Is the Agfa 1035 as good as it gets?

[Huss]

For compact scale focus 35mm cameras?

Awesome Plaubel-esque design. Metal body. Kickin' lens.
I already have the 1535 which is rangefinder coupled for accurate focusing, and after Mothertrucker mentioned he didn't much care for his 1035, I twisted his arm until he sold it to me!

Why would I want it? Same killer lens as the 1535, very similar design, easy scale focusing with symbols in the viewfinder. And that giant viewfinder! Seriously look through one to see what I am talking about.

Negatives? The focus ring could be so nice and slick, but like on my 1535 is it plastic and does not feel remotely smooth. Too much stiction - boo! Batteries only and the batteries are inside the film chamber! So if batteries go poop midway through a roll, well, good thing it has an internal film chamber that sorta shields the exposed film if you need to change them.

Anyway, here are some snaps from my test roll using Fuji C200. When they came back I though, "oh look, that famous Leica glow.." as they were a bit hazy. Then I looked at the lens and somehow I had put a huge greasy fingerprint dead center! :bang:

 

[Huss]

As for specs, 40mm 2.8 lens, shutter speeds stepless 15 sec to 1/1000 sec.
Selftimer (1535 doesn't have that).

 

[mothertrucker]

Glad to see you got this camera out already Huss, and I love that you took this photo, I've got an 86 spider in my garage!!

 

[Huss]

Glad to see you got this camera out already Huss, and I love that you took this photo, I've got an 86 spider in my garage!!

😉

Tell me about your 2nd gear synchro issues!

Man, I wanted one so bad, but no-one told me to just double de-clutch...

 

[mothertrucker]

Is the Agfa 1035 as good as it gets?

2nd gear synchro was not so hot, but rebuild kits are available. I had access to a press and redid the whole thing a few years ago. Have not put a lot of miles on it since though - illinois weather is not as nice year round as it was in California (where it was my main car for 3 years).

 

[Huss]

You need to post a pic of that ride..

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

The styling was indeed the inspiration for the Plaubel Makina. Lovely little thing, if not quie so compact as an XA and that lens is vulnerable. Mine was finally sold a fortnight ago to a young skater chap who thought the viewfinder was insane.

 

[Bolo Kukus]

I found one in a charity shop in Australia in the 1990s. Bought it for A$10, as I recall.

it did lovely work with black-and-white and color negative films, but not so good with slide film. I tried everything and eventually decided I couldn't fool the meter into cutting down the exposure by a third or two-thirds as I preferred with my slides. Shot a ship load of Kodak Panatomic-X and Agfa 25 with it, now and then I unearth a sheet of negs and put some through my darkroom - amazing sharpness and super good definition.

It also fitted in a coat pocket which I found useful on hikes. But mostly I used it as a sort of visual record camera along with my pocket diary for notes in the field. For which it did valuable work.

Eventually I gave it away to a student who may well still be using it.

The rather odd grating click of the shutter took me some time to get used to. Like gears meshing.

Other posters have made some superb images with this camera. Those car colors look truly good but I did wonder how much post-process work was involved to get them like so, or did they come right out of the camera?

If I ever find another 1035 in working order, I'll buy it in a flash (bad pun alert).

 

[Huss]

I...

The rather odd grating click of the shutter took me some time to get used to. Like gears meshing...

... Those car colors look truly good but I did wonder how much post-process work was involved to get them like so, or did they come right out of the camera?

That weird noise it not the shutter but the frame counter advance mechanism. It behaves in a curious way - when you advance the film, the counter does not move. But when you then release the shutter, it moves to the correct shot number taken! (and then makes that funky noise).
I've actually grown to like the noise, it gives the camera it's unique voice!
Plus nothing sounds as bad as a Fuji GW690!

Oh, those colors are straight out of the camera. Ok, camera took the pic on Fuji C200 which was then converted to positive using negativelabpro.com.

 

[Forest_rain]

How are you guys able to focus with zone focus? Just guessing the distance? There seems to be a lot of vintage zone focus cameras out there, but I've always stayed away because I was worried about being able to focus correctly.

 

[CMur12]

Forest rain, if you are using a smaller aperture and/or a shorter focal length, you can set focus with the DOF (depth of field) scale on the lens.

In this way, you are actually setting a zone you want in focus, rather than zeroing in on a specific distance.

With a wider aperture and/or longer focal length, you need to estimate distance accurately. This comes with practice.

- Murray

 

[valdas]

How are you guys able to focus with zone focus? Just guessing the distance? There seems to be a lot of vintage zone focus cameras out there, but I've always stayed away because I was worried about being able to focus correctly.

From time to time I use external rangefinder. It helps wide open when shooting at short distances.

 

[Huss]

Forest rain, if you are using a smaller aperture and/or a shorter focal length, you can set focus with the DOF (depth of field) scale on the lens.

In this way, you are actually setting a zone you want in focus, rather than zeroing in on a specific distance.

With a wider aperture and/or longer focal length, you need to estimate distance accurately. This comes with practice.

- Murray

The Agfas are fully automatic so you cannot set the aperture (unless you are using a flash). But the 1035 has a really convenient pictograph image in the VF - head and shoulder, full body, mountains - that actually makes it easy to visualize distance. On the underside of the lens it also has the distances marked in feet and meters.

 

[David Hughes]

The Agfas are fully automatic so you cannot set the aperture (unless you are using a flash). But the 1035 has a really convenient pictograph image in the VF - head and shoulder, full body, mountains - that actually makes it easy to visualize distance. On the underside of the lens it also has the distances marked in feet and meters.

Sounds like the Smenas but I have my doubts it's seen as a good point on them...


