1953 Ventura 66 Deluxe - a photo on Flickriver

1953 Ventura 66 Deluxe

            I've meant to post a picture of this camera for some time, and Keltic Tom's kind invitation to join the "Solinar by Agfa" group provided the incentive. 

It is really an Agfa Isolette II, but it does not say Agfa anywhere on the camera, except on the lens, which is an 85mm Agfa Solinar, mounted in a Compur Rapid shutter. I bought the camera from an American ex-serviceman, who had bought the camera new in Japan, during the Korean war, and, in his words, "I never did get round to buying any film for it", thus it had lain, unused, in a drawer for almost sixty years!

The front element was frozen solid, as one would expect, and everthing was a little stiff to operate at first, but a gentle cleaning, and a few drops of watchmakers oil on the pivots of the folding mechanism & the film wind, brought it back to life. I am indebted to Hans Kerensky, who gave invaluable advice about dismantling the frozen element, including dire warnings about the ultra-sonic bath (!)

It is shown with a Kodak Service rangefinder, fitted in a little adapter I machined up, so that it can be mounted in a conventional accessory shoe, normally it is mounted vertically, in the Kodak sized shoe, which is much smaller than usual. These are very nice split image rangefinders, and a classy feature is that the distance appears inside the rangefinder window, as well as on the front dial.

Mamiya C2, f2.8/80mm Sekors, Shanghai GP3 100@200 in Caffenol C + Iodized salt: Washing soda (50% water)15g, Ascorbic acid powder 6g, Coffee granules20g Iodized Sea salt 6g, water to 500mL  18mins @21C. Scanned @2400dpi on an Epson V500.

Taken on: August 22, 2011

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