Kodak Signet 50

The Kodak Signet 50 basically is the Kodak Signet 30 with a selenium cell exposure meter built in. It was sold from 1957 through 1960 and the original list price of $82.50 in 1957 dollars had the purchasing power of $767 in depreciated 2019 dollars. The succeeding Kodak Automatic 35 had a similar body.

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Exposure Meter

Aperture and Shutter Speed Rings

Exposure Value Ring (f/8 at 1/60 second equals EV 12)

The body was molded resin with metal parts. The film advance lever and the tripod socket are on the bottom. The exposure meter, an accessory shoe and the rewind knob are on the top. A slot for a film reminder card is on the back. Kodak provided for its 35 mm films reminder cards with exposure guides to fit the holder. The exposure counter and the shutter release are on the front. The cable release is on the die of the shutter. A pin-and-screw attachment for a "Kodalite" flasholder is on the side of the camera.

The lens is a three element, coated, f/2.8-22 44 mm Kodak Ektanar lens with front cell focusing. The lens focuses as close as 2.5 feet. The distance scale is marked for zone focusing (Scenes, Groups and Close-up) and distances in feet. The lens has thorium glass and is slightly radioactive. The shutter is a Kodak Synchro 250 shutter with speeds of 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125 and 1/250 second plus B (bulb). The shutter speed and aperture settings are interlocked and an EV scale is provided. A depth of field scale is provided.

The selenium cell exposure meter has film speed settings from ASA 10 to 400. The meter readout is in exposure values from 5 to 18. To set the camera to an exposure value you set the shutter speed, then push in the aperture ring and move the red exposure value index mark to the needed exposure value on the scale at the bottom of the lens. In addition to the meter reading you can use exposure values from the exposure guide on a Kodak film card. The card for a given Kodak film can be inserted in the holder on the back of the camera.

The viewfinder has bright frame lines with parallax correction marks for 3 feet and 5 feet distances. The word "wind" appears in the field of view to remind you to advance the film after taking a picture.

The film advance is by a lever on the bottom of the camera. The exposure counter, located on the front of the camera, resets to zero when the back of the camera is opened, and counts up. The rewind knob lifts for rewinding the film. The is a tiny rewind release on the front of the camera, near the exposure counter.

This is a nice, easy to use camera. The viewfinder is very good. The lens is adequate.

New Filters on Old Lenses

Cameras from the era when they actually made 35 mm cameras in the US commonly used drop-in filters, usually Series V (1-3/16" or 30 mm diameter) or Series VI (1-5/8" or 41 mm diameter) size, that fit either an adapter that was slipped on or threaded into the lens, or a retaining ring that was part of the lens. Series V or VI drop-in filters apparently are no longer made. Old filters, especially polarizers, are not always available in good condition. It is possible to use a threaded step-up ring instead of the original threaded insert to attach a modern screw-in filter in place of a drop-in filter. The retaining ring on a Series V adapter has a thread diameter of 1-5/16" (33.3 mm) and a Series VI has 1-3/4" (44.5 mm). A 33.5 mm to 52 mm step-up ring (lens to filter) can replace a Series V insert and a 44 mm to 52 mm step-up ring can replace a Series VI insert. The thread pitch and diameters don't exactly match, but both fit the adapters I have without jamming or being too loose, and let me use the modern 52 mm filters I already have with old cameras. One problem is that on some cameras the edge of the filter intrudes on the field of view of the viewfinder. You can find step rings from on-line sellers like Amazon or B&H Photo. You can find Series adapter rings on eBay.

Adapter ring, original insert and step-up ring

Adapter ring and step-up ring threaded together, ready for a modern filter

Argus Super Seventy-Five (1954-1958)

The Argus Super Seventy-Five is a version of the Argus Seventy-five with a focusing lens, three aperture stops and a single speed shutter. It is similar to a Kodak Duaflex camera with a Kodar lens. Argus made the Super Seventy-Five from 1954 through 1958.  The Super Seventy-Five was a successor to the Argus 40 (https://fourelementsinthreegroups.blogspot.com/2019/02/argus-40-1950-1954.html).

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Exposure Guide

The body of the camera is molded phenolic resin with metal trim and a metal back. The bottom has a tripod socket and an Argus 76 flasholder can plug into the left side. The inside of the viewfinder hood has an exposure guide with camera setting instructions. The body is nearly the same as the Argus 40 and the Argus 75.

The lens is an f/8, front cell focusing triplet with a 65 mm focal length. The closest focusing distance is 3-1/2 ft. The aperture stops are round openings in a revolving plate that can be set only at f/8, f/11 or f/16. You can't set the aperture to intermediate values. The distance scale on the front lens cell is color coded for flash settings. From 6 ft. to 9 ft. you want to set the aperture at f/16 (yellow), from 9 ft. to about 13 ft. f/11 (red) and from about 13 ft. to 18 ft. f/8 (green).

The shutter can be set for "Instantaneous" (about 1/50 of a second) or "Time" (the shutter stays open as long as the shutter button is pressed).

The camera takes twelve 2-1/4" square pictures on size 620 film. The film advance knob is on the right side of the camera. You control the film spacing by looking through the little red window at the numbers on the backing paper. The shutter and film advance are interlocked to prevent you from pressing the shutter button until you have advanced the film.

Argus Seventy-five (1949-1958) and Argus 75 (1959-1964)

The Seventy-five is a simple camera with a fixed focus lens and a single speed shutter. Argus began to make the Argus Seventy-five, a simplified version of the Argoflex EF twin lens reflex camera, in 1949 and continued to produce it until 1958. The Argus 75 has a restyled exterior with the color changed from black to dark brown and a different pattern on the metal trim, but otherwise is the same camera, and was made from 1959 to 1964.

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The body is molded phenolic resin plastic with metal trim and a die-cast metal back. There is a tripod socket on the bottom. An Argus 76 flash gun plugs into the side. The body appears to be nearly the same as the Argus 40 and the Argus Super Seventy-five. A carrying case was available.

The lens is a simple meniscus with a focal length of 75 mm and a fixed aperture of about f/13. Pictures are acceptably sharp with the subject seven or more feet away. A slip-on closeup lens was available for head-and-shoulder portraits from about three or four