I love film cameras; I own a small collection and I like to use them, not to leave them on a shelf just for display. Thanks to the Internet, finding manuals and documentation for 30 or 40-years-old cameras is not that difficult, unless the camera is some rare or obscure model. The design of most of those old manuals is priceless, and I always like to search for a section entitled Holding the Camera or How to Hold the Camera. Perhaps it’s just a personal liking, but those black and white photographs of a young woman (of the Far East, most of the times) or man (rarely) are so evocative of their era, have a certain je ne sais quoi, that I thought it’d be a nice idea to showcase some samples here (click to enlarge).
From the Agfa Silette LK Sensor manual
From the Canon A-1 manual
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From the Canon Canonet GIII QL-17 manual
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From the Canonflex RM manual. I intentionally left the original accompanying text, to give an idea of the level of detail some instructions can reach.
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From the Minolta XD7/XD11 manual
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From the Minolta Minoltina AL-s manual
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From the Olympus Pen FT manual
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From the Pentax ME manual. This woman doesn’t seem particularly happy or enthusiastic.








Hello,
I’m searching for the manual of an old camera, an agfa, it really looks like the one in your first pic, with the woman b and w.
do you have any idea where I could find some information about it??
Thanks a lot,
Brunella (from Brazil)
Hi Brunella,
the manual for the Agfa camera featured in the first picture is here.
Try browsing that Website to see if you can find the information you’re looking for. There are a lot of manuals for various old Agfa camera models in there.
Hope this helps
Cheers!
RM