For as long as I can remember, the heavy chunk of black Bakelite and chrome nicknamed “The Brick,” was a staple on a shelf in my parents’ living room. Officially known as the Argus C3, this solid pointy-edged rangefinder is said to be one of the most popular cameras in history, selling about 2 million units during its extraordinary 27-year production run, from 1939 to 1966.
While this camera belonged to my father, I have little memory of him using it, and even less of a sense for when and how he acquired it, or which images were made with the Argus when sifting through many decades of disorganized family snapshots squirreled away in cardboard boxes at home.
By the time I was in grade school, my father had largely abandoned the dials and knobs of this stately machine for the automatic exposure controls of a Kodak Brownie Auto 27. And while it’s easy to distinguish the square-format prints that Kodak generated from the mountain of other memories that make up our family picture collection, determining which of the earlier pictures were made with the Argus is indeed a mystery.
The American Leica
The company behind the Argus C3 was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Charles A. Verschoor, in 1931. Initially a radio manufacturer, an early product, the Kadette, was the first mass-produced AC/DC radio, using tubes instead of a large transformer. Although successful, radio sales were highly seasonal in the days before air conditioning, dropping off in summer months as people abandoned indoor entertainment for outdoor pursuits. To keep his factory and salesmen working all year, Verschoor searched for a product that could be cheaply manufactured and sold during the warmer half of the year.
He was impressed by the early 35mm Leica cameras he saw during a business trip to Germany, and came up with a plan to adopt the same Bakelite molding technology used for radio casings, to make an affordable camera that would be similar to the Leica. From its debut in early 1936, Verschoor’s initial model A camera was a huge success, prompting him to name his new product line Argus, from the Greek mythological god of 1,000 eyes.
Designed and patented by Gustave Fassin, in 1938, the first Argus C model cameras were uncoupled rangefinders, which required the user to manually rotate the lens barrel to match the rangefinder reading. An upgraded model, the Argus C2, provided a coupled rangefinder, and in 1939 the Argus C3 added built-in flash synchronization via an accessory flash gun.
Determining Provenance
Turning back to my treasure trove of photos, I found some handwritten notes on the back of certain dog-eared prints indicating that my father had a camera in his possession during World War II. Could he have purchased the Argus C3 shortly after its release, before shipping out to basic training as a 20-year-old, and then on to the Canal Zone, and Europe? Whatever camera he had, it was certainly a model with a bulb setting—which the Argus C3 possessed—based on all the forerunners to selfie culture I found among his prints, along with a note scribbled on the back of a picture of him reclining in his bunk, describing his shooting process.
The extreme popularity of the Argus C3 has made it a cult classic, even though the company ceased production of this model in 1966. Turning to the Internet, I soon found a website that allows Argus owners to estimate a camera’s manufacturing date based on the camera’s serial number. If that data is accurate, my father’s camera was likely made in 1951, an ownership date that seems more plausible, as my father would have then been 32 years old, and in the process of building our house. Indeed, I have a vivid memory of a collection of spiral-bound albums showing every step of the construction process. Although these albums have since been disassembled, a large pile of surviving prints offers evidence that he was playing with a new toy while climbing scaffolding and driving nails.
According to some accounts, the public was captivated by the camera’s scientific appearance, with all its shiny metal dials and knobs on the front, along the top, and on the bottom. As a former airplane mechanic, and a newly minted electrician, and having the budding reputation as “mister fix-it,” it’s not hard to imagine my dad being drawn to what at the time was a powerful mix of deluxe features and affordable cost.
Operating the Camera
While the C3’s brick-like body has little in common with modern ergonomics, there is something satisfying about the weight of this camera in the hands. Looking down at the jet-black top surface, metal dials at left and right control the shutter release and film winding, while a rudimentary frame counter sits squarely on top, backed by a small hexagonal film catch. The shutter button has two settings—B for bulb and I for Instantaneous—marked on its chrome skirt, and the top of the button is threaded for the addition of a cable release.
Adjacent to the shutter release, the metal teeth of the rangefinder gear protrude from the top along the camera’s front edge, allowing the user to turn the rangefinder dial with their shutter finger, which engages the idler gear to focus the lens.
To the right of the rangefinder dial, two rectangular windows are home to separate finders: the viewfinder, which is used to compose a picture, and the rangefinder, which is used to focus with the aid of a split image. As you turn the rangefinder dial the two halves of the image move into or out of register, with the bottom half of the finder window tinted yellow as a visual aid. When the top and bottom halves line up at your desired focal point, your subject will be in focus. Alternatively, you can zone focus by turning the lens itself and estimating the subject-to-lens distance from the rangefinder dial.
A shutter speed dial in the upper right front corner controls the length of time the shutter will be open to light, with different versions of the camera offering a range of five, seven, or ten different speeds between 1/10 to 1/300 second.
Tying all these elements together is the camera lens, which is interchangeable due to the placement of the three-leaf shutter inside the camera body itself, not between the lens elements. A screw mount lens plate above the shutter mechanism accepts three different lenses, the default being a 50mm f/3.5 anastigmat triplet lens, the Argus Coated Cintar. My father also owned the 100mm f/4.5 Tele-Sandmar, made by Enna Werk, in Germany, while a C3 wide-angle lens also offered a 35mm f/4.5 focal length, ideal for group shots and working in tight spaces.
