and see how it felt to use. Mind you, I hadn’t really read anything about this camera in advance and I had not even heard about this particular model. So this is a true first impression entry.

My first little quest, was realizing that the rangefinder and viewfinder is hidden behind a little covering lid that you have to flap open before using it. This is a really clever invention both because it protects the cleanliness of the glass behind it, but also because it works as a sun shield making focusing easy and smooth without any disturbing sun-glare. After that, the camera is very straight forward and simple to use.

Agfa Ambi Silette – Agfa 50mm f2.8 Color Solinar lens – Fomapan 100 Ilford ID-11 1+1

Age is noticeable on this camera, but it seems like it just will need some use to get back into life. Both shutter speeds and aperture settings seem to be in reasonable working order, but I did not try the longer shutter speeds this time as I shot hand held in the September sunshine. My guess is that shutter lag will be present from shutter speeds lower than 1/60th and that the lens will show diffraction at f22. But this must be for another time.

The most important error I found with this camera, was the fact that my first shots were all double exposed, and I only got a few decent shots on my roll. This seems to be some lag due to lack of use, and I am sure this will sort itself out with some use. I will not give this camera a CLA. That would probably cost more than the camera is worth in 2021 money.

An old barn by a field – Agfa Ambi Silette – Agfa 50mm f2.8 Color Solinar lens – Fomapan 100 Ilford ID-11 1+1

The shot above, was the first shot on the roll that turned out to be just exposed once, and no images after this one showed any sign of double exposure. This leads me to believe that there probably isn’t anything wrong with the film advance other than lack of use.

The focus ring was light, but still firm and very pleasant to use, as well were the rings for setting shutter speeds and aperture opening. The camera seems to have been very well looked after and I believe it to have been serviced before it was stored. It can indeed seem like that. The back door on the camera is somewhat sticky, and the camera came with one of those horrendous leather cases that looks good enough, but makes loading and unloading film very unpractical and the camera bulky and larger than necessary to use. I took it out of the leather case when I used it, and there are no signs of light leaks from the camera.

A tree root – Agfa Ambi Silette – Agfa 50mm f2.8 Color Solinar lens – Fomapan 100 Ilford ID-11 1+1

All in all, the little outing with the Agfa was a fun experience, and I will definitely be shooting this camera again. The only slight annoyance is the patent for rewinding the film. It is one of those that doesn’t have a lever for rewinding but just a small knob that you wear your fingers off while using. But with a camera this good, it is worth some sore fingers.

A DDR Rangefinder camera

We all have our weak-spots as photography enthusiasts. I certainly have a weak spot for the lovely Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar lens. I will not in any way claim that I am even close to a lens and optics expert, but this lens, with its four elements in three groups, gives a sharpness and tone to the images I just love. I had one of these lenses for my M42 cameras, but this lens would benefit from some servicing as the aperture blades keeps jamming when stopping down further than f8, and the focusing ring is very heavy to operate.

A little while back, I read about a little rangefinder camera from East Germany that was said to be magnificent value for money and deliver splendid image quality and sharpness. The camera was called «Welta Belmira» and was, believe it or not, equipped with a lovely Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50mm f2,8 lens. I started looking for one of these cameras to try out, and it was not difficult to find them. However, they were often in very varying condition and it was clear that getting the right and good one would take a while. And so sure it did, but after some months of searching and looking, I found one in decent condition. Yes, it was a bit dusty, and yes it had a dim rangefinder, but the camera in itself seemed to work really well.

My lineup for this test – a Welta Belmira and a roll of Kodak Tri-X400. I also used an external rangefinder unit, because the inbuilt one is very dim and only usable if the light is bright.

I went out to a location where there is a lovely artistic installation close to the lake, and I have thought for a while to experiment with some photography around this location. The origin of this artwork is unknown to me, but it is only accessible in the winter and spring time, as it will be submerged by the lake most of the summer time.

Welta Belmira – Kodak Tri-X 400 Adox Atomal 49 1+1

Reklamer

I also with this outing, made my first test of the Adox Atomal 49 developer. I read a bit about it online and saw some images developed in it, and I got curious to try it out myself. Atomal 49 is a very fine grain developer that gives you full film speed unlike Perceptol that will eat some of your speed. For that reason alone, I bought a 5L package of it and decided to give it a try. And based on these results with Tri-X at 35mm, I am very happy with what it looks like. This might well become a developer of preference to me, but I will obviously have to make more tests before deciding.

