2026-05-13 Agfa Silette SL Camera

This is an Agfa Silette SL from 1957. McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras (11th edition) says it is a mixture of the body parts of the original 1953 Silette and the 1958 (right-hand sync) Silette-L with the addition of a rapid advance lever. 
    There were a lot of Agfa Silette models that ran from simple to rangefinder and lightmeter coupled 35 mm versions, and later 126 cartridge versions. To give you an idea of how popular the Silettes were in the first four years Agfa sold a million of these cameras. Silette cameras were also sold by Ansco as Memar and Super Memar cameras.

    The Silette Sl has a meter behind a flap next to the viewfinder. This meter has a top display of the lightmeter’s needle and a notch you are to adjust to bracket the needle. 

You adjust the bracket by setting the right combination on the EV linked shutter/aperture dials. There is an uncoupling button on the aperture dial so you can change EV combinations. You might prefer 300 sec at f/4-5.6—to stop action—to 30 sec at f/16—for greater depth-of-field. Yet the dials are coupled to provide this equivalent exposure by simple turning the front knurled ring with the shutter speeds marked on it.

    The camera came with a leather ever-ready case. It could use a little lining gluing and a strap. It has been noted Agfa cameras—and probably many other German cameras—don’t have neckstrap eyelets. Instead photographers used the camera case strap as a neckstrap.
    When acquired this camera’s shutter didn’t fire. You were welcome to wind the advance lever, but the shutter would snick and the blades wouldn’t open/close. Another person with the same problem had taken his camera apart. Having read his adventures I decided to take a stab at it myself.
    His (or her) steps were—

1. Set the distance scale to infinity. 
   
2. Back-off three small set screws on the front lens bezel. Maybe just one turn counter-clock-wise—the metal they are set into is very shallow. You don’t need to take them all the way out. They are soft brass and don’t take a lot of pressure before the slot will tear out. Don’t be frightened, just be careful.
3. With the front bezel taken off, mark the black lens surround’s position as you find it. Since you unscrew the entire front element to get to the next steps, you need to be sure it can be returned to its starting point. First try tightening it a bit, but it should be reasonably close to tight. Count the number of turns to tighten it—IF IT NEEDS ANY TIGHTENING—because you will be re-installing it by tightening it fully and then backing off the exact same amount!
4. Unscrew it (counter-clock-wise).

    At this stage all you will see is a black thin washer you can take off. Don’t be too tempted to wipe all the grease and gunk off these surfaces as they are there to add some dampening to the front (focus) ring.
    Under the washer there is a recessed optic surrounded by the first ring of the lens. The original repair person decided to remove the lens, using a pin wrench in the two holes in the retaining nut. The next lens down will simply be loose and if you remove it you have to get it facing the same way when you replace everything. 
While you could do that, I thought it might be better to remove the front instead (besides, I don’t have a pin wrench).
    There is a knurled nut holding the front on. This nut is locked in place with a brass rotating slotted lock that needs to be rotated 180º to free it. Again be careful and gentle as the “lock” is soft and will just keep rotating if you mistake it for a screw.
Once the lock is released the knurled nut can be gently rotated by placing two small pointy objects—I used a small bladed screwdriver and a simple push-pin—180º opposite each other and rotating the nut counter-clock-wise. Don’t go too far with each re-griping, do it <90º at a time. This nut hasn’t that many rotations holding it in place so very quickly it will be free.
    Take the front ring off. Note its orientation has the camera’s name circling the bottom. Don’t worry, there is a notch inside the chrome ring that mates with the outermost brass ring under it as long as you don’t move the brass ring while playing with the insides.

Here are the pieces removed so far—except for the front lens placed elsewhere to keep it dust free.

Here is the view of the innards you have exposed. Note the aforementioned notch in the brass furthest out from the lens—that mates with the front ring’s tab. You can also clean the lens surfaces you have exposed before you close the lens up again.

Hold the lens facing straight up and dribble lighter fluid from a squeeze can gently from all four sides. Use just a little lighter fluid and work the shutter as quickly as you can. If you get a slow speed to fire, change to faster speeds. If you get faster speeds to fire, try slowing the shutter speeds down. With this shutter you can also set the self-timer before you advance the wind lever to “cock” the shutter and try seeing if the self-timer will work. Try opening and closing the aperture as you work the shutter.
    If nothing is working as well as it should, try a little more lighter fluid.
    The worst that will happen is the shutter and/or aperture blades will become so wet with lighter fluid and old lubricant they will stick. This can happen anytime as the lighter fluid evaporates, so be prepared to keep “working” the shutter/iris for most of the day. Expect times the action will act up, just keep working it. Console yourself with the fact anything you have taken apart can be taken apart again! 
    Personally I would rather have a camera I have got working than a camera that is useless—even if I never shoot anything with it, the winding and snicking of the shutter is worth it!

1. Reassembly steps start with aligning the front chrome bezel with the lens hole and that brass notch. 
   
2. Then put the knurled nut back on careful. Everything threaded can be cross-threaded (except spark plugs, but that is another story).
3. You have to align one of the knurled nut’s notches so the brass lock can be rotated into it to lock everything in place. If the knurled nut is tight—but not aligned with the lock— don’t fret backing it a little to get the brass lock in place. Don’t simply keep forcing it tighter!
4. Put the black washer back.
5. Screw the front lens back on and adjust it to the right place as it was when you took it off (the infinity position).
6. Then place the front chrome bezel back on lined up to infinity. Gently tighten the three set screws a quarter of a turn each, watching to be sure the bezel is parallel to the next ring back. When the set screws feel tight STOP

As I have been writing this I have been taking regular breaks to work the assembled camera’s shutter. So far it is just getting better and better. I am prepared to wake up tomorrow to find it stuck, but I am reasonably confident with more attention it will come alive again.
    And if not, I’ll threaten the camera with being torn down again!