Thing of beauty - a photo on Flickriver

Thing of beauty

            One camera I have wanted to add to my small collection is an Agiflex. Made by the Aeronautical & General Instruments Co. (AGI) of Croydon, who were a supplier of military instruments. The civilian home-market cameras were produced under the Agilux name from 1946. The camera was based on the German-made Reflex Korelle, of which a military aerial reconnaissance camera, ARL, was made during the Second World War by AGI. It produces 2¼ in. square (6x6) negatives on 120 roll film.

The Agiflex is fairly uncommon today, though they are outnumbered by their Agifold cousins. Like the Reflex Korelle, they use a steel wire to couple the film advance to the shutter cocking mechanism. This is incredibly difficult to replace, and breaks easily. Luckily, the film advance and shutter can be operated independently. Lucky for me, as mine has a broken wire.

After a lot of looking at scruffy cameras, I finally found this one on eBay, in very good condition. The focal plane shutter was very slow when it arrived, but several drops of Naptha have improved things to the point of now being ready to try a film in it.

My Agiflex is the second model, and was made in 1949. They cost around £78 new at the time, equivalent to around £2,750 today. Unusually, AGI made all the parts of the cameras themsleves, at their factory in Purley Way, Croydon. 

Visitors to my photostream with an interest in railway photography may be interested to know that legendary photographer, Ivo Peters, used an Agiflex for all of his postwar railway stills photography.

8.1.20

Taken in: UK / England / Daventry District / Overstone (show map)

Taken on: January 7, 2020

Tags:

AGI

aeronautical

instrument

agilux

agiflex

croydon

england

slr

single

lens

reflex

6x6

medium

format

120 « less

Sets appears in: • Other stuff

Groups appears in: • Classic cameras (pre-80s)... • Camera Appreciation (Pictures of cameras) more » • Camera Porn! • Camera-wiki.org « less

Camera: samsung SM-A520F, f/1.9, 1/100 sec, 3.6mm, ISO 40 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	samsung SM-A520F
Aperture:	f/1.9
Exposure Time:	0.01 sec (1/100)
Focal Length:	3.6mm
ISO:	40
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Elements 11.0 Windows
Show full info

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