竹炉山房

今天收到Flickr上一个孩子的信件，关于他在祖母家的车库里找到了一架57年产的Agfa Silette。

刚好老虎两年前也买了一部，在Flickr上发了几张片子。他搜到以后就来询问怎样使用：

寄件人：fmooneeram1
主題：Agfa Super Silette

Hi there,

Loving your photos - really nice feel to them.

I have recently found an Agfa Super Silette 1957 in my late grandma's garage. I am dying to use it - it takes 35mm film too which is great.

I am, however, completely confused about how to use it in terms of taking photos.

The shutter works and I can load film - but I am struggling to understand how the dials on the lens itself work?

I would be so grateful if you could maybe give me some information on how to use it?

Sincerely,

Felix Mooneeram

我的回复：

寄給：fmooneeram1
主題：Re: Agfa Super Silette

Hi Felix,

I am delighted to see somebody there found an Agfa Silette. It sounds like a treasure story something. Pretty exciting! I would be more than happy to explain how this camera works.

The dials on the lens, is the combination of "distance",  "shutter speed" and "aperture". As an old camera, at that time, there is no automated linked "shutter speed" and "aperture" which can capture correct light all the time for the film. Which is to say, everything depends on your hands and your brain to fully and manually control the camera and set the right shutter speed, the aperture, and focus on the object from a right distance.

OK, let us look at the first dial close to the body. The first dial has 3.5|4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22. This ring is the aperture. The biggest aperture of this lens is 3.5, and the smallest is 22. Aperture 3.5 can let more light come into the camera, while 22 let minimized light come through. To set an aperture, dial it and aim the little triangle in the middle.

The second dial, is a meter of shutter speed and aperture. The dial itself has four speeds: B (short for Bulb, the manual way of controlling the shutter speed.  Press shutter once, and press it again after X seconds), 25 (1/25 seconds), 50 (1/50 seconds) and 200 (1/200 seconds) as shutter speeds. Generally speaking, at normal sunlight in the day, with a normal Fuji or Kodak ISO100 film, aperture is set to 8 to 11 (look at the little red dot in the middle), the shutter speed sets to normal 50. In strong sunlight, aperture sets to 16-22. In dim light like the rainy day, the aperture sets to 5.6 - 8. At night , you can try 3.5 but you will also need a bulb cord, the tripod and ISO 400 films to maintain the stability of the photo.

The third dial is the distance controller. It says feet so it is a feet table. Set to 3.5 means camera lens focuses an object 3.5 feet away. Set to 4 means 4 feet away. Then you have 5, 6, 8, 10, 15 and 30 feet. The largest distance is infinity oo. For portrait and landscape it is easy, but you will need to have very strong distance sense and fast brain to capture that moving cat!!!! But, think about all those great photographers living 80 years ago!!! They don't have a clever digital camera yet they created the greatest films in human history!!!

The above three points are just brief intro letting you know basics of this little primitive but interesting camera. If you want to learn more, you need to do research by yourself (google it) and understand the relationship among aperture, shutter speed, film ISO, distance, tripod, shutter cord and flashlight. For example, if you set 5.6 in the strong sunlight you can also set the speed of shutter to 200 to control the incoming light. It is not easy learning. It is challenging and fun, however, as a return, you will surely get much greater photos and even more fundamental techniques than using today's "clever" DSLRs. Recently I am fully convinced that Camera clever = people stupid.

Good luck!

Best regards,
John Shen

很快他回复：

寄件人：fmooneeram1沒有提供真實姓名
主題：Re: Agfa Super Silette

Brilliant, thanks John.

A real help. I have an understanding of apertures and shutter speeds - but rarely manually set them both myself.

Im looking forward to learning - thanks for your help - been very informative.

Thanks again,

Felix