JANUARY 2024 – Frontal view of an Agfa Silette-L viewfinder camera from 1956. Photo © Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com
The story behind the image
In Gear Talk #7, I shared my experience with a used Agfa Silette-L viewfinder camera from 1956.
For this piece I shot several photos of the camera, and here is one of the images, the typical frontal view. I deliberately put the focus on the lens, an Agfa Apotar 1:3,5/45 mm, slightly blurring the main body of the camera. You can almost feel the metallic robustness that has survived almost seven decades by now.
One speciality of this camera is its exposure meter. It sits under the Agfa label next to the viewfinder which is a lid that can be opened. This enabled two metering options: for bright light and for low light. In bright light you would close the lid, and the exposure would be measured through a tiny hole in the lid. In bad light conditions you would open the lid, and the exposure meter would be able to measure the light (more) precisely. A good idea.
Then again, you would still have to go through the tedious process of finding out the exposure value (EV) and setting it manually.
Design ideas
The high resolution image
| Capture Date & Time | 14-JAN-2024, 10:27 |
| Location | Unterhaching, Germany |
| Camera | Canon EOS-1D Mark IV |
| Lens | Canon EF100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM |
| ISO | 500 |
| Exposure | 1/100 sec at f/8 |
| Digital Image Source Format | Canon Camera RAW (CR2) |
| Edited Image Format | JPEG, 24 bits/pixel, sRGB |
| Edited Image Dimensions | 4608 x 3072 Pixels |
| Copyright | © by Mark Zanzig/zanzig.com |
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