Advice on use of older Agfatronic flash

[turquoise monkey]

Hey all,

I have an Agfatronic 261 CB flash. It seems simple enough, but there are a few switches which I would wish to understand better.

On the front there are three settings marked with an open white circle, a green circle and a yellow circle. On the backside there is a sliding calculation scale for which aperture to use at different distances. On this scale there is a green and yellow line, which I assume have something to do with the yellow and green dots on the front.

I would really like to use this flash correctly. Does anyone here have experience with Agfatronic flashes similar to this? I have not been able to find a manual online myself.

Thanks in advance!
R

 

[Kino]

I would assume that the open white circle is full power manual, and the corresponding green and yellow lines show the optimal ranges for automatic exposure within the areas enclosed by their respective colors.

Without a manual, you don't know the guide number of the flash in full manual, but within the colored lines, it should work properly if the correct ASA/ISO is set or consulted on the flash scale.

Got a picture?

EDIT: Never mind; have a look at the photos on this Ebay auction. The guide number @ ISO 100 is 85 / 21 DIN is 26.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Agfatronic...h=item2f2515c63c:g:04UAAOSwXPNZ-QfJ:rk:1:pf:0

And I am pretty sure my explanation above is correct...

 

[AgX]

Welcome to Apug!

Your Agfa flash is a standard autoexposure flash, designed as dozens other flashes.

The white circle would mean manual mode (= constant full power), the coloured ones refer to the 2 autoexpoure ranges. At the back these two colours indicate the aperture to be set at the camera, depending on the speed of the film. At the back you see a kind of slide rule for the respective setting.
Set the arrow at the film speed and read the aperture for the respective range at the coloured dot.


In contrast to what Kino wrote above, with all these flashes you can calculate the guidenumber from figures at these slide rulers.

Guidenumber = distance x aperture at given film speed (typically 100 ASA/21 DIN)

At the ruler you find the respective figures for that calculation.

With geman flashes the metrical guidenumber typically sits in the designation. In this case case likely 26.

 

[AgX]

Something else:
Keep in mind that most flashes of this period and before have a rather high trigger voltage. That is no problem for shutters/cameras with a mechanical synchro switch.
But cameras that close that trigger circuit by solid state device are/may be sensitive to those voltages.

As a treshold in a timeline for succeptible cameras think of the Canon T90 and the first EOS model.