Bronze medalist: 
Agfa Synchro Box

As the Quartz 5 film camera is still Under Deconstruction -at a steady pace of two steps forward, one step back- I’d like to present one I did earlier, in order to keep myself mo- and my audience captivated. I proudly present: The Agfa Synchro Box.

Though the rust would suggest otherwise, the Synchro Box isn’t all that old. This photo camera was produced in the 1950s. And again, though the rust would suggest otherwise, it was a fine piece of German Engineering. The only part that’s remarkably rust-free is the front panel, which is made from another type of metal -I’m guessing aluminium.

What struck me most about this camera, was the built-in filter -that’s the little yellow dot in the picture. Sure, only one filter seems quite skimpy by today’s standards, but please remember you got the Grainy, Vintage and Vignette filters thrown in for free back then.

Another striking feature was the presence of not one, but two viewfinders. Each with its own lens and mirror -nothing but a shiny piece of metal, really. And both are at an angle. Usually, the viewfinder is in line with the actual lens, but in this case both are perpendicular to it. So in order to take a picture of something in front of you. you’d have to actually either look down through the top viewfinder, or turn 90 degrees to your left and look through the side viewfinder. Little wonder then that many Synchro Box users developed dissociative disorders.

And that’s why I love the Agfa Synchro Box. In a detached, sideways way.

For those who find safety or comfort in numbers: this Deconstruction consists of 72 parts -a nice number, as it’s the amount of hours in three days, or the recommended amount of hours of sleep in nine days, and 1:72 was the scale of all the Matchbox model aircraft I built as a kid.
Printed at 300 dpi this Deconstruction would be 195 by 146 centimetres, making it the third largest I’ve ever produced. Yay, bronze medal for the rusty trusty Synchro Box!