Back to the camera. I really enjoyed using the camera. It has a very special and differently engineered slider instead of the usual advance lever. It is a bit fiddly to use and has a tendency to stick at different points, but it works faultlessly. The dim rangefinder is not really an issue as long as you have an external one, and the focus ring seems to be pretty much accurate. However, I believe the camera «drags» the shutter speeds a little bit, but slight overexposure is not any issue with any negative film really.

Playing around with a Petri 7s

If you have followed this blog for a while, or read some of my posts, you may know that I have a Petri Racer that I really love shooting. I find the little Petri to be very reliable, accurate, light and handy as well as giving the images some character. I can’t really put my finger on why I like that particular camera so much, it is just a camera I enjoy shooting. A few weeks ago, I came across a Petri 7s on an auction online, and I won it on a very low bid.

The reason I was interested in this particular 7s was that it had the f1,8 lens, which some sources claim to be a six element lens with an interesting bokeh-pattern. Whether it is six element or four, as the f2,8 version, does not necessarily mean that much to me, but I do love nice bokeh and sharpness. For the very low price that I payed, it was worth the gamble at any rate.

The Petri 7s f1,8 Rangefinder camera w. amber coated lens

A gamble it surely was as this camera has a few personality traits that is very specific to this particular one. First of all. The Rewind-knob is loose, and you cannot turn the camera on its head without risking the film to lose tension as the rewind knob disengages. Another interesting «asset» this camera has, is a dodgy lock on the back. This means you will get the luxury of using electrical tape to secure it from opening mid-roll. In addition to this, the camera invites to a creative approach to focussing, with a rangefinder (although rather dim and dodgy) that jumps in and out of «sanity» a few times pr shot. I ended up guesstimating my focus because I trusted my own eyes more than the rangefinder unit.

Reklamer

These faults aside though, the aperture settings and shutter speeds are fairly accurate. When I took it to Lillehammer to try it out on the newly fallen snow, I got very good negatives. My test was done with half a roll of Fomapan 200, which I because of the lighting conditions shot at 100. I shaved 20% off the development time compared to box-speed, and ended up at 6 minutes with Xtol Stock.

Petri 7s f1,8 – Fomapan 200@100 Xtol 1-0 6 minutes.

As you can see, in some of my images, my lens fogged over. However, this is not lens-haze, but rather an issue of a swift temperature change and a forgetful photographer who didn’t remember to wipe the lens before shooting against the sun.

Trying again with the Condor

A few says ago, I wrote about my new camera. A 1947 Condor I. Mine was sold without the Ferrania logo, and from my research online, I see that these cameras were sold like this in 1947. This means that the camera is 73 years old, and was sold two years after WWII ended in Europe. In the early stages of the European healing time. In Italy, this is two years after Mussolini died, and Germany was still referred to as «Handelsschiffe» and completely divided into four sections by the allies. From Germany came the Leica IIc, a camera that is way above my budget, even today. And from Italy came Officine Galileo with their Condor I.

The Condor I is a relatively simple camera in many ways. 100% manual with shutter-speeds on a wheel around the lens, aperture settings on a lever and a coupled rangefinder with two viewfinders, one for sharp focussing with some magnification, and one for a preview of the whole Image. On mine, alas, the range finder is too dim to be of any help when focussing on my particular camera.

The beautiful Officine Gallileo Condor I

Operating the camera is a little fiddly, especially because of the very hard mechanics. It does not seem to have been used and looked after for some time, and it would not object to a little lubrication and a little clean. Other than that, it seems to work pretty well.

Reklamer

Walking around with a camera like this, makes you think more than if you walk around with a fully automatic digital camera, where you know that what you see is what you get. An old, vintage, piece of equipment seems also to put a smile on people’s faces. When shooting this today, I was asked by several elderly people about the film I used, what camera it was, and what I knew about it. I also had to tip some of them about my blog, where some of the images would be posted.

Another interesting thing with this camera is that it gives med 40 images on a 36-roll of film. This is because you stick the leader properly in place, and can close the back before you start advancing it. The lens is relatively sharp, sharper than I would expect from a camera this age, and way sharper than my Argus camera. On the down side, I am limited by having to «guess-focus» and I can’t really see its potential before I have some kind of rangefinder to help me. It also seems like the lens has a little hazing on it. Not that it is a dealbreaker for me, but it is something to consider then using it, as it gives very hazy results when there is some backlighting in the image.

Officine Gallileo Condir I, Ilford FP4 Plus, Kodak Xtol 1+1

Even so, the camera is fun to shoot, and I will probably use it for a few outings in the future. After all, it cost me close to nothing, and It is fun being so bound to your own skills.