Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Agfa Optima Sensor

Agfa · Fixed lens · 24×36mm on 35mm film · 1976

Also known as: Agfa Optima Sensor · Agfa Optima 1035 · Agfa Optima 1535 · Agfa Optima 535 · Agfa Optima 335 · Agfa Optima 1028

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Optima 335 Sensor 35mm compact 1976 — None published for any model in the line
Optima 535 Sensor 35mm compact 1976 — None published
Optima 1035 Sensor 35mm compact 1976 — None published
Optima 1535 Sensor 35mm compact 1977 — None published
Optima 1028 Sensor 35mm compact 1976 — None published
  1. Mixed focusing inside one family: the 335, 535 and 1035 are zone focus, and the 1535 alone has a coupled rangefinder. The family is coded by the majority, and the 1535 is inside it rather than on its own page because Agfa sold it as the top of one line, in the same body under the same name, with the same lens — the rangefinder is a feature of a variant, not a different camera.
  2. The lens is the Solitar 40mm f/2.8, four elements in three groups and Tessar-derived, single-coated on the 535 and multicoated on the 1035 and 1535 (Casual Photophile). The 335 is reported with a three-element lens instead; the report is the reviewers' and no Agfa specification confirms it.
  3. No production figure has been published for any model. Practical scarcity today is governed by something else entirely: the programme runs off a light sensor and a 1.5 V cell, and most surviving cameras with dead electronics cannot expose at all.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The large soft red membrane over the shutter release — the 'Sensor' that names the series — on every model
  • Aluminium body under textured black plastic, in a sans-serif, Bauhaus-descended design that people buy for before they buy for the lens
  • Solitar 40mm f/2.8, four elements in three groups, Tessar-derived: single-coated on the 535, multicoated on the 1035 and 1535; the 335 is reported with three elements instead
  • Zone focus on the 335, 535 and 1035 — the family is coded by that majority — and a coupled rangefinder on the 1535 alone

Optima 335 Sensor:

  • The base model: top speed 1/300, and reported with a three-element lens where the rest of the line has four; plastic body

Optima 535 Sensor:

  • Top speed 1/500; single-coated Solitar 40mm f/2.8

Optima 1035 Sensor:

  • Top speed 1/1000 — the number in the name — with a multicoated Solitar
  • Zone focus with 5 ft, 15 ft and infinity marks shown in the finder, plus an unmarked close setting around 3 ft
  • Programme to 15-second exposures at the slow end; 1.5 V 625 cells, changed through the film back

Optima 1535 Sensor:

  • The only Sensor with a superimposed coupled rangefinder — which makes it the one model in this family that focuses like a rangefinder camera
  • Multicoated Solitar S 40mm f/2.8, four elements in three groups; electronically timed 15 s to 1/1000 s; focus 0.9 m to infinity; ASA 25–500 (Wikipedia, dating it 1977)
  • The bulkier body of the line, to house the rangefinder

Optima 1028 Sensor:

  • An export-market designation matching the 1035's specification

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film
Shutter
electronic programmed leaf shutter · to 1/300 (335), 1/500 (535) or 1/1000 (1035, 1535) — the model number states the top speed; the 1035 and 1535 run to 15 s at the slow end
Meter
Programmed exposure from a light sensor beside the lens, with a needle in the finder confirming the reading; the model number is the shutter ceiling the programme can reach.
Country
Germany

Where sources disagree

Years
  • 1976 for the line's introduction, with the 1035 the model reviewers date the redesign by (Casual Photophile)
  • 1977 for the 1535 specifically (Wikipedia)
  • Dates for the 335, 535 and 1028, and for the end of the line, differ between sources and no maker document settles them

Better supported: Unresolved

The dates conflict badly across sources and the entry says so rather than choose. The two firm points are a 1976 redesign and a 1977 date for the rangefinder 1535; everything else is a range. Agfa's own archive publishes nothing this entry could find.

Designers
  • Schlagheck & Schultes, the Munich industrial-design firm (widely repeated in collector writing, and in the comments beneath Casual Photophile's review)
  • No individual or firm named in the review text itself, which credits only the influence of Dieter Rams's 'less but better'

Better supported: Unresolved

The Schlagheck & Schultes attribution is everywhere in collector writing and nowhere this entry could trace to Agfa or to the firm. It is plausible — the firm designed for Agfa in the period — and it is carried here as the attribution it is, not as a fact.

What reviewers say

History

Agfa’s Optima Sensor is the compact people buy for the object. An aluminium body under textured black plastic, a sans-serif face, and — on every model in the line — a large, soft red membrane over the shutter release that gives the series its name. Casual Photophile’s reviewer credits the influence of Dieter Rams’s “less but better”; the collector literature names the Munich firm Schlagheck & Schultes as the designers, an attribution this entry could not trace to Agfa or to the firm and carries as the attribution it is. Either way, the 1976 redesign put an industrial-design object on the shelf where other makers had put a camera.

Behind the button is a Solitar 40mm f/2.8, four elements in three groups and Tessar-derived, and the model number tells you which one you have and how fast its shutter goes. The 335 stops at 1/300 and is reported with a three-element lens and a plastic body. The 535 reaches 1/500 with a single-coated Solitar. The 1035 reaches 1/1000 with a multicoated one, focuses by zone — 5 feet, 15 feet and infinity marked in the finder, with an unmarked close setting around 3 feet — and runs its programme down to fifteen-second exposures. The 1535 is the same again with a superimposed coupled rangefinder, which makes it the one model in the family that focuses like a rangefinder camera and the bulkiest, because the mechanism has to go somewhere. A 1028 sold for export matches the 1035.

That mixed focusing is the reason the family sits where it does. Three of the four bodies are zone-focus point-and-shoots, so the line is coded by its majority; the 1535 is inside it rather than on its own page because Agfa sold it as the top of one range, in the same body under the same name with the same lens, and a rangefinder added to a variant is a feature, not a different camera.

The dates do not agree with each other. The redesign is 1976; Wikipedia dates the 1535 to 1977; a collector’s page dates its own 1535 to 1979; the 335, 535 and 1028 and the end of the line are given differently by every source, and Agfa’s own archive publishes nothing this entry could find. The entry records the conflict rather than pick a year. No production figure exists for any model — and the practical scarcity today has nothing to do with production. The programme runs off a light sensor and a 1.5-volt cell, and most surviving Optimas with dead electronics cannot expose a frame. The ones that work are the ones that were kept dry.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo taken with the Agfa Optima Sensor
Agfa Optima sensor electronic — the orange sensor button — Alfred from Germany, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Sample photo taken with the Agfa Optima Sensor
Agfa Optima 535 sensor — Alfred from Germany, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Agfa Optima Sensor? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $190 across 27 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-11 (middle half $110–$300). Tracked since 2026-09-06, 2 days: unchanged from $190.

By day
DateMedianMiddle halfListings
2026-09-11$190$110–$30027
2026-09-06$190$110–$30027

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-11. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Rollei 35 · Minox 35 · Olympus XA2

Sources (4)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.