The black Agfa Optima Sensor Flash with the iconic big red shutter button was my true childhood camera which I used even before I was able to write. My mom chose it because we tried out one of the Agfa pocketfilm cameras before, but the image quality turned out to be so bad that instead I was given the Agfa Optima 35mm viewfinder camera – the only model with the built-in flash. It was very easy to use – I only had to set the distance and press the shutter. Despite the simplicity, it took very good photos that easily rivaled our Praktica B200 and it became the most-used camera in the 1980s in my family. I still own it and it still works, although I haven’t used it since the mid-1990. Maybe I will shoot a roll of black and white film with it just for fun sometime again!

The Agfa Optima Sensor Flash was the odd one out of the new generation Optima Sensor series that started in 1976. It had a slightly different case than the other cameras, but apart from the built-in flash is identical to the 535 mid-level model that included the four-lens Solitar 40mm f/2.8 lens. The Flash version sadly did not have an optical rangefinder like the 1535 top model so you had to estimate the distance yourself. Today, even the lesser models of the series are easily worth a triple digit price on the used camera market and the 1535 is worth several hundred Euro in good condition.

« Google Maps » | Date: 25.07.2023