Ambi Silette

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Ambi Silette by Alf Sigaro

The Agfa Ambi Silette is a 35mm rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses - part of the Silette range made by Agfa in Germany. It was introduced in 1957 (1959 in the US), and withdrawn in 1961.

There were three main lenses available, using a bayonet mount:

• 35mm/f4 Color-Ambion
• 50mm/f2.8 Color-Solinar
• 90mm/f4 Color-Telinear

Each lens had a 37mm (push-on?) fitting for lens hoods and filters. There also seems to have been a 130mm lens, possibly introduced later. The mount had a release lever below the lens.

The viewfinder adjusted for 35, 50 & 90mm lenses, with parallax compensation, using by a switch beside the accessory shoe. There was a separate window combining the bright-line illumination and rangefinder; in 1959 this was separated into two windows. The viewfinder windows were normally underneath a flip-up cover; this may have provided some scratch protection (whilst closed) and flare reduction (whilst open) for the viewfinder, but users report that it seems a nuisance.

The Synchro Compur shutter had speeds from 1s to 1/500s +B. The small green lever above the lens adjusts the flash sync for M, X or self-timer (V).

Top view, with 35, 50 & 90mm lenses by Bomobob

Ambi Silette - viewfinder open by Alf Sigaro

Links

• Ambi Silette on Stephen Gandy's Cameraquest
• Ambi Silette on The Classic Camera site
• Instruction Manual on Richard Urmonas' site
• Instruction Manual on Mike Butkus' site
• 1957/59 changes on ChromeAgeCameras.com