My first 35: Agfa Silette

Agfa Silette 35mm camera from 1959

On the Maiden near Boulder, Colorado in early fall, 1967. 

After struggling with a Boy-Scout box camera for several years that had been handed down to me from my brother, my parents purchased this 35mm camera for me in the spring of 1960. It was slightly used and cost them around $45.00. It was my one-and-only camera until 1968 when I got my first Nikon.
Back in those days, film manufacturers still offered a wide range of cameras to go with their film products. The German filmmaker, Agfa, marketed several different 35mm cameras labeled “Agfa Silette.” The features varied but all were capable of taking decent color pictures. This particular camera is a Type 6, the last in their viewfinder-only series.

This Agfa Silette is mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly. The finder with its true projected bright frame is a surprisingly-sophisticated feature to find on a camera at this price level. But there is no rangefinder. Depth-of-field was of critical importance and I relied on it continuously. The shutter is a Prontor SVS with speeds from 1 to 1/300th of a second. It has M and X sync and a self-timer. It also features the notorious EVS feature which I found to be a nuisance. The lens is a front-cell focusing Color-Apotar, 45mm f2.8 with stops to f22. It appears to use a triplet formula and with careful focusing and exposure, was capable of excellent results. It has a lever film advance but a slow knob rewind. For reasons I cannot understand, the almost concealed frame counter is below the hinged back. It rarely worked. I learned to work with the camera’s limitations and strengths. It was rugged and endured many caving trips and being dropped off a 100 foot climb in its case. It survived that incident with only a small ding added to its top deck.

I took the picture of Ben Billings climbing "The Maiden" near Boulder, Colorado in 1967 minutes before the camera fell out of my grasp and off the side of the cliff.

Today this camera is a tired beast and the shutter no longer wants to do its job. Otherwise, it appears to be in good shape, a testimony to German quality when their photo industry still dominated the camera world.