Out With The 1940s Agfa Karat Rapid Film Camera

Out With The 1940s Agfa Karat Rapid Film Camera. 

At the beginning of February, I added one of the first Rapid format film cameras to my collection of Agfa Rapid film cameras, the Agfa Karat. Released in the late 1930s, although mine is from the 1940s, the film format was then known as the Karat system. The Rapid format in the 1960s was a reboot of the Karat in order to compete with Kodak's instamatic film. 

The Agfa Karat was in reasonable condition, a little scuffed but sound mechanically. The lens had a bit of fungus and haze on the elements, and I gave that a careful wipe with a cotton bud lightly soaked in alcohol. Not too much to get on the bellows, mind. The viewfinder is also hazy, but if I want to clean that I'll have to remove the top plate. I'll address that later.

I was thrilled a c.1940s Karat canister was included with the camera, and decided that I would use this as the 'take up' canister. I was a little nervous that after so long it might be damaged and scratch the film, but I reckoned, 'what the Hell', that's half the fun. I loaded a length of Harman Phoenix film into a Rapid canister and dropped it into the Agfa Karat. The film fed into the vintage canister quite smoothly and, after resetting the frame counter to zero, I was ready to take the Karat out for a test.

The Agfa Karat is a fiddly little beastie to use. First you have to remember to open the camera to release the bellows and extend the lens. Then you set the aperture and shutter speed with dials and a tiny tab on the lens plate, then dial in the focus (the marker is on the side of the lens, not the top — though there is a handy little stop for infinity), then cock the shutter before you can take an image. Oh, and the shutter won't fire until you've wound the film onto the next frame. Oh, don't forget to dial in the frame counter to zero before you start.

All that being said, the Karat is a lovely little camera. Yes, the viewfinder is hazy, but the fabulous images showed that the bellows were light tight. And there's a nice little touch where the shutter cocking lever pops into view through the viewfinder after you've taken a photo, so if you can see it before taking a picture it's a reminder to cock the shutter. I'm not actually sure where the light leaks present in a couple of the frames came from. Was it light getting into the nearly 80 year old canister or something else? I was not sure. Suffice to say, the Agfa Karat will be a regular addition to my outings in the future.

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