Agfa Karat 6.3, 1939, 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.

The Agfa Karat 6.3 has a rounded cast aluminum body covered with a durable black synthetic material. On the top is a window for the internal frame counter and the film advance knob, which interlocks with the Agfa self-cocking shutter for double exposure prevention. The viewfinder is a simple Galilean tube.

The collapsible front plate, which is released by a button on the top, is supported by four chrome plated scissors struts. It has an Art Deco style insert and the controls for the shutter & f stop settings. This camera uses a type of film cartridge called 'Rapid' that holds 12 35mm frames.