My family has been trained to keep an eye out for nice working vintage cameras for me. They know I want ones that I can shoot with, so they need to be able to work with available films, be in good condition and actually function. The shutter needs to fire, the aperture can be adjusted etc. They know I don't want cameras just to fill up my shelves, I want to shoot with them. That is what interests me about film, using old cameras.
While my parents and my sister were at a big housing development yard sale over the weekend and they found me a new one. It's an Agfa Isolette 1. A folding camera, made in Germany, that shoots 120 film. It's all mechanical, no batteries of any kind needed.
In all honesty it looks like it was never used! The only issue with it that I have seen so far is that the focus ring is frozen. Based on my reading over the past couple of days it seems this is very common, a reaction between the lubricant used by Agfa reacting with the metal and seizing up. I can shoot with it as is, I can send it out for repair, or I can try to repair it myself. I am going to research a bit more before I make a final decision about how to handle it.
Just for fun, here is a little video of the lens opening.
No comments:
Post a Comment