Agfa Optima 5000
To honour his father’s memory (and collection), Tony heads out with this Agfa 110 model
My father, who died a couple of years ago, was an enthusiastic camera collector. He was mainly interested in the Zeiss Ikon Contaflex series, which was produced between 1953 and 1972. In all, around 15 models were made, and Dad managed to get one of each. In order to achieve this, he had to go to some proper camera shops, but his main source was car-boot sales, which were in their heyday in the 1990s, before online trading took off. His boot-sale habit led him to pick up all manner of cheap and cheerful cameras, and his completist streak, as seen with the Contaflexes, evidently extended to Agfa’s range of 110 models – he had a chest of drawers full of them! On the market between 1973 and 1980, for the most part they were pretty basic. They were, however, always visually stylish, and at the top end of the range, the specifications were more lavish. Almost all go under the name Agfamatic, though a couple, including this one, are given the Optima moniker.
The Optima 5000 is one of the better-specified offerings, with an f/2.7 Solinar lens and programmed electronic shutter, with speeds running from 15 seconds to 1/1000sec. A large focusing wheel on the top shows both symbols and distances, and at closer range a frame in the viewfinder automatically moves to correct for parallax – quite a sophisticated feature for a 110 camera.
Users of old cameras need to consider the availability of their chosen format. While 35mm and 120 roll film are widely available, beyond those two formats, things get trickier. At present, it’s possible to buy new 110 film, though there was a period of several years when production had ceased and the only source was old stock. Last year, an AP reader kindly sent me his stash of unused but expired 110 film, so I have a supply that will see me through a few more cameras.
Another potential problem with using cameras from the 1970s is the availability of the sometimes esoteric batteries. My high- end Kodak Pocket Instamatic 500 camera from this era, for example, uses the long- obsolete, and difficult to hack, ‘K’ cell. Luckily, the Optima takes PX625 equivalents, which are easy to get hold of.
You may have noticed a long-running trope among large-format photographers to print their images to include the subtle black shadows left by the film holder, something which not only proves that large format was used, but also that the entire composition was perfected in camera, and that the negative has not been cropped. In a similar vein, medium-format users sometimes leave the film edge markings visible. Well, I thought I’d enter into that spirit by displaying the non-image areas of my 110 negatives, too. The result, while anything but subtle, leaves the viewer in no doubt that this detail seen on London’s South Bank was taken using a genuine sub-miniature camera.