I recently acquired an Agfa Isolette III with a Apotar 85mm f/3.5 Lens from Ebay.com. I paid around $40.00 for it. The camera is an old fashioned medium format rangefinder from the 60’s. It’s a quirky camera with an uncoupled rangefinder where you peer through the window, focus and then read from the dial on top and then change the lens on the front to match the settings of the rangefinder. Let’s just say it’s not an action type of camera. It also has no light meter either so it really is manual in a lot of ways.
The maximum shutter speed is 300th of a second so it can present a problem on really sunny days, but it is a really compact and discreet camera and great for walking around with everyday in NYC. The main problem with these cameras is that the bellows almost always have problems. The lenses usually have problems as well. They usually stick below a 25th of a second. I plan on sending mine to get a new bellows and the lens cleaned by Jurgen from http://www.certo6.com/cameras/agfa-isolette I have not tried him yet, but he has a lot of good information on the cameras. I also found this site: http://www.rolandandcaroline.co.uk/repair.html to be very helpful with repairs.
Below are some photos I took with the camera. I used HP5 and developed
them at home with Kodak HC110. They are a little noisy because the lens
speeds I think is not accurate, but I plan on testing and fixing that
soon. I will also have some color photos as well.
A test with the Agfa Isolette III
A test with the Agfa Isolette III
A test with the Agfa Isolette III