Agfa dates?

I'm enjoying the Agfa that I found recently and wondering whether anyone knows how to

date them. Mine has a serial number on the lens, but not on the camera.

 

Anything like CAMEROSITY? Or "the book" with graflex?

I don't know what model you have but on my Solinette the number is inside, just above the film gate.

If you can provide a camera model and perhaps a digital image, it would help forum participants provide an approximate date. I can't recall seeing a list for Agfa cameras -- there might be one -- just can't recall seeing one.

If the Agfa camera has a Schneider lens (e.g. Agfa Karat 36 w/50/2.0 Schneider Xenon) the Schneider website can tell you when the lens was manufactured. That should get you to with a a year or so of the camera manufacturing date.

 

http://www.schneideroptics.com/info/age_of_lenses/

 

However this technique does not work on cameras made during the eraly Allied Occupation years, I have a definite post-war camera with a pre-war dated Schneider lens. Things were pretty chaotic in those years.

 

-Paul

Mine is not even marked Agfa. It is a Ventura 69 deluxe. It was made in occupied

germany, and that's what made me curious. The solinae lens is #414366. The conpur

rapid shutter is 6648925.

 

Really, though I just wondered whether there was a resource for this. "the book" is a great

resource for graflex, but it's frustrating that it's secret.

The US Occupation of Germany after WWII is officially from May 9, 1945 to May 5, 1955 (based on eligibility to wear the US Occupation medal. Those are likely the bookends to your manufacturing date.

 

I have read that all non-military camera production ceased during the war years. However, I have a Retina with a postwar body and a pre-war uncoated Schneider lens (based on Schneider's webpage. It was most likely put together out of inventory parts after WWII for the PX market. If the Solinar is coated you probably have something made toward the end of the Occupation. Sometime toward the end of the Occupation, Ansco cameras rebadged from Agfas reappeared on the US market. I believe the Ventura was sold in the US as an Ansco camera too.

 

Sorry i can't be more help than that.

 

-Paul