Trubble learning how to use this old camera and how to get a low DOF in bright light.

[Sleeplessmind]

A while back my grandfather gave me his old Agfa Karat 36. This camera is over fifty years old and after bushing up on my German quickly got used to the layout. I haven't yet had the pleasure to shoot with it. I only have a little experience with SLR's most of which was a cupple of semesters of photography classes in high school. This camera is so old in fact that it doesn't have a light meter built in side it (Also the highest shutter speed is 500 F-stop is 16 max). This is a problem for me becouse my teacher never taught me how to use a camera with out a light meter. So after stumbling around the internet wastes for awhile I found this website( Ultimate Exposure Computer ). I proceed to read the whole thing and came to the realization that the chart is concerning me. For some reason the chart tells me that if I have 400 iso film( witch is the only film I can get) also if I am taking a picture on a sunny day i need to have my shutter at 500 and aperture at f/16. How do you get the aperture down to like a 2.8 or 4 so I can have a low depth of field without having the picture looking all washed out?

 

[KVRNut]

First of all, here's an English manual you can down load. http://www.butkus.org/chinon/karat_36/karat_36.pdf
You can do a wider aperture with a ND 8 filter or stack a ND 8 & 4 or a ND filter and polorizer. If your camera doesn't have have a threaded lens to accept a screw on filter, then I imagine a Cokin filter kit made for digital point and shoot cameras should work just fine with your camera.
Hope this helps.

 

[djacobox372]

Why can't you buy some 100iso film? You'll overcome your shutter speed problem and double your resolution at the same time

 

[Sleeplessmind]

The only film I can find in my town is black and white 400 iso. Do you guys have any good sites that have cheep black and white film. Also possibly do you know of any websites that still sell bulk film so I could reload film cassettes.

 

[Wade in Jamul]

Freestyle in Los Angeles has probably the best selection of B&W and color films I've seen anywhere. The prices are good and shipping is cheap. They even have house brand films which are quite good.
Check them out at Freestyle Photographic Supplies - Traditional Black & White Film, Paper, Chemicals, Holgas and ULF. I buy all of my film, paper and chemistry from them.

 

[Sleeplessmind]

Does anyone know what kind of lenses this thing takes?

The only reason is that i might want to get closer to a object. Also if I can put a lens on this thing how would I

focus it when the viewfinder uses to view ports and not the actual lens P.s I already know how to focus the thing without the new lens. Ansco (Agfa) Karomat 36 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[compur]

The Karomat/Karat 36 doesn't accept interchangeable lenses though it was offered with a variety of fixed lenses ranging from f/2 to 2.8 or 3.5 but there wouldn't be much difference in focusing characteristics between these lenses.

And, as far as I know, there was no close-up attachment offered for the Karomat/Karat 36. Some other Agfa/Ansco rangefinder cameras did have optional close-up attachments which combined a close up lens that screwed onto the existing lens with a companion viewing attachment that fit over the rangefinder window.

 

[djacobox372]

Freestyle Photographic Supplies - Traditional Black & White Film, Paper, Chemicals, Holgas and ULF is my favorite place to buy film--quick shipping and cheap prices.

You might want to buy some of their cheap student film to practice with. You can buy it for less then $2 a roll. Of course this is B+W process film, if you're talking about black and white C41 process film, that's only available in iso 400 and costs a lot more.

 

[Mike_E]

I'm not framiliur with this camera but if it accepts filters then see if you can find a Neutral Density filter. They have the same effect as dropping the ISO so with one that eats two stops your 400 becomes 100 speed.