Agfa Isoly III medium format film Camera Review

The Agfa Isoly series of cameras is a medium format viewfinder style camera. The cameras were made from 1960 to 1971, mine is version III of the product line introduced in 1965.

Its a medium format camera that takes 120 roll film and produces 4cm x 4cm photographs. There is a bit of waste with 120 film but you get 16 shots with one roll. The camera is made from plastic and really has that “toy camera” feel to it.

It has a red round window on the back so that you know what number of exposure your are at. I’m not sure its a good idea to have it there since it could allow light to enter. Some of my shots were a bit over exposed and I’m thinking it was due to this red window.

The lens is an Agnar or Apotar 60mm f/3.9 and has shutter speeds between B, 1/30 to 1/250th. The camera wiki page states that it has a double exposure prevention feature but I accidentally made one which turned out quite nice. The lens also has a simple self timer mechanism.

The Agfa Isoly medium format camera is simple to use and is actually quite fun. You are not going to get amazing detailed photographs with this camera but once in a while it can produce nice “lomo” type shots.

Here’s a couple photographs I took with my Agfa Isoly III medium format 120 camera and Ilford FP4 Plus 120 black and white film.