Agfa Isolette III question

[Kenj8246]

I own a beautiful certo6 restored Isolette III with a 3.5 75mm Solinar. I have a question about the film reminder dial on the left hand side. It doesn't seem to be addressed in the manuals I can find. Camerapedia says it is a feature of the 'newer' models.

There are numbers: 10/10, 17/10, 21/10 and 23/10 followed by COL/T, COL/K, COL/NT and COL/NK on the plate that show thru a moveable window.

Can anyone tell me what all this means? I assumeI usually just stick some masking tape with the film type and speed to the back. Works for me but I'm curious about the dial.

Thanks.

Kenny

 

[sevo]

There are numbers: 10/10, 17/10, 21/10 and 23/10 followed by COL/T, COL/K, COL/NT and COL/NK on the plate that show thru a moveable window.

Can anyone tell me what all this means?

The numbers are DIN speeds in the earlier notation - remove the /10 and you have the later DIN (more or less, both DIN and ASA were refined a few times, so that past speeds often would be slightly off, if we apply current tests). 10, 17, 21 and 23 DIN were the four black and white film speeds Agfa offered at that time. They had fast (N) and slow (IIRC 10 and 15, later 17 DIN) colour film at that time, each in daylight ("T" for Tageslicht) and tungsten ("K"unstlicht) sensitizing.

 

[Kenj8246]

Aah. Okay, thanks for that, sevo. Think I'll just stick to using a piece of tape. 🙂 Although, I suppose that since I only shoot a few film types and speeds, I could make an equivalence chart and adopt that.

 

[farlymac]

They used to sell stick-on film reminder slots that held the end-of-a-film-carton flap. Might still be marketed somewhere.

PF

 

[hanskerensky]

So let me guess, "NT" and "NK" would then probably be "Negatiiv Tageslicht" and "Negativ Kunstlicht", refering to negativ films ?

 

[sevo]

Maybe, or maybe not. Overall, it is not unlikely - I don't find any reference to two tungsten CN speeds in parallel in the Agfa section of contemporary photo books, and a few years after the last Isolette III version they updated their films and changed their nomenclature, to have CT18 and CK20 (tungsten) slide and CN14 and CN17 films, which sounds like it might have grown from such a system. On the other hand, in the years of the earlier Isolette III versions, Agfacolor was their only brand name for negative and reversal film - the latter distinguished by a white-on-blue bar "Umkehrfilm" under the Agfacolor logo - and the T/K lettering on the box was strictly a colour balance designator. It is hard to tell which changes they made in between.

 

[sevo]

Ok, that should settle it - they seem to have added the "R" for the benefit of their English language users.