Agfa Isomat Rapid

1960's film camera

The 1965 Isomat Rapid is one of Agfa's series of squared-off, largely plastic, "Iso" cameras made for their easy-loading Rapid film system. Versions with white or black nameplates are known.

The Isomat Rapid outwardly resembles Agfa's simple fixed-focus Rapid models like the Iso-Rapid I; and like those, it gives 16 square exposures of 24 × 24 mm per roll. Interlocks only allow the shutter to fire with the back closed and film advancing; and a frame counter behind the shutter release counts down the exposures remaining. (After the 16th exposure, the film advance will turn continuously but the shutter locks.)

But the Isomat Rapid is a more sophisticated model, with weightier body and a scale-focusing, three-element Color-Agnar 38 mm f/4.5 lens. The feet/meter distance scale is inconveniently located underneath the lens; instead simple pictograms face upwards towards the user. For two of these, the focusing scale has click-stop detents. The black-faced version of the camera has a "two heads" icon that is strangely chosen: When focused at this distance, the lens's field of view is actually well over a meter/yard high. The white-face camera has a more suitable icon, showing the whole torsos of two people.

While one might suspect that the "fly eye" panel beside the viewfinder might be a dummy light meter (as on other cheap snapshot cameras), this is a true selenium cell, which automatically adjusts the diamond-shaped lens aperture opening as the photographer presses the shutter release. If this aperture is within the available range of f/4.5–16, an indicator dot at the right side of the (not terribly accurate) viewfinder switches from red to green, indicating proper exposure. The camera has a fixed shutter speed, nominally 1/70, in autoexposure mode.

For flash exposure using the included hot shoe, a tab on the side of the lens permits manual selection of apertures. When using these settings, the shutter speed switches to approximately 1/30, to accommodate the burning time of bulb flashes.

• Used: Pre-owned, vintage
• Appearance:
  There are some scratches
  Scuffs from normal use
  It shows signs of use
• Optics:
  There is no fog
  There is no fungus
  There is no balsam separation
  There are no scratches
  There are a few dusts
• Functional:
  All functions are working properly