This forgotten 70 year old medium format camera captured my childhood

My childhood was captured with lots of different analog cameras. One of them was the Agfa Super Isolette from my grandfather. Funny thing is, this medium format range finder camera was in my possession since many years and I didn’t even know it.

I only realized I had this medium format camera while going through my old cameras to sell. As always it was labelled with my grandpa’s name and with that I figured this must have captured lots of my childhood memories. So I went through some old photo albums and looked for square photographs.

These photographs brought back some good memories that I had back then. So it was only logical for me, to recapture places of my childhood memories with it. Before I could do that I cleaned the camera and learned more about it. The camera has a 75mm F3.5 Agfa Solinar lens attached to its bellows, this lens is coupled with the range finder. The Compur shutter allows times up to 1/500 of a second, and all of them can be synced with a strobe.

The first thing that bothered me a bit was the focus nob, it moves away from infinity as it should, but you need lots of force to move it back.

This full mechanical camera features lots of amazing features for that time frame.
Even the shutter is mounted on the lens, there is a double exposure prevention system. No wonder the Agfa Super Isolette was their top of the line camera model back then.

Now I could finally start my journey to visit places I grew up and capture them with my grandfathers camera.The best way to experience my blast from the past is to watch my video.

I feel very fortunate and lucky to own now two very nice range finder cameras. If you want to know more about my first childhood camera (Leica) story, visit this link.

---