Restored Agfa Isolette/Ansco Speedex 6x6 - Free (with a few conditions)

[Brian Jeffery]

I received a lovely Agfa Isolette II yesterday. It's Absolutely stunning and I can't wait to try it out.


Thanks John,


Brian

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

In Canada today...

There was the sound of me saying YEAH! as I received a pristine Isolette II.

And by pristine, I mean pristine. I attached a few pictures to show the quality of the job. Everything is smooth, clean, scratchless, spotlessly clean, and fluid.

My donation to APUG is on the way, and I pledge that if I ever neglect to use this camera, that I will give it back freely to someone here who could use it.

Thank you for a most amazing day.

PS: And it's so tiny! Not bigger than a 35mm camera. Oh, and The Americans is shipping now!

 

[Steve Smith]

I picked up my Ansco from the Post Office this morning. The refurbishment is fantastic and the bellows look great.
I wish I had the day off work today to try it out!
Thank you. The APUG donation has been sent.


Steve.

 

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Ok, here's one of my photos from the Isolette that I got from John!

This is my 11 yr old son, Mackenzie Crawford. Photographed last weekend on Tri-X developed in D-76 1+1. I guessed the distance and was very close. He is off center, which actually looks good though I had composed him in the middle. The viewfinder will take some getting used to, and I have to remember to add some space at the top for parallax when shooting this close! This was shot about 4 feet from my son.

I put a little story about it on my Dead Link Removed

 

[Michael W]

Mine arrived in Sydney today & now has a roll of Portra 800 in it. It looks like a new camera. I've shown it to about eight people & told them the story of how it came to me & they all thought it was such a nice action for John to undertake. Mine is an Agfa Isolette II. It's a beautiful piece of design and engineering. It's interesting to contemplate how much thought was put into a camera such as this by the team at the company when it was first in production. It must have been state of the art for the day. It's good to know that many of these cameras are now back in the field, good as new & ready to produce excellent photos.

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

It's nice with color film as well:

Detail:

 

[GDI]

Here is a link to some samples with my Isolette III...

Dead Link Removed

 

[Sean]

Just wanted to thank John for doing this. Several donations have come in. It's an amazing gesture for our members and the site. Thanks so much!

Sean

 

[Mick Fagan]

I would also like to publicly thank John for this gesture, it is a nice thing to see happening in this cynical world.

Mick.

 

[raccou]

Wow. There's a reason to believe in humanity once more! Congratulations, sir!

Just made the jump into MF from DSLR recently, and trying to handle my yashica-a for the moment, so it would've been overkill, but next time...?

keep on truckin'!

r.

 

[Steve Smith]

Here are a couple from my test roll through my Ansco Speedex Special R. Nothing stunning, just taken during a walk along the seafront.

 

[Steve Smith]

Here are a few more from the same place, the next day and at low tide.
These are negative scans done on the scanner at work which is only supposed to do 35mm but with my home made negative holder, it will scan 48mm wide. Hence the rectangular, not quite full frame.
These are Ilford Delta 400 which I used at EI 1600. I have never pushed a film higher than its box ISO before but I am pleased with the look of these. I will make some proper prints to confirm this though.

Steve.

 

[sifu17055]

I would be indebted to you if you still had one of your lovingly restored cameras to give.

Chris Toddes

 

[B&Jdude]

Golly, it's been over a month since you posted the e-mail about the Isolettes, and I can see from the expected response that they went fast. I surely will be watching for the next time you put another batch on here.

I have never owned an Isolette, but did have a Super Ikonta B folder that I loved to use back in the early 1990's when I was living in Northern, VA. I got into a financial bind and had to sell it, along with my Model 1 Kodak Panoram, to a camera repairman (and collector, Jessie Newberry) there in the Vienna area. To this very day I greatly regret selling those cameras -- both were mint, and everbody kept trying to buy them from me

I do have a folder now, a Zenobia, which takes decent pictures, I suppose, but it isn't in the same league as either the Isolette or Ikonta.

It's a fine thing you are doing there, and shows how much you truly love those old folders!

EuGene

 

[Steve Smith]

Maybe someone could even start a "pay it forward" thread.

If by 'pay it forward' you are referring to things we could do to return the favour then I will start.

A week after I received my Ansco Speedex I realised I had three Olympus XA2 cameras which I was never going to use (I also have an XA) so I offered them on a separate thread. These are now with new owners in Canada, US and Luxemburg.

