Agfa Optima Sensor 1535

I just picked one of these up on Ebay this week and it looks a really nice camera. Tiny and very cleverly put together.

http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/optima1535/

First impressions are pretty good. The shutter makes the wierdest noise though -- like a high-speed crunching sound. However, I put a film in it today and walked round the house/garden firing off frames and the roll, once developed, came out fine -- all the shots look properly exposed including the ones using the flash sync so it doesn't seem like the shutter noise is a sign of any malfunction.

The big viewfinder and the film loading system are particularly nice and the short base rangefinder seems easy enough to focus with.

Anyone else tried one of these?

I never had a chance to tried out this top model, but a test with a more modest example ended up with most satisfactory results. A good thing about this Optima series is the very comfortable viewfinder which makes me able to look through, even with glasses on.

The film-loading mechanism is actually the same as that in many Konica models, the different is just that it is enclosed rather than exposed: the take-up shaft is made out of slightly sticky rubber, and a lightly-sprung roller presses the film against the take-up shaft so that the friction grabs the film leader.

The funny shutter noise is quite normal for this series of camera, a little disconcerting at first, but I am sure you have found the results worthy.

I have one of these cameras without the RF. It's a 1035, I believe. The results have been very good.

After further inspection this one seems to have a small spot of fungus on one of the internal elements in the lens - or it may be some sort of flaw on the glass or internal coating -- it's hard to tell.

Doesn't seem to affect the pictures though.

This was taken on that first test roll...

I've got one too, and the shutter also makes a strange noise. However it works fine. The red lamp stays on while the shutter is open (as can be experienced with long exposures). It turns out when the light is dim to indicate risk of camera shake I believe (I don't have the manual). It's only missing a proper time delay action and/or a proper cable release socket and a shutter lock and I don't have the strap so it's not easy to handle while walking around and the viewfinder has no indication of the exposure to be selected except for this green/red light... those limitations are showing how this range of cameras was targeted at amateur/beginner/family users.
But despite these limitations (or thanks to them) it's so much fun to use one in 2011!