The Agfa Super Silette

Our photography consultant writes:

What most often strikes people now about this camera is the “retro” styling. What strikes the person called to operate it, however, especially someone used to simple things like the Brownie, are the controls. You can adjust the focus from about three feet to infinity; you can set the exposure to squint into the desert sun or gather the glimmer of late twilight, or anywhere in between.  (Our astronomer has used the camera for exposures of twenty minutes!)  These two controls may not sound like much, but suddenly you have enormous creative control in your hands. There’s also a remarkably good lens; add some versatile 35mm film and there is hardly anything a photographer cannot do.

The downside (and there is always a downside) is that you may not be a photographer, or at least not feel like one. There is no “automatic” or “program” mode in this Agfa: you have to set the focus and exposure yourself. There are things to help you, though, and ways to get decent results even if your photographic ambitions are modest.

First, installed in the top section is a range-finder, an optical device to figure the distance to your subject. (This general type of camera is called, as a shorthand, a “rangefinder.”) On the Agfa this is coupled directly to the focus knob, so if all is in adjustment things are close to automatic. To get the exposure is harder. If you want to be certain, you need to measure the light with a light meter, shown there next to the camera in its leather case. Point that in the direction of the picture you want to take and notice where the needle is pointing. Set that number on the dial, which you’ve previously adjusted with the film speed, and you’re presented with a choice of many different combinations of shutter speed and f-stop: you still have to choose.  (A more expensive version of this model had a built-in exposure meter, which told you when you’d chosen a workable combination.)

That sounds kind of clumsy and it is, even if you’re practiced at it. More often, I suspect the owner would look in the little instruction sheet packaged with the film and see that “open shadows under a sunny sky” would call for 1/100 at f/11. In most cases that would work just about as well.

This Agfa Super Silette is one representative of many rangefinder cameras produced mainly in the ‘50s and ‘60s, varying widely in shape and size and details. They were not high-profile, expensive or professional cameras, but all presented you with a great deal of portable creative control (if you wanted it).

Here’s an example of setting the exposure with care, keeping detail in the dark parts of the doorway while still not blowing out the reflection of the bright sky in the window, and getting the carved details in sharp focus:

I’m not sure how many might be around today. They are far more complex than the Brownie (and thus it’s more likely that one of the parts will stop working over time), but far less expensive than a Leica or Rolleiflex—and thus less likely to be worth repairing. I don’t see many among displays of used cameras in stores or on line. But they no doubt produced millions of slides in boxes and carousels still cluttering up storage rooms. Maybe you have one there on the back shelf.