Agfa Karat 36

[mphilpott]

Hi All !

It has been a frantic world - but as of 2 weeks ago my 4 month old son just started to sleep through the night!! Which - I'm guessing had some minor influence on my "rediscovery" of photography this weekend.

Anyway - I've got an Agfa Karat 36 which is screaming for attention. Trouble is that I'm enough of a newbie that I'd like to read a manual or at least an FAQ about the camera to minimize the chance of botching it up.

In short - can someone direct me to either a manual/user's group/FAQ?

I found this one: http://www.butkus.org/chinon/karat_36/karat_36.htm

But I was hoping for more details about the settings (what the knobs do and which settings give the best results).

Cheers!

Matt

 

[wlewisiii]

I have one and love it. First, which lens/shutter combination do you have? The rest will depend on that.

William

 

[mphilpott]

I'll read off everything...

Synchro-Compur
Karat-Heligon
f:2/50mm
A Rodenstock 2317955

Thank you!

Matt

 

[wlewisiii]

Couple of tips then.

Your Heligon is faster at 2.0 than my 2.8 Solinar, and being a double Guass based design rather than a Tessar based design, it should perform better wide open than mine. Unit rather than cell focus is a big plus. You should be able to do anything your heart desires trying with a normal lens.

If the usual Agfa green goo is still on the helical, you can use Ronsonol on a q-tip to work down into the helical from the rear. Put it to infinity with the lens extened then work the focus nob to work the fluid in and the old goo out. Keep doing it until your q-tips come away clean. Let dry then work in your prefered lubricant the same way.

As with most (all?) Syncro-Compurs, Do Not change the shutter speed off of or to 500th once cocked. IIMU that other speeds can be adjusted, but I try not to anyway. The shutter was sticking on mine when I got it, but a small bit of Ronsonol after removing the front element (at least on the Solinar, it just unscrews) took care of that and it sounds close enough for print film. If I ever decide to do slides I'll get the speeds tested then.

Oh, and with a lens cap on and folded closed, it fits perfectly into the back pocket of my blue jeans. It would have been nice to have strap lugs for a wrist strap, but heck, a classic for a pocket P&S isn't shabby either. If you're out just walking about, F16 hyperfocus will give you 5 feet to infinity.

Enjoy. It's a nice solid little camera that has been pretty reliable for me. Which does remind me of one foible the camera has - sometimes when cocking the shutter, the mechanism can get slightly messed up. Rack the lens out all the way so it's easier to see, then you'll notice that as you cock the shutter, there is a little metal bar that pushes the shutter cocking arm into position. I've occasionally had that front bar ride up over the shutter arm instead of pushing it. It just takes a little carefull persausion to get it back into place but it will go if your patient.

William

 

[wlewisiii]

Couple of useful links:
Via googles translate, some tech info:
http://translate.google.com/transla...=&c2coff=1&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&sa=N

Bill Mattock's great Karat IV page (the IV being the next version after our 36's and still similar enough for his page to be quite useful:
http://www.growlery.com/agfa_karat_iv/

William

 

[mphilpott]

Hi William - that was a fantastic summary!

Many many thanks!

 

[mphilpott]

aperture/shutter speed

aperture/shutter speed

As a followup question - do you use an external light meter? Or have you discovered some "rule-of-thumb" settings that work well?

 

[wlewisiii]

Both. 😀 Sunny-16 works as well as always outdoors, but my eyes aren't calibrated well enough to do indoors worth anything. So I popped for a VC Meter II as it clips onto all of my classics. Info on it is here: http://www.cameraquest.com/voivcmet2.htm Well worth every penny.

A good explaination of Sunny 16 is here: http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm I think that's the best one out there and I keep a printout of the tables in my camera bag.

William

 

[mphilpott]

Woop! It all makes sense now 😀