I think all of us who received cameras from John should try to pass on the favour in this way if we can as most of us have too much gear including items that rarely or never get used which could be of value to others.

As with John's original offer, I paid for the postage but I did ask for a donation to APUG in return.


Steve.

 

[Ragtime Clown]

For the past year I have been restoring Agfa Isolettes and Ansco Speedex 6x6 folders as an enjoyable hobby. I do it mainly for the satisfaction of transforming these 50 year old cameras from dust collectors to fully functional photographic instruments

I think this is a fantastic story - would you consider uploading some photographs of your finished pieces before you pass them on?

 

[mongo6407]

free mf cameras

I have been working with an old isolette V camera for the past few months that I picked up on ebay, but it is developing light leaks and appears to cost a lot more to fix than what I can spend. I really like MF and would like to continue with a good camera. If you have any more of the free folders please pm me. Thanks.

 

[Thomas Bertilsson]

That's a great thing to do! I have more cameras than I need, so this offer will have to be used by others.

Good for you! And what a great way to support APUG too.

- Thomas

 

[JMC1969]

I have rebuilt one of each of these cameras and gotten very different results.
Ansco Speedex:

Agfa Isolette:

It has been suggested that there may be haze I can not see in the Agfa. The 50%/50% solution you mentioned, I have not tried. Maybe that will be the key. I love both of the cameras, I sold the Ansco speedex to a very enthusiastic high school senior. I didn't want to sell it, I just had it on display at a once a month street fair I was set up for. But he was so excited about it, I couldn't say no, so, I let it go for what I had in it ($20). But not before I got a great roll out of it and I bought the Agfa the next week. The subject in the photos worked out great for the look, but not what I expected. They look like they were taken 50 years ago rather than with a 50 year old camera. I'm not 100% sure I want to fix it, but it would be nice to know what the problem is.

Anyway, I thing this is a great thing that you have done. I have a similar thought in mind with TLR's, but I haven't found the time to fix the ones I have. I will get there! I am trying to keep it local to boost the love for film in my city. I did give away a Minolta lens a month ago to a internet acquaintance with the hope that it would actually get some use. It was my father's and I not longer have a working camera to use it with. I would rather know it wasn't sitting in the bottom of a case, but being put to use. He would like to know his stuff had a point.

Inspiring! On to my next gesture, Thank You,
Jody

 

[jsfyfe]

Jody,

I'm not sure what the problem with the Isolette could be. The shot with the Speedex looks great.

If you can't see any haze or other apparent problem with the Agfa lens then I don't think that would cause the problem, but ho knows. One thing I found when rebuilding the Agfas was to be careful to put the original paper spacers back between the shutter/lens assembly and the mounting plate. Not replacing these or putting the wrong number or thickness could affect the overall focus, especially at wider apertures. What I do is, once the camera is completely assembled, open the aperture to it's maximum, set the focus ring on infinity, open the shutter, open the camera back, and then look through the front of the lens while moving your finger around the perimeter of the film opening on the back. Your finger should be in perfect focus. If not, then the distance from the lens to the film plane needs adjustment. From that point on it's just trial and error but will at least eliminate the possibly that the basic lens to film distance is incorrect.

John

 

[JMC1969]

John,

Thanks for the tip. I was thinking it might be the placement of the rear lens. I rubber banded a piece of ground glass to the film plane to check for focus at infinity. Like you would w/ LF focusing. It was night time, so maybe It just wasn't close enough. I say it might be the rear because the front group screws into the barrel that contains the center group and they only come together at one spot. I don't recall there being any paper spacers, but I got it from the auction site and have no idea what someone else may have already tried. It was pretty dirty so I dove straight into cleaning it up without testing it first. The focus ring was completely frozen up and had the familiar green goo in the threads. It was the same on the Speedex and half a dozen other cameras I have been playing with. Maybe I will have time this week to try and re-set the lens.

Thanks,
Jody

 

[JMC1969]

John,

I am certainly missing something here. I have been looking at this lens for an hour or so and can't seem to get any results that differ from each other. I did not actually remove the shutter from the mounting plate, but have no idea what someone else may have done.

My results are that no matter where the lens is focused my finger is not "in focus" at the film plane. If I move my finger inward (closer to the lens) it becomes "in focus" around 3/4"(2cm). The odd thing to me is that I can take the front group and the center group out of the shutter (leaving only the rear element mounted) and get the identical results. For clarification, I am looking through the lens from the front as though it were a loop (eye up against). I think I may be missing something about the principals of optics. Regardless, At this point it seems like the entire shutter and lens needs to be moved by 3/4" (2cm) and I don't see a way to do such a thing. It's locked in place when the front door pops out. I guess I shouldn't be relying on you to teach me the basics of camera repair, but I am stumped and thought I understood. It's frustrating. And, on a rather simple camera.

