Wow! i didn't expect soo many enthusiastic responses! i also moderate a classic cameras group on myspace and there aren't but a couple AGFA (is all caps correct? the Agfa Rhombus just capitalizes the A but i've seen it in all caps alot too) shooters. Even after it became independent, some Agfa cameras were sold as Ansco, after WWII. They made films that were never quite competitive with Kodak, but they had some of the first really fast color slide film (it was originally a full 500 ASA!).
Eventually, it became General Aniline and Film Corporation, and eventually just GAF. The company was seized by what was called the "Enemy Property Custodian" during the war, and was eventually sold to private owners and remained independent after the war. Many cameras were marketed under the Agfa name as well. Ansco was generally very careless about names anyhow, so the folding cameras marketed in that period were often called by more than one name by Ansco. In the time that the company was Agfa-Ansco, it sold some Agfa models badged under the Ansco name. After 1928 the American company was "Agfa-Ansco", interestingly enough only dropping the Agfa part of the name in 1943 (I guess by 1943, under US govermment ownership, they may have realized that Hitler wasn't going to work out). The situation of Agfa cameras in the USA, as such, is complicated by the relation to Ansco. I love selenium meters and their simple 'dot' meters, chrome decor, symetrical look, strange ergonomics, compact size and it took a while for me to appreciate scale focus but it's something i've grown to love and helps me develop my ability to prefocus all my cameras.Įven if you're not into agfa, are there any other quirky cameras you really love to use? So far i use an agfa optima parat (half frame 60's point and shoot camera,) agfa silette optima 1a (35mm full manual scale focus,) agfa optima sensor flash (late 70's point and shoot scale focus with built in flash.) I was curious if anyone else out there was an agfa fan? i only have a few bodies as they seem to be difficult to come by in working condition in the states but i use them almost as regularly as my nikons and pentaxs. i like really quirky creatively designed and well constructed classics though and somehow i made the leap from yashica for these qualities to agfa. i used to be into yashica's for said creative doodling but have found them unreliable and requiring service more constantly than my other cameras. and i've got 'toy' classics for 'doodling' as it were.
So i've got nikon and pentax as my paid shoot equipment-accurate, dependable, professional classic cameras.
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