[HN Gopher] My Dad's Argus C3 (2019)
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My Dad's Argus C3 (2019)
Author : brudgers
Score : 37 points
Date : 2021-08-05 00:06 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bhphotovideo.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bhphotovideo.com)
| gurchik wrote:
| Having had no interest in photography before, in the last month I
| now have suddenly obtained two different classic film SLRs (a 70s
| Pentax K1000 and a 60s Minolta SRT101) from different family
| members. I have enjoyed learning how SLRs work and it fascinates
| me how all the mechanicals function flawlessly in fractions of a
| second.
|
| I most enjoy being able to fix them with my bare hands. These
| cameras are over 50 years old and still work just fine. They
| hadn't been taken care of particularly well, but it always
| surprises me what you can fix with some rubbing alcohol and new
| screws when there aren't digital components inside. Contrasting
| this with a DSLR with a broken sensor that might be thrown in a
| landfill, I bet these cameras could still function well in
| another 50 years.
| quercusa wrote:
| I ran hundreds of rolls through a SRT101 before retiring it in
| favor of a Nikon FE2. The SRT is dinged and scratched; it has a
| patch on the cloth shutter; but I suspect it would work just
| was well as ever.
| potta_coffee wrote:
| My grandfather passed his K1000 to me, it works flawlessly and
| is an amazing camera. He taught me photography when I was a kid
| and took photos of us at Disneyland in the 80's with this
| camera. It's the one thing I'd save from a house fire if I had
| to choose.
| dougSF70 wrote:
| 100% Mechanical cameras are amazingly resilient. Nikon F and F2
| models will last a very long time. And rumor has it, Nikkor
| lenses from pre 1967 get better with age.
| codr7 wrote:
| I started out on a 40-ish year old Leica M3 with original
| Summicron, needless to say I've been chasing the feeling ever
| since I moved on to more convenient alternatives.
|
| I would give my right arm for an affordable (as in not Leica
| hipster priced) digital range finder with similar feels and
| capabilities.
| matthewmcg wrote:
| Have you tried out the Fuji X100 and its later iterations? Yes,
| it's autofocus or electronic "manual" focus with a faux-
| coincident rangefinder mode and a fixed lens, but it's about
| 1/10th the price of a digital M-series Leica and lens. I've had
| an X100S for almost nine years and still use it daily. I really
| like how compact it is and I feel like I've learned through
| practice how to anticipate moving subjects and compose decently
| well with the frame lines in the optical viewfinder.
| codr7 wrote:
| Yep, I owned one of those for some time.
|
| Definitely the best one so far, but still not even close.
|
| I don't want any gizmos, just great optics in a solid
| rangefinder body with a non-toy optical viewfinder, large
| sensor and convenient controls.
| graycat wrote:
| I remember the Argus C3!
|
| Lesson: Technology moves ahead and certainly did for photography!
| We have gone through several steps of astounding.
|
| In the 9th grade, to take pictures and be more _popular_ , I
| wanted a camera. So I went shopping, saw expensive Leica cameras,
| etc. Then I saw an Argus C3 -- I had a shot at saving enough
| lunch money for that. So, I started saving. My parents happened
| to see my savings and asked what I was doing. Dad was nice,
| chipped in some more, and returned from work with a good Argus C3
| collection, including a light meter, carrying case, flash, etc.
| He had bought all that at a good discount at the US Navy base
| where he worked.
|
| Mom was the secretary at a church so knew a lot of people in the
| congregation including one, a sports photographer for a local
| newspaper. Hearing about my interest in photography, he
| volunteered to take me on a photo shoot!
|
| So we went to the next basketball game of my school. We decided
| not to use flash but just to use _available light_ where in the
| dark room he would _push_ the film, Kodak Tri-X, to a higher ISO
| _speed_ than the default 400.
|
| So, at the game I exposed a full roll of the film. Then in the
| dark room of the newspaper, he _pushed_ the film to ISO 1600 or
| some such, and we made some 8 x 10 " prints.
|
| The prints were good! For printing, he _cropped_ the images to
| make more interesting composition.
|
| The next school day, I took the prints with me, and, yup,
| instantly I, or at least the prints, was popular!
|
| For developing I got a little unit that worked without a
| darkroom, that is, worked in a room with normal lighting.
|
| To help me make a darkroom, dark enough for printing if not for
| developing, out of the bathroom, Dad put some shutters on the
| outside of the window. Someone gave me an old enlarger.
|
| Alas, the enlarger was for 4 x 5" Speed Graphic camera film. So,
| to enlarge a 35 mm negative from the Argus C3 to an 8 x 10"
| print, I would have had to have put the photo paper on the floor
| with the enlarger head maybe 10' higher!
|
| Basically soon I found that developing and printing 8 x 10"
| images was for me in the 9th grade with associated meager
| financial resources, in short, too expensive.
|
| So, I retreated to Kodak Kodachrome color film and color slides!
|
| But with a little more money, working with black and white 35 mm
| film and that Argus camera could be not wildly expensive, easy to
| do, with some nice results, and a lot of fun.
|
| About then I had a girlfriend, the prettiest human female I ever
| saw, in person or otherwise. We went outside where she leaned
| back against a tree trying to look pretty -- she was very
| successful -- and I exposed the roll!
|
| Alas, eventually in moving, off to college, etc. I lost those
| color slides and the whole Argus C3 collection.
|
| The Argus C3 was the main _prop_ in the fun, curious, heavily CGI
| (computer generated images) movie _Sky Captain and the World of
| Tomorrow_ with, e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow carrying around the Argus!
