AGFA Billy Record, 1933, Germany

AGFA was founded in 1867 in Rummelsburg (Berlin) by Paul Mendelssohn Bartholdy, son of the composer Felix Mendelssohn, and by Carl Alexander von Martius.

In 1873 the company changed name in "Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation", which acronym is AGFA.

Initially Agfa produced chemical products for photo film. In 1880 Franz Oppenhaim joined the company and will later found the "Agfa Film Company" in 1909.

In 1925 Agfa started the production of cameras for Bayer; the following year the first Agfa camera came out, the "Agfa Standard".
The production of photocameras kept going until 1983.

Agfa Billy is a series of affordable cameras produced since 1927.

The “Billy Record” model is the most successful of the series. It was produced from 1933 to 1942.
This photocamera costed at the time 30 marks in Germany and 185 francs in France.
The film is a 120 roller-type, 6x9 size, the lens is a Agfa Agner 1:6.3. It weighs 560 g and its dimensions are 165 x 88 x 37 while closed and 165 x 108 x 131 while opened.

The camera is simple and therefore suitable to a wide range of people, the quality of the photos is good despite the low cost.