The Automatica was made in Italy by Durst, a company better known for its enlargers, and it’s an aperture priority automatic camera, possibly the first.

 

This is a very sleek camera, with the wind lever positioned flush with the top pate, only rising above the body when winding. The rewind knob is also flush and pops up when you press the rewind button on the base. The lens is a 45mm f/2.8 Durst Radionar.

 

It can be used manually, setting shutter speeds and apertures in the usual way. But turn a lever beside the lens from ‘O’ to ‘A’ then twist the shutter ring to ‘300 automat’ and you’re in auto mode. First the film speed is set from 6-400 ASA on a ring around the lens. This locks in an aperture which can no longer be changed. It corresponds to f/2.8 for 6 ASA, f/22 for 400 ASA and everything in between. Press the shutter release and a needle swings across a scale in the top plate to indicate the chosen speed as it fires. What makes that happen is a little complicated.

 

Pressing the shutter button activates a plunger which builds up pressure inside a small tube. As the meter needle reacts to light to move across its scale, it simultaneously moves a wedge containing a series of different size openings that travels across the mouth of the tube. The pressure in the tube changes according to the opening and that, in turn, fires the shutter whose speed is set depending on how far the needle moves and hence the pressure in the tube.

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