Agfa Optima Rapid 125C

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The Agfa Optima Rapid 125C is German made 35mm camera utilizing the Agfa Rapid 35mm film cartridges. Introduced in 1967 (Ref: http://www.collection-appareils.fr/x/html/page_standard.php?id_appareil=90), it is part of the Agfa Optima series of Agfa cameras from the latter 1960s. The Optima Rapid 125C camera is an automatic exposure camera, with a selinium cell exposure meter coupled to the aperature. The camera is a heavier version of the Agfa Iso-Rapid_C cameras, having more metal parts, a film advance lever, and a better lens. The lens is a F2.8 /35mm Color-Apotar with settings somewhat similar to those used on the Agfa ISOMAT Rapid C camera. The "C" denotes that this camera uses Flashcubes.

Overview

The camera body of the Optima 125C is still made of similar black plastic as used in the ISO cameras, but the top cover, bottom cover, front chromed surround, and film door are made from metal. The most notable difference of the Optima 125C is the film advance lever is on the left bottom of the camera and is designed to be operated by the left hand, vs the right handed thumb-wheel of the ISO cameras. The film counter is on the bottom of the camera also. The top of the camera has only the shutter button, which contains threading for a cable release, and the recessed flashcube mounting. The viewfinder is in the same location as on the ISO cameras, but has glass lenses and has etched frame guidelines. On the right side of the viewfinder when looking through the viewfinder, a red dot can be seen with sufficient ambient light. This dot changes to green when there is sufficient light fpr an exposure, and the shutter is partially depressed.

Details of operation

The back of the camera is opened the same way the ISO cameras are, by sliding the small Silver triangle latch on the right side downward, and the back swings to the left. The inside visually looks like the inside of the ISO cameras, but it is different, specifically because the film moves from the "new or full" cartridge which is in the left side of the camera, right to the "empty" cartridge on the right side of the camera. This is the reverse direction of the ISO cameras and is likely due to the positioning of the film advance lever on the bottom left side of the camera. The full and empty Rapid film cartridges are held in place by spring fingers similar to other Rapid film cameras.

The left (new or full) cartridge location has a spring loaded tab which is pushed on by the ASA tab of the Rapid film cartridge. This tab interacts with the metering system to adjust the

Hot Shoe Adapter

The recessed flashcube mounting can also use a plastic hot shoe adapter which slides into place over the flashcube mount. The plastic adapter has a ground contact on the right side of the foot, and single metal dot on the bottom, which match with contacts on the camera body. . These contacts contact similar contacts on the 125C camera and trigger