Ploughing my way through boxes and boxes in my basement, I came across these two gems. I knew I had at least one, but finding two was a treat. Rangefinder focus, aperture priority, full frame 35mm, and a nearly silent shutter—this camera is a great #streetphotography tool. Need to rummage up a couple MS76 equivalent batteries to see of either of them works…. #olympusXA#vintageCamera#photography
The Agfa Isolette II is a medium format folding camera from 1950's Germany. I picked one up for pretty cheap, but it has some common problems. This weekend I began to address them.
After disassembly and giving everything a clean, I managed to clear up the viewfinder and swap the bellows with a lovely green one made by @sandehalynch
Next will be to free the focus, re-grease, clean the lens, reassemble, and collimate.
After resorting to what felt like a harsh method for freeing up the focus, I was able to get the lens assembly apart and cleaned up.
Everything went back together nicely and was given a bit of fresh synthetic grease.
To get a sense of the image and as a preview to the collimating process I've run some Scotch tape across the film plane to act as a temporary ground glass.