Agfa Ambi Silette Lenses

Agfa Ambi Silette 35 mm rangefinder system, introduced in 1957 | 35 mm film rangefinder

Agfa Ambi Silette was the interchangeable-lens branch of the Silette rangefinder family. The camera kept a central shutter in the body and used dedicated Agfa lenses rather than adopting one of the broader German leaf-shutter bayonet standards.

The system was small: a 35 mm Color-Ambion, 50 mm Color-Solinar, 90 mm Color-Telinear, and later a 130 mm Color-Telinear. The finder supported switchable frame lines for the main focal lengths, and the camera remained closer in spirit to a premium compact rangefinder than to an open-system SLR.

In this catalog, the Ambi Silette mount keeps Agfa's interchangeable rangefinder lenses separate from fixed-lens Silette cameras and from Agfa Ambiflex SLR lenses, whose mechanical interface and lens set are different.