© mike connealy

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From the mid-'50s to the mid-'60s the Agfa Clack was the pre-eminent family camera for many Europeans. The camera occupied a niche which in the U.S. was dominated by the Kodak Brownie Hawkeye Flash. Both of these simple box cameras were exceedingly well designed to appeal to their markets, and they produced images of approximately equal quality.     While I have great affection for the Hawkeye Flash, I have to admit that in several ways, the Clack is the better camera. The Agfa camera's eye-level viewfinder is easier to use in bright daylight. A single lever allows both aperture and distance adjustment. There is a tripod mount on the Clack to go along with the B shutter setting and the cable release fitting. And, finally, the efficient curved film path yields both a very compact, ergonomic design and excellent edge-to-edge image sharpness from a single-element meniscus lens. The Clack produced eight big 6x9 frames per 120 film roll, while the Hawkeye Flash yielded twelve 6x6 frames on 620-format film. One use for which I definitely prefer the Kodak box to the Agfa is for portrait work. I discussed the reasons for that along with some other technical considerations in a thread on photo.net's Classic Cameras Forum.	Some sample photos from the Clack click to enlarge                 More from the Clack: AT&SF 2926
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