Clack #

I've gotten quite a few pictures I like from my Agfa Clack. I've also had some inconsistent results, as have many others who have reported their experiences with the camera. A recent post by Mark Hahn about the Clack got me to thinking about the cameras performance, and I resolved to approach the questions with more systematic discipline than I can usually muster.

My first step was to examine the image at the camera's film plane at both the normal and close-up settings. Since the film plane on the Clack is curved, a piece of ground glass cannot be used, so I cut a piece of clear plastic the size of the frame, and to that I applied a layer of Scotch Magic tape to the side facing the lens. I taped that to the film gate and held the shutter open with a cable release. That let me examine the image closely with a magnifying lens, which is a bit dim because of the small apertures available.

I was surprised to find that the areas of sharp focus were quite different from what is marked on the camera. The near focus setting on the Clack says "3 ft. to 10ft.", and the normal setting unassisted by the interior supplemental lens says "10 ft. to infinity". My examination of the actual projected images showed a sharp near-focus distance of 7 feet, while the minimum sharp focus at the normal setting was closer to 12 ft. than the indicated 10 ft.

The other big variable with the Clack, or any simple camera, is the steadiness which is maintained during exposure, which in the Clack takes place in about 1/30th of a second. With that in mind, I clamped the camera securely to my SLIK tripod and used a cable release for all the shots on a test roll of TMAX 100, later developed in TMAX developer.

Here are a couple shots at the 12 ft. to infinity range along a bike path in central Albuquerque:





No surprises in those; the images are pretty uniformly sharp at all distances, and the curved film plane combined with the well-ground meniscus lens only shows a little softness around the margins.

At home, I set up the camera on the tripod in my living room and made an exposure of about one second. The distance from the film plane to the front of the basket on the bike to the left was a measured 7 feet.



A 100% enlargement of the 1200 dpi scan of the central portion of the image shows good sharpness, which extends about 6 inches fore and aft. Looking at the tire on the bike to the right, the sharpness rapidly deteriorates only a short distance closer to the camera.



Clearly, relying on the marked distances around the Clack's lens is a formula for inconsistent results, which undermines the cameras considerable potential, particularly at the near setting. The other related conclusion I derived from this test is that the Clack would not be my first choice for making portraits with a box camera. The 7 ft. focal distance just doesn't put enough face space onto the 6x9 negative to do justice to a portrait. This is the one area of use where I think the Brownie Hawkeye Flash offers better performance provided you have the No.13 accessory lens which allows a focal distance of 3.5 ft.