Friday, May 4, 2012

1950's Vintage Agfa Silette Pronto Camera with a Story to Tell


I was excited to see the camera at the yard sale, was even more excited by the price, but nothing prepared me for what happened when I got back to my office and started playing with it.  I have my share of vintage cameras, each with its own character and story, but this one may (hopefully) have even more to tell than the others.  

After some Google investigation, I learned:

Agfa Silette Pronto Vintage 1950s 35mm Film CameraThe first generation of Silette models was produced from 1953 to the early 1960s and the original Silette appeared in 1953. It was a simple well built 35mm camera with a simple viewfinder, a leaf shutter, a lever wind advance and an accessory shoe. The shutters for the Pronto is 1/25-1/200, the lens is a three element Agfa Color Apotar 3.5/45mm.   

...but that's not the cool part.  The cool part is when I opened the back of the camera to see how to load a roll in the event I wanted to "take it for a spin". I discovered a roll of original 1950's era film in the back!

I quickly closed it back up and hoped that it was not all ruined by the light.  Hopefully only the few exposed parts of the strip suffered any damage.  This story is definitely to be continued.  I'm now obsessed fascinated with (in the dark room at Wonderroot) developing this film and sharing with you stories that have been in the making for quite some time now.

(cross your fingers)

Links:
carltonmackey.com
mytruevision.com

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