|
| Later when my career was going well, my wife had a girl friend
| who visited us and brought a Nikon SLR (single lens reflex)
| camera. I was hooked! Soon my boss at work was taking a trip to
| Japan, and I paid him enough to bring back a nice collection of
| Nikon camera equipment. These items I did NOT lose and still
| have! The lenses, the whole collection, are astounding!
|
| There is a lesson: Actually, in usual practice, the Nikon
| equipment is not as much better than the Argus equipment as might
| be guessed: Some wide angle, telephoto, macro, f1.2 lens,
| although gorgeous optics, just is not much more useful than the
| f3.5 lens and the rest of the Argus. For the Argus, just don't
| try to take pictures in nearly impossible conditions and,
| instead, stay closer to ordinary pictures with ordinary light.
|
| The Nikon equipment is still useful: Just have the film developed
| to a CD (compact disk) of JPG (joint photographic experts group)
| files!
|
| But technology moves ahead: Glancing at the description of the
| iPhone 12 Pro Max, it's back to astounding-land again. It's
| unfair to call its photo capabilities those of just a camera.
|
| So in ~100 years we have had several levels of astounding, Kodak
| Brownie, Speed Graphic, Leica, Argus, Nikon, SLRs with electronic
| sensors, smartphones, soon the iPhone 12 Pro Max, and maybe in
| other _form factors_ much more.
|
| Since now we are in line for billions of people with very capable
| little shirt pocket cameras, movie cameras, CGI and editing
| capabilities, etc., we should see a river, no, rapidly flowing
| oceans, of _content_ , the best of it well into astounding-land.
|
| When electronics started growing in importance, some people
| expected a lot, but did anyone really expect what we have now?
| frompdx wrote:
| Great story about going on the photo shoot with the pro. I too
| have done the bathroom darkroom, as well as a basement
| darkroom. Most will be surprised to learn that a darkroom for
| making prints doesn't need to be all that light tight. I've
| meant to build a darkroom in my current house complete with all
| of the bells and whistles of a darkroom sink and film changing
| room. The pandemic delayed my plans a little, but one of these
| days I'll get to it.
|
| I think there were a lot of clues along the way that people
| would embrace the current world of smartphone cameras, but I
| don't think it was obvious at the time. The "selfie" has been
| around for ever. My first cell phone had a mirror on the front
| so you could properly compose your own selfie. MySpace (and
| others) really popularized sharing these images. Instagram
| found a niche popularizing the hyperreality of the digitally
| edited selfie.
| frompdx wrote:
| This is the camera that sparked my interest in rangefinder
| cameras. My Grandpa mentioned one day how much he used to want an
| Argus C3 but never got one. I had no idea what it was or why it
| was special. I looked it up and discovered it was a rangefinder
| camera. That first step into the rabbit hole left me lusting for
| a rangefinder of my own, especially a Leica. Eventually, I picked
| up a Leica M2, which I still have to this day. I have also
| collected many other film cameras. Too many.
|
| One day I got a phone call from an employee at the photo lab I
| used to frequent. They mentioned someone had left a couple of
| boxes of old cameras that they had no use for and asked if I was
| interested. It was quite the treasure trove of odds and ends. In
| one of the boxes was an Argus C3. I gave it to my Grandpa. I have
| it again now that he's gone. It needs some work and isn't usable
| in its current condition. I mostly hang on to it for the sake of
| nostalgia.
|
| If it weren't for the Argus, and my Grandpa, I don't know that I
| would have ever developed the interest in photography that I have
| today. I was certainly interested, but discovering this
| practically unknown (to me in 2005) type of camera was truly the
| thing that made me fall in love with film cameras. In 2010 I
| wondered how long I would be able to continue shooting film. I
| decided to sell all of my digital gear and go all in on film. I
| still shoot only film to this day. There's less film to choose
| from, fewer places to have it processed, and it's more expensive
| than it used to be. There's something special about film that
| digital can't touch or replicate. To me, digital is too
| disposable. The usable life of a digital camera is measured in
| years, maybe even months. Film cameras last decades. Some maybe
| even centuries. I plan to keep shooting film as long as I can.
| bicx wrote:
| I have an Argus C3. Didn't even realize I could still buy film
| for it! (edit: hah it's just 35mm.... I'm dumb.)
| frompdx wrote:
| You should buy a roll for it. Black and white is probably the
| best choice for the lens it has. Try a roll of HP5 or TX400. If
| there are no local photo labs there are plenty that you can
| mail film to for processing. You might discover something you
| enjoy about the process.
| Vrondi wrote:
| I picked one of these up at a yard sale in the late 1990s for the
| bargain price of $1.00 US. The gent who sold it to me said he'd
| taken it to WWII with him when he was young. I've put a few rolls
| of film through it over the years, and it still works perfectly.
| Also, it weighs enough that the name "the brick" can't have only
| been inspired by the boxy shape. Built like a tank, indeed.
| frompdx wrote:
| There was something unique about cameras made in the US. Not as
| elegant as their German or Japanese counterparts. Very robust
| and industrial.
| [deleted]
| Finnucane wrote:
| I had one of these as a kid, in the early 1970s. It was my first
| 35mm camera, and I'm sure I was given it because someone got it
| cheap or free. As the article states, they were made in huge
| numbers, and even now, there's still a lot of them flaoting
| around. It was kind of a pain to use because it wasn't it good
| condition.
|
| (Later, my dad gave me his Nikon F, which I still have, so bye-
| bye Argus).
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(page generated 2021-08-06 23:01 UTC)