The BeLomo Elikon 535 was first released in 1990 and continued until the late 90s. It is a very similar to the Agat 18k half frame, built at the same time, but has the features from the Agat 18, built from 1984-89. It is
a very basic purely machanical camera. The camera's main features are:
35mm f/3.8 Minar-2 (3-group 3 element) lens, 1m-∞ Shutter speeds coupled to aperture, from 3.8 1/90 to 16 1/512 Size 103 x 68 x 454mm, Weight : 165 g ISO 50-400, hot shoe flash connection, tripod socket
Front. Shutter release button, viewer. Lens cover closed. Exposure setting via weather symbols, aperture is
indicated.
Lens cover open.
Seen from the back and above. Film rewind, hot shoe with cover, film counter. Viewer, film advance wheel.
Seen
from below. ISO setting (moving the slider slides the exposure
indication mark as well), rewind release, tripod socket. Exposure set
for dark clouds.
Seen from below. Exposure set to F16. Symbols indicate wrong setting.
Camera open
open.
Camera and its original box. This is a probably unused camera.
The camera and the box.
The Elikon 535 is a very light camera, easy to handle. The exposure system
via symbols works astonishingly well. It might teach you some basics
about the exposure of film. Exposure/aperture combinations according to
the Russian Wikipedia are:
3.8
4.6*
5.6
6.3*
7.1*
8
11
16
1/90
1/97
1/130
1/206
1/325
1/512
1/512
1/512
* intermediate settings
The camera takes
sharp pictures. It's for outdoor photos. With 400 ISO film it might take well lit interiors not far from the
window. There is a hot shoe for flash. No night photos, as 1/90 is the
longest exposure time. So this is a beautiful vintage camera of limited
use, but
it's much fun.
