Agfa Karat 36
The Agfa Karat-36 version 3, was produced from 1952 to 1954. The Karat line started in 1936 and was originally sized for a proprietary film cartridge produced by Agfa. In 1948 the Karat 36 line was introduced to use the more popular 135 film size. The Karat line ended in 1958 with the Karat IV.
AGFA (Aktien-Gesellschaft für Anilin-Fabrikation) started in Berlin in 1867. Starting as a photo chemical company, they expanded in to cameras in the 1920s. AGFA was a contemporary and competitor to Kodak in both film, chemicals and cameras.
This is a 70 year old camera. My example is in remarkably good shape. The leather case is coming unstitched but the camera body looks great. The controls work but feel stiff, like the lubrication is dried and sticky. Nothing a CLA could not fix. Even with the stiff controls, the Karat-36 worked like a champ.
The Karat is a rangefinder camera but does not use a traditional patch to assist in focus. You just have overlapping images. The lens in mounted to a collapsible bellows that make the camera more compact when not in use. The controls for aperture, focus and speed are all on the lens. The film advance is unique in that it pulls back from the side rather than the more traditional push forward, like most advance levers. Another oddity is a latch like mechanism to hold the film on the sprocket. Be sure to open it to load your film then close it to hold the film in place.
My Take:
The Karat is not a quick deploy modern rangefinder, it takes a bit more to load, open, set and focus than more modern cameras, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The lens gives an old school rendering. I struggled getting a proper exposure, probable because the shutter speeds are off and I was shooting expired film. But the images that did work gave a nice nostalgic look.
Not a daily use camera for me but with a CLA could be a very nice shooter.
Lens: Agfa Solagon 50mm f2.0
Film: Expired Fujicolor Seperia X-TRA 400