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Agfa Agnar lens quality?


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I recently bought an Agfa Isola medium-format camera in fine condition

at a flea market. It has an Agfa Agnar 75f6.3 lens and Singlo-2

shutter. The first roll I tried (APX 100) was seriously underexposed

so I threw it away, but what was on the roll seemed to look promising,

so I will try a few more rolls. Does anybody have an idea of the

quality of the lens and resulting enlargements? (I currently only have

experience with 35mm.)

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The Agnar is the lowest-end lens from Agfa, but it's not that bad. Both my Ventura 66 and Ventura 69 folders (Isolettes) have Agnar lenses, and I don't have any complaints.

 

I usually shoot HP5+, but I did run a roll of 400VC through once; it looked pretty nice. I've never had enlargments past 5x5 proofs, though.

 

BJ

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If the lens is clean they will shoot surprisingly well. Most of these len's suffer from haze on the elements. Open up the back select "B" and aim the camera at a light source check to see if it's clean. I have had very good luck on a few images up to 14x14 but most look very good at 10x10. Check out some of my AGFA Images at http://davidrichert.com/AGFA%20Manuals/agfa1.htm
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As the others said, the Agnar was the lowest-level lens offered.

 

The Agnar occupied the bottom tier. The Apotar sat in the middle, and the Solinar was the top lens.

 

As a small amusing note, if someone says, "It's not that bad," you can also infer that "it's not that good," either.

 

HOWEVER, I think if you keep the lens to f/11 or smaller, you'll be quite pleased by the results, especially if you've only been shooting 35mm. The big negative is a huge benefit.

 

The most important thing to check is that there are no pinholes in the bellows -- the Agfa medium format folders are notorious for this.

 

My own experience with the Apotar (Isolette III) is that it's an adequate lens when stopped down. Even when shooting at f/16, images were never as sharp as they should have been.

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My Isolette has the 85mm f/4.5 Agnar (Pronto shutter) and is surprisingly sharp edge to edge, corner to corner, even wide open. A bit disappointing since I was actually hoping for softer edges and corners.

 

The tricky bit is guess focusing. That's especially difficult shooting wide open. So I normally shoot at around f/11. I have taken some street shots in low light at f/4.5 but they were a bit blurry from motion (I shoot while walking) or because my judgement of subject distance was off.

 

Otherwise it's a good lens.

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Sometimes you get incredibly lucky. I recently refurbished an Agfa Ventura 69 for a friend and the "quote" bottom of the line Agnar lens turned out to be sharper than most mid-level Apotars that I've dealt with. Had the camera been for me, I'm sure that the lens would have been a dog.

 

Also, sharpness isn't alway the end all even in enlargement. I tend judge a lens by the contrast and tonality present in the final print.

Best Regards - Andrew in Austin, TX
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I often wonder why someone buys a 50yo camera and worries about sharpness

 

It's probably at least as sharp as my 1924 Kodak #1, with a RR lens, and I really like those pics,

and I'm sure it's as sharp as my Target Brownie Box camera

and I'm doing a port. on box camera pics ,cause they're great-

 

shoot some film,see how you like it,don't worry about sharpness,it's overrated

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It will make a good walking around camera. It's not going to get you max shaprness, but will make decent prints up to 8x8 if not 10x10. I have an Ansco Commander that shoots 6x9 with the Agnar f/6.3 lens. I keep it stoped down to f/11 - f/16. Edges are not super sharp, but if I crop to 6x6 things improve quite a bit. I use my 6x6 Isolette with the Apotar much more. The optical finder in the Isolette is much more precise than the flip up finder in the Commander.<div>00A6pK-20447584.JPG.22fb46c6f8034d3c70c68d245a710fcc.JPG</div>
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  • 17 years later...

There are some incredibly gorgeous photos on Lomography forums by user chromagraphy circa 2018 and titled LENS: AGFA AGNAR 1:6,3/105. Just wow. Quite encouraging. As a new (yet untested) Agfa Billy owner w the same lens, I’m very much looking forward to any results (might need a cleaning first).. 

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