Any help you don't mind sharing is greatly appreciated.

Thank You,
Jody

 

[mongo6407]

rangefinder knob

Does anyone have a rangefinder knob/dial for an ansco speedex (or isolette III) that they have and can part with? I am restoring an ansco speedex and the rangefinder knob on mine is frozen and somewhat knarled.

 

[azdustdevil]

For the past year I have been restoring Agfa Isolettes and Ansco Speedex 6x6 folders as an enjoyable hobby. I do it mainly for the satisfaction of transforming these 50 year old cameras from dust collectors to fully functional photographic instruments, and not with the intent of selling the cameras for a profit.

I currently have 20 restored cameras that I would like to give away as gifts to photographers who would like to get into medium format photography or just have a very portable MF camera to carry with them.

I have only a few conditions (which I can't enforce) attached to this offer:

1. That you are sincere and serious about making photographs with these cameras (which almost all APUG'ers are) and just don't collect them or want to resell them for a profit.

2. That you send a contribution to APUG (at least $10 would be nice).

All cameras have f/4.5 85mm Apotar lenses. Most have Prontor-S or SV shutters (8 speed + B). A few have Pronto (4 speed + B) shutters and two have Compur-Rapid shutters. Four have the focusing ring in meters, the rest are in feet. Four are Isolette III type models with the uncoupled rangefinder, the rest are Isolette II type with no rangefinder.

All cameras are pretty much equal in quality.

Once again, the cameras are free and I will pay the postage. You may specify your preference (e.g. feet or meters), but I reserve the right to pick the camera for you.

Please PM or E-mail me if you are interested.

Here's what I do to restore these cameras:

All cameras are completely disassembled. Lenses are removed from the shutter. The lens glass is removed from the lens mount and cleaned with a solution of 50% ammonia and 50% peroxide. Lens mounts are cleaned of all old grease using non-acetone nail polish remover. Shutter is disassembled and cleaned with either a very small amount of Ronsonol lighter fluid (naphtha) and/or Asahiklin AK225 tech cleaner, depending on how much cleaning is required. Any residue left on the shutter leaves or diaphragm leaves is carefully removed using Eclipse Optic cleaner. In some cases (not all), the shutter escapement and delay timer gears receive a very light application of molybdenum disulfide (BP-2000 powder) dry lubricant. The old bellows is removed. The top plate is removed. Dust and dirt is removed from all interior surfaces using the ammonia/peroxide solution. The shutter release mechanism and double-exposure prevention mechanism receive a very light oil. Excess is removed. The film take-up winding knobs are cleaned and dry lubricated using the BP-2000 powder. If the camera has a rangefinder, it is removed, disassembled, cleaned, lubricated, and adjusted. The top plate is cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner using a biodegradable cleaning solution (EuroSonic). I may also use a restoration metal polish to further improve the appearance of the top plate. For badly tarnished depth-of-field dials on the top of the camera I use a Dremel burnishing brush to 'brass' the dial. The exterior cover is cleaned using ArmorAll Cleaning wipes. If the covering is in very bad shape I completely remove the old covering, clean the camera down to the bare metal, and re-cover using black seal grain leatherette purchased from CameraLeather.com. The camera is reassembled. I fabricate new leather bellows and install them. Bellows are checked for light tightness. Focus is adjusted using an old Rolleiflex focusing screen with two 120 reels attached to each end. The focusing screen is loaded into the camera and focus is adjusted for 10 feet using a loupe. After securing the focusing ring at the 10 foot (or 3 meters) indicator, focus is again checked at 3, 6, 10, 30, and infinity. If the camera has a rangefinder, the focusing ring is matched to the distance reading on the rangefinder. Last step is just to check that everything works.

Just found your post. I would love to have an old (folding) medium format camera if you have any left. 6x9 is preferable but I will take what I can get. I am semi-professional with 41 years of experience and tired of lugging the Hasselblad around. talbert@azdustdevil.com

 

[omatix]

Hello. I just read this post, albeit a few years late. I was wondering if you occasionally take in repairs from folks. I have an Agfa B2 Speedex with a blade issue, and could use some help. Thanks!