Regards, David

 

[Godfrey]

😉

Tell me about your 2nd gear synchro issues!

Man, I wanted one so bad, but no-one told me to just double de-clutch...

They're Porsche style synchronizers, the 3>2 shift puts a huge load on the synchronizer and so they tend to wear out if you ram them through that shift too fast and hard. Shifted with a little more thought, the synchronizer doesn't wear out anywhere near as fast.

Also, there's very light synchro action on the 2>1 shift ... When starting from stop, all true Alfisti learn to dab into 2nd gear from neutral to stop the gears rotating, then shift into 1st.

Ask me how I know these things...

1979 Alfa Romeo Spider Spider 2000 ... FrankenSpider
1979 chassis, 1982 Bosch power train
Custom suspension, custom cams, custom gearbox, custom ...!​

That was my last and forever Alfa Romeo Spider, one of the six that I owned. I still miss it. 🙁

Nice camera ... I need another 35mm film camera like I need a hole in the head. I have what? ... four 35mm film camera with just about the exact same specification as the Optimas. 😀

G

 

[Huss]

They're Porsche style synchronizers, the 3>2 shift puts a huge load on the synchronizer and so they tend to wear out if you ram them through that shift too fast and hard. Shifted with a little more thought, the synchronizer doesn't wear out anywhere near as fast.

Also, there's very light synchro action on the 2>1 shift ... When starting from stop, all true Alfisti learn to dab into 2nd gear from neutral to stop the gears rotating, then shift into 1st.

Ask me how I know these things...

1979 Alfa Romeo Spider Spider 2000 ... FrankenSpider
1979 chassis, 1982 Bosch power train
Custom suspension, custom cams, custom gearbox, custom ...!​

That was my last and forever Alfa Romeo Spider, one of the six that I owned. I still miss it. 🙁

Nice camera ... I need another 35mm film camera like I need a hole in the head. I have what? ... four 35mm film camera with just about the exact same specification as the Optimas. 😀

G

Oh man that pic makes my gums sweat!

 

[David Hughes]

How are you guys able to focus with zone focus? Just guessing the distance? There seems to be a lot of vintage zone focus cameras out there, but I've always stayed away because I was worried about being able to focus correctly.

You can get an idea of how zone focusing works by looking at your 35mm lens. I've not got a Praktica these days but they are all more or less the same.

If, f'instance, you focus it at 6ft then everything from about 5 ft to a little under 8ft will be in focus at f/4 I hope that's obvious because I don't know if you lenses have the DoF guide marks on them.

Another example to give you an idea; focus on 10ft and everything from 6ft to about 30ft or more will be in focus at f/8.

The maths of all this assumes a certain size where sharp points turn to blur. Not all lens makers use the same size and you have to experiment to find what you like. f'instance some people play safe and use f/5.6 but look at the f/4 marking.

BTW, I used a Leica Summaron for the examples. If you want to be very (some say too) precise then look here:-

http://www.outsight.com/hyperfocal.php#hyper

Have fun, David

PS Another interesting point about DoF is that people forget that nothing is at infinity in most photos but they allow for it for some reason.

PPS And box cameras usually have a lens permanently at f/16 and use the DoF to - more or less - keep everything in focus from fairly near.

PPPS And some lenses (even on rangefinders) mark an aperture on the scale in red paint instead of black and a distance in red etc. The idea being that you use both for grab shots.

 

[Huss]

PS Another interesting point about DoF is that people forget that nothing is at infinity in most photos but they allow for it for some reason.

PPS And box cameras usually have a lens permanently at f/16 and use the DoF to - more or less - keep everything in focus from fairly near.

PPPS And some lenses (even on rangefinders) mark an aperture on the scale in red paint instead of black and a distance in red etc. The idea being that you use both for grab shots.

I think the correct order is PS, PPS, PPSS, PPPSS...

And yes, my Ricoh FF1s, Chinon Bellami, Cosina CX2 all have a mark that is to be used to all around 'focus free' photography.
The Agfa 1035 does not.

 

[Godfrey]

...
And yes, my Ricoh FF1s, Chinon Bellami, Cosina CX2 all have a mark that is to be used to all around 'focus free' photography.
The Agfa 1035 does not.

Glad you enjoyed the photo of FrankenSpider. It was a wonderful little beastie.

My Rollei 35S does not have any marks, but it's easy to see on the scale that you set f/11 and then remember 2m and 6m to cover the range from 4' to 10' and 10' to infinity. 🙂

G

 

[David Hughes]

I think the correct order is PS, PPS, PPSS, PPPSS...

And yes, my Ricoh FF1s, Chinon Bellami, Cosina CX2 all have a mark that is to be used to all around 'focus free' photography.
The Agfa 1035 does not.

For some reason that reminded me that the Olympus XA has the "f/5.6" aperture marked in gold and a red "8" (ft) range mark.

There seem to be two main zone systems; one has the ft/m scale under the lens and the symbols on the top like the Olympus Trip 35 and the other incorporates the symbols in the figures on the scale, like the LOMO/Cosmic Symbol.

I never thought when I logged in we'd start a discussion about Latin. My version says PS is short for postscriptum and that post means after; meaning to me that the abbreviation only needs one S and a few P's. And to think that I never thought I'd ever need Latin, which was banged into us as we were all expected to got to Oxford or Cambridge as if nothing else existed...

It's all very confusing and being linguistics is a matter of fashion as much as anything else; like calling film cameras analogues. I spent nearly 30 years of my life working with linguists of all varieties and the rows were weird at times. I mean, like, how much time would you devote to arguing that the word "marmalade" was not German but Portuguese originally?

Regards, David