The Agfa Billy Clack

My Agfa Billy Clack arrived earlier this week. It's an impressive example of 1930's German Art Deco with its leather and chrome body, it's linear designs on the black enamel and chrome face plate and, unique to the ABC, the chrome struts that extend the face plate and leather bellows from the body. The ABC features three f stops: 16, 11 and 8.8, an Agfa J.Genar lens and a built in yellow filter. It also came with the original leather case in remarkably excellent condition. If my Exakta 35mm looks like a weapon, the Agfa Billy Clack looks like something entirely unknown and remarkable. This is a camera that is rich and strange in possibilities and I'm looking forward to putting a roll of black and white film through it.

There was one small but significant problem with the ABC. It was stuck on the bulb setting and I was unable to figure out how to switch it back to the instamatic mode. Information on the Agfa Billy Clack is scarce: the link above is the only thing I could find and that only provides some basics. I posted my problem to a few vintage camera boards but the responces I received were "Nice camera. I know nothing about it." or referred me to the link above. Helpful, but not enlightening. Eventually, I discovered what was causing the problem. There is a switch on top of the face plate which goes from . to - The . is the instamatic setting and the - is the bulb setting. So, problem solved, I am ready to go out photographing with the Agfa Billy Clack!

The rest of the week has not been terribly eventful as I have been generally feeling unwell. The worst of it came Thursday when I finally took some homeopathic cold and flu remedy and spent the day feeling pretty miserable while the medicine did its work. I was given an early out at 4.00 pm, though I really would have liked to have left much earlier, went home and went to bed. Bleah. I feel better now.

On Tuesday, after work, Dan and I went over to Michael's house and had a glass of wine. I got to meet Michael's bi-polar dog Lulu. I'm not sure what breed of dog Lulu is, but apparently there's some pitbull in there and the pitbull side of her personality surfaces at random moments. One minute Lulu was all friendly and leaning against me, wagging her tail and the next moment she was growling ominously. "Michael," I'd say "Lulu's growling at me." "Be quiet, Lulu!" he'd say. This happened a few times and I realized that I wasn't under any threat so I'd say "Stop it, Lulu!" and she'd go back to being friendly and wagging her tail.

I spent a majority of my lunch hour talking with Catherine, the owner of the new coffeehouse, about the situation downtown. The Downtown Association, an ineffectual booster organization, has slight problem with money ... as in, where did all the money go? No one seems to know, but the treasurer is planning to quit the organization. Not a good sign. In the meantime, the city council is planning on turning the proposed downtown police officer position into a pre-retirement 9 to 5 job ... which means nothing will, as usual, get done. Typical of our town.

My friend Claire, who has a Rolleiflex, told me about Bergger 200 speed 120 film. Doing some research, I discovered that Bergger is a very nice B&W film with minimal grain, although I think grain is nice, as is rice, and the 200 speed has the swellegant benefit of being suitable for bright sunlight and most low-light conditions. I've also discovered a Seattle processing lab that works exclusively with B&W film at very reasonable rates. I can mail them the film and they will mail me the negatives.

Speaking of photographs, you might want to check Dr. Fluffy Jones's wonderful photos of shop windows in Ballard. Cool!