Ansco Viking 6.3

This camera was manufactured by Agfa in the 1950s for Ansco. It features a 105mm 6.3 Agfa Agnar Anastigmatic lens and a Vario Shutter with flash syncronization. It shoots 6cm by 9cm images on 120 film.

This camera was previously my grandfathers and I aquired it a few years ago, but only got around to trying it out lately (2002). Because the camera had been sitting in a closet for probably close to 30 years the bellows had deteriorated in the the corner of the folds and thus caused some pretty large light leaks on my first roll of film that I put through it. Since then i have shot a few more rolls with it and taped up the corners of the bellows to try and fix the light leaks, which I have for the most part now, but there still seems to be some small leaks which I will have to search out.

The camera offers 4 shutter speeds: 200, 50, 25, and Bulb. It has 5 aperatures: 6.3, 8, 11, 16, 22 and can focus from 3 feet to infinity. Without a light meter, this camera is a great learning tool for judging exposure and has been a great learning tool for me. Also since it is not a SLR I am getting pretty good at judging my distances for my focus although as you can see from some of the pictures I forget to focus sometimes. Not to mention some of the accidental double exposures that happen when you don't have to wind the film to cock the shutter. I will definately be using these quirks to my advantage sometime.