Calibrating the Lens for Proper Rangefinder Focusing
Since the lens is coupled to the rangefinder dial, to ensure proper focus it’s essential to carefully follow outlined steps when removing or replacing different lenses. When running my first roll of film through the camera, I overlooked these instructions, and the film ended up completely blurred. The text below is taken from the Argus C3 instruction manual, which proved to be all I needed for acceptable image sharpness. Yet, if that doesn’t work, more advanced instructions about correcting the rangefinder settings by removing a small circular dial on top of the camera can be found online.
To remove lens: Set the Rangefinder dial to the 3-foot mark, then unscrew the Idler Gear cap and lift out the gear, before unscrewing the lens by turning to the left.
To replace lens: Screw it back into the camera by turning to the right, past the resistance point until it is seated firmly. Then turn the lens back towards the left until a wide range of gear teeth are opposite the Idler Gear shaft.
Drop the Idler Gear into place on its metal post, and then turn the lens back to the right as far as it will go. This will position the lens at the infinity mark. Remove the Idler Gear, being careful not to disturb the lens position. Set the rangefinder dial exactly to infinity by turning it to the right and replace the Idler Gear without disturbing the positions of the lens or the Rangefinder dial.
Set the Rangefinder dial at the 3-foot mark, and screw on the Idler Gear cap. The camera is now ready for pictures!
Running Film
My father’s camera offers a purely analog shooting experience, with neither a battery or light meter to rein you in (although a later version, the Argus C3 Matchmatic, did boast an exposure meter on top). While it is feasible to use the Sunny 16 Rule as an exposure guide, I opted to use the meter in my miniscule Sony RX100 V as a digital chimp sheet of sorts, to speed the shooting process.
Film is easily loaded into the camera by depressing the side latch and swinging open the back door, securing the film canister against the prong of the rewind knob, and threading the end of the film through a slot in the take up spindle at the other end. This method of loading film was much easier than Leica’s removable bottom panel design, which no doubt contributed to the Argus’s popularity during that era, in addition to its lower cost.
On top of the camera, the film advance knob is clearly marked with an arrow and the word wind, but to initiate a photo one must first activate the shutter cocking lever on the front. The rudimentary nature of using separate functions for cocking the shutter and advancing the film, combined with the complexity of rangefinder focusing, and the guesswork of proper exposure calculations, makes for a plodding, multi-step process, which can be a haven for error.
One of the easiest and most prevalent mistakes to make occurs when the user exposes a picture but forgets to advance the film before cocking the shutter and shooting a second frame, thereby double-exposing. When not caused by a moment of forgetfulness, double exposure has great potential for creative expression, and arguments can even be made for the validity of double exposures caused by chance. However, when shooting with this camera, it’s advisable to adopt the concentration and presence of mind generally associated with large format analog photography, for best results.
Therefore, immediately after tripping the shutter, direct your attention to the black numbered film counter, and more specifically to the hexagonal metal tab—otherwise known as the film catch—at the back of the counter. To advance the film, begin winding the advance knob while pressing the film catch, and release the catch after a quarter turn. Then continue winding until the point of resistance, which means that you’ve arrived at the next frame. Repeat the process as you watch the film counter advance from one hash mark to the next. Once you encounter continuous resistance when trying to advance the film you’ve arrived at the end of the roll.
To rewind, simply turn the knurled winding knob at the bottom of the camera in the direction of the arrow using slow gentle pressure. In my experience, film sprockets are prone to tearing during the rewinding process, so it may be advisable to have a film changing bag handy in case you need to extract the film by opening the camera before it’s completely back in its case.
Final Thoughts on Use
Considering the vagaries of framing pictures through the C3’s tiny, well-worn viewfinder, and ascertaining sharpness through a rangefinder that sometimes seems to function more like a Kaleidoscope, I was pleasantly surprised with some of my pictures. To be clear, this would not be an enjoyable tool for any photographer seeking precision or ease of use, yet as I began to settle into the process, I began to have fun exploring the camera’s limits, using a roll of Ilford Delta 400 black-and-white film.
During a walk through Central Park, I was attracted by group of gnarled trees adjacent to a meadow. It was a bright sunny day, but the trees cast dappled sunlight, allowing me to open my 50mm f/3.5 Argus Coated Cintar lens to a wide aperture. After toying with the rangefinder focus in an overview shot, I decided to test its 3-foot minimum focal length in a close-up. At that distance, it’s much easier to adjust focus by moving the camera itself until the two halves of the rangefinder match up in the desired spot, rather than turning the rangefinder gear.
Once I had explored photo options in the park for a while, I made my way to Fifth Avenue and began photographing some of the stately monuments on my way to Rockefeller Center. Discovering the Atlas statue adorned with fresh flowers, I studied the monument from all sides to look for interesting angles. The midafternoon sun was beating down from the southwest, creating a strong backlight effect that I knew would be a great test for lens flare. Although the glare made it barely possible to focus or frame the shot below at right, the lens captured a much better picture than I had anticipated, with just a thin veil of flare along the bottom part of the image.
The images I shot were hand-developed using Ilford ID 11 at a dilution of 1:3 for 18 minutes. All the pictures in this story (prints and negatives) were scanned on an Epson Perfection V600 Photo Scanner.
And, about the camera my father used during World War II. After much searching, I discovered an old picture album full of prints he had made during this period. While flipping through the pages, I happened upon a folded piece of white paper, which I opened to find an official note from his Commanding Officer, dated August 7, 1941, authorizing him to own a camera, which at that time was an Argus Model A, serial # 199578. Sadly, I have no idea where that camera is today.
Did you ever own or use an Argus C3 camera? If so, please tell us about it by leaving a comment below.
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