Alchemyst: Back to the 1930s: the Agfa Billy Record

Working in a museum for 20th century history has its advantages, especially if you are into analog photography like me: a collection of old cameras, literature about classic photography and a fully equipped darkroom are some pleasing features.

But now, history lesson: Apart from the early years of photography in the 1850s, the first half of the 20th century saw a rapid progression in the development photographic processes never seen again. The medium was all of a sudden available for everybody when Kodak invented a system, where you could just buy a camera, shoot the included film and then send it for developing to the Kodak factory. Then you got back your pictures and the reloaded camera.

The use of smaller format film (middle format and 35mm) changed the life of photographers and the dynamics of the photos alike: they were all of a sudden very mobile, armed with a few rolls of film you could go on long journeys depicting your surroundings without having to worry about all that heavy camera equipment. Other milestones: affordable color film and SLR cameras.

A camera produced in this age is the Agfa Billy Record, released in 1933 and shooting in 6x9 format using 120 film. It was a rather cheap amateur camera of which a lot have been sold throughout the years.

When shooting, you can only make minor changes: shutter drom 1/100 to 1/25, aperture from 16 to 8.8 and the focus either on 2 to 5 metres or 5 to infinity. In a nutshell all these stupid numbers just mean that you can't adjust a lot to your light conditions! The camera has no real viewfinder makes photographing with the Billy Record also not easier. So it is more of a lottery than taking good pictures on purpose.

Over the past weekend I managed to get some shots done in Austria and immediately developed the film when getting back to the museum's darkroom to see the results. But have a look yourselves...