Optima

The Optima is a family of 35mm cameras made by Agfa in the 1960s and beyond. The original Optima was in 1959 the first manufactured camera with programmed exposure, obtained by a selenium-meter driven mechanical system. Moving its shutter release lever halfway down triggers a mechanical system that obtains aperture value and speed from the electromechanical part of the meter. The system mirrors a green or a red signal into the viewfinder when the camera catches appropriate exposure settings from the meter or not. Today this system should be revived for environmental reasons since it needs no batteries. As camera with fully automatic exposure it was only preceded by a handcrafted model of Kodak in the 1930s. The Paxette electromatic of 1959 may have appeared at the same time as the Agfa Optima, but it was a simpler camera with just automatic aperture.

Optima III

Optima

Optima I

Optima Ia (1962)

The camera has an optical bright frame finder with parallax marks, a distance setting ring with symbols around the front lens element, and an aperture setting ring with separate aperture setting scales for B-mode or flash synchronized speed 1/30 seconds. The automatic exposure mode (A-mode, without flash) has to be switched on with the same ring. Film speed setting is possible only up to 200 ASA. The camera's bottom & back part can be removed very easily for loading the film. Film advance has to be done with a tiny advance lever. Other than the Optima I's lever it's mounted on the camera top. The exposure counter is readable from the side. Its advantage over the Optima I of 1961 is its hot shoe and maybe a different shutter. A similar model was the Agfa Agfamatic Ia.

The Selecta, a half-automatic variant

Agfamatic Ia (alike Optima Ia)

Optima IIS (S stands for coupled rangefinder)

The Optima name was continued with the Optima Sensor range.

Links

• The original Optima camera series at ukcamera.com [1]
• Optima I, optima Ia, Optima II, Optima III on www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand

The Optima with the 'shutter lever' on the left (facing away from you) is interesting. The lever is not for the shutter, but to operate the auto exposure, you have a button on the top to fire the shutter. There is also a wheel on the bottom right that opens or closes the flash connection aperture. When the flash aperture is closed, the auto exposure lever will not function. The whole thing is further enhanced by a wheel on the top that can be set to the film value (asa or din).

All in all, this clunky old camera that can be picked up for around a quid on Ebay is innovative, effective and still capable of doing what makes a camera a camera, and that is...... taking pictures!