6 new cameras for the collection this weekend… on a $17 total expenditure.
First up… and I’m quite excited by this one: a 1978 Agfa Optima 1035 in fantastic condition. For $4 it was my most expensive purchase of the day. It takes 3x 625 mercury batteries (no longer available), which normally would be an issue except this camera was designed with a regulating circuit so modern alkaline batteries will be fine.
Unfortunately I can’t change the batteries without exposing the film compartment, so I’ll have to figure something out there.
I opened the back to discover it was still loaded with Agfa film! Normally this would be the death of the roll, except in this camera the exposed film is stored in its own light tight compartment, so you really only lose the current exposure. It also happened to be an opportune time to change out those batteries since, well, I already lost that frame! With new batteries the green/red light simple exposure meter came back to life.
Since I now develop C41 at home, I’ll finish off the roll and then see what I get when I develop it.
This camera has a really nice looking glass 40mm f/2.8 lens – far better than a camera of its size might typically have.
Luckily there is plenty of information on this one online, such as here, here, and especially here.
A manual for the nearly identical 335 is available at Butkus.
More on the other cameras later; but this is the one I’m probably most excited about!
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