Agfamatic Pocket 4008 – a P&S of Yesteryear

In the past, I’ve tended to review some high-end 110 cameras. The release of Lomography’s recent 110 camera was a timely reminder that some quite decent ‘Instamatic’-style cameras were also produced back in the day.

In the late 70’s our local camera shop had a sale on Agfa 110 cameras. My father was impressed enough with the design to buy one for himself and one for me. Mine suffered from teenage misuse, but Dad’s was cosseted more. In going through some of his old stuff I came across it…

The Camera

Kodak called their cartridge cameras ‘Instamatics’. Agfa, with an uncharacteristic lack of imagination, chose ‘Agfamatic’.

This particular camera, the Agfamatic 4008, was a mid-range model. It featured automatic exposure, and tele and normal lenses, both with scale focusing. The lens was not super-fast, but the design and attention to detail are quite impressive.

A look around the Agfamatic 4008

The top of the camera features a flip-flash socket, a focus slider, a cable release attachment, a big orange ‘Sensor’ shutter release, and a selector that selects the normal or tele lenses.

The right-hand end of the camera features a tripod bush in a plastic plate.

The underneath has a catch that allows the tripod plate to be removed, a switch that allows the camera to open for use, and a bit of grip on the end bit of chromed plastic that allows you to slide off the battery cover.

The back of the Agfamatic 4008 just has the viewfinder aperture, the window to view the frame counter on the back of the film cartridge and the sliding release for the film door.

Opening the Agfamatic 4008

On operating the open switch on the base of the camera the camera zips open. Well, it did 45 years back, now it takes a more leisurely pace, inviting you to just help it on its way. The open-close action winds the film and cocks the shutter. Sliding the open switch back with the camera open means that the next time you close the camera, it will lock at the smaller, pocketable size.

Operation of the ‘Tele’ switch on top of the Agfamatic 4008 switches between a ‘normal’ focal length lens located behind the shutter, and a telephoto one in front of it. As well as switching the taking lens, the optics in the viewfinder also switch.

The Agfamatic 4008 lens is not fast (it doesn’t advertise its speed but it is supposed to be something around f/6.3), but works reasonably well with the 1/250-30 second shutter speed range. There is no indicator of a variable aperture, I suspect that the positioning of the shutter in front of the ‘normal’ lens and behind the tele lens may have led to them deciding that this was a ‘wide open only’ camera.

Viewfinder

The viewfinder is quite simple, with bright lines and parallax marks. If the exposure is going to be longer than 1/30 a red light shines in the side of the viewfinder when the ‘Sensor’ button is half-pressed.

Flash

The ‘Flip flash’ connector might seem a little archaic, but the idea of the device was quite good. Flip-flashes had 10 flash bulbs facing forwards on a plastic panel, with a connector on each end. Each shot would fire one of the bulbs from the upper part of the plate (avoiding red-eye), when those were finished you turned it over and it went through the other 5.

There were also electronic flash units that could fit in the same socket. The Agfamatic Pocket had a flash made for the series with a chord that plugged into the socket and a flashgun that could be slid into the right-hand end of the camera in replacement for the plate with the tripod bush.

Batteries

The batteries hide behind the smaller chrome plastic panel on the front of the camera. They should be px625s but Zinc-air 675 batteries fit and will power the camera.

In practice

The Agfamatic 4008 is quite small when closed and isn’t a lot bigger open  – it just isn’t competing for any ‘smallest camera’ titles. You don’t get an indication of the focus distance in the viewfinder, but you do get that warning light if the slow-ish lens is going to result in camera shake.

You get no control over exposure, but at these focal lengths and apertures defocus isn’t much of an option.

The key thing for any point-and-shoot camera is what the results turn out like.

The Agfamatic 4008 Pocket Tele is a bit of a curate’s egg… In general, shots are quite well exposed. Those taken with the normal lens are nice and sharp.

Those with the tele lens, less so.

Pictures

Summing up the Agfamatics

The Agfamatic Pocket series exhibits some nice design touches. The most basic models (lower numbers) don’t feature automatic exposure (‘Sensor’ refers to the broad shutter release pad, rather than sensing light).  I think automatic exposure comes in at the ‘4000’ level. That one of my lenses is ‘soft’ could be down to my particular 45-year-old camera, although I’ve seen a similar comment elsewhere on the internet with regard to the Tele lens of the 4008.

However, the normal lens is fine and on this sort of camera, a telephoto is probably a bit of a gimmick. If you fancy a play with a P&S-style 110 camera and can’t afford a new Lomomatic 110, a 4000 or 4008 (if kept on the wider setting) may tempt you. Be warned that the push-pull wind-on does not tend to co-operate with re-used cartridges loaded with perforated 16 mm film, so you need to find a workaround that works for you or use the films available from Lomography (for which all 110 photographers are extremely grateful).

Agfa also did a 6000 series with the same clever design ethos, with a faster lens and with the focus scale visible in the viewfinder, but then you are getting out of the P&S ethos and closer to Canon 110ED/Minox 110s/Rollei A110/Pentax Auto 110 territory – cameras that really push the 110 cartridge to its limits.

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