Agfa Silette (original)

Agfa Silette (original) is the first of the long lasting Silette series 35mm film viewfinder cameras made by Agfa and introduced in 1953.

Its features are a simple viewfinder, a leaf shutter, a lever wind advance and an accessory shoe (Agfa KM flash compatible). The camera is well made by with simple features. Its shutters are Pronto (1/25-1/200), Prontor (1/300) Compur-Rapid or Synchro-Compur (1/500). The lenses are three element Agfa Color Apotar 3.5/45mm or 2.8/45mm, or a four element Agfa Color Solinar 2.8/50mm. In the USA, it was known as the Ansco Memar.

Along the production time, there are 6 types with technical or cosmetic differences. e.g. type 4 has two windows of equal size. The purpose of the second window is intensified brightness in order to limit the centring errors due to the parallax. The lens is Color Apotar 2,8/45 mm.

Agfa used the name Silette without any model numbers in this first series. We have distinguished them in chronological order based on obvious changes.