Agfa Silette

Honest, well-made and pleasingly simple. Agfa built the Silette from 1953 and sold an enormous number of them, and it's easy to see why — a slim aluminium body, a lever wind that also cocks the shutter (rather advanced for its day), a big clear viewfinder and not much else to think about. There's no rangefinder and no meter: you guess the distance, set it on the scale, and let depth of field do the rest. The Apotar is a three-element triplet, and stopped down to f/8 it's genuinely sharp. The leaf shutter is so quiet you'll sometimes wonder whether you actually fired it. A good first proper film camera, or a light one to carry when you don't feel like carrying anything heavy.

Specs

• 35mm viewfinder camera, made in Germany
• Agfa Apotar 45mm f/3.5 lens, three-element
• Pronto leaf shutter: B, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200
• Aperture to f/16
• Scale (zone) focusing, close focus around 1 metre
• Lever wind, cocks the shutter as it advances
• Accessory shoe, flash sync socket, tripod thread
• No meter, no battery — nothing to go flat