{"id":2582,"date":"2014-02-04T16:53:03","date_gmt":"2014-02-04T15:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2014-04-14T06:59:35","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T05:59:35","slug":"testing-the-agfa-silette-rapid-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/?p=2582","title":{"rendered":"Testing the Agfa Silette Rapid F"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I’m considering vintage cameras for purchase, I specifically look for cameras that still appear to work, and for which film can still be acquired somehow. \u00a0Then, periodically, I grab a couple and test them out. \u00a0This week, it’s the Agfa Silette Rapid F.<\/p>\n

\"Agfa<\/a><\/p>\n

This is actually one of the first cameras I acquired; when I first developed an interest in vintage cameras, my older daughter bought it for my birthday at a local “junk” store in Windhoek, Namibia. \u00a0Probably almost two years ago. \u00a0And I’ve tried to run film through it a few times, but failed every time. \u00a0Why?<\/p>\n

The Silette is one in a series of cameras produced from 1953 onward. \u00a0The Silette Rapid F, introduced in 1964, was a response to Kodak’s new innovation, the self-contained film cartridge being used in its wildly successful “instamatic” series. \u00a0Sadly – for Agfa – the system did not manage to make much of an inroads against Kodak. \u00a0How did it work?<\/p>\n

\"rapid\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The film was sold in one of the “rapid” cartridges above. \u00a0Another, empty cartridge would be used to take up the film, with a space between the two where the camera took the exposure. \u00a0The camera used the sprockets to push the film into the take-up cartridge, and then it was just a matter of moving the (now) empty cartridge to the right to take up cartridge. \u00a0So this was the innovation – not much over today’s 35mm cartridges, but a handier way to deal with film in the 60s.<\/p>\n

Of course, these have not been available pre-loaded in decades. \u00a0So the solution is to pull about 40 inches of film (about an arm’s length) out of a regular spool, and just feed it into one cartridge until it becomes difficult. \u00a0Where I was having trouble was in finding a completely dark room – I kept coming back with ruined film. \u00a0To be honest, I didn’t know much how to set the speed and aperture for decent photos either. \u00a0Because this camera is completely manual – you set the aperture (between f\/2.8 and f\/22), speed (bulb, flash, 1\/30s to 1\/250s), and then you estimate how far the subject is and set the focus distance. \u00a0It did have a built-in flash with a pretty hefty battery, but I didn’t test that.<\/p>\n

And once I figured things out, I’d say the pictures turned out pretty well. \u00a0Just how I’d expect photos from the 60s to look – if not better! \u00a0Could be because I used modern film. \u00a0Check it out:<\/p>\n

\"Street<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Arranging<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Flower<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Street\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Girls\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Woman\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Gandhi<\/a><\/p>\n

And to wrap things up, a bike leaning against an old wall always makes for a good photo:<\/p>\n

\"Bicycle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One word of caution with these cartridges. If you develop your own film and are doing a few rolls, make sure this one is not left in your work area! I typically remove film from normal 35mm cartridges by ripping open the slot where the film comes out. I was tugging and tugging, having trouble getting a roll of film out of the cartridge, and when I finally managed, found no film inside. That’s when I realized I had ripped apart one of my Rapid cartridges, which in a dark room doesn’t feel much different from a normal film roll!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I’m considering vintage cameras for purchase, I specifically look for cameras that still appear to work, and for which film can still be acquired somehow. \u00a0Then, periodically, I grab a couple and test them out. \u00a0This week, it’s the Agfa Silette Rapid F. This is actually one of the first cameras I acquired; when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[942,40,803],"tags":[761,96,239,1791,1211,1212,506,805],"class_list":["post-2582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-india","category-tips-and-tricks","category-vintage-cameras","tag-agfa","tag-camera","tag-film","tag-photography","tag-rapid","tag-silette","tag-test","tag-vintage"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2840,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tazmpictures.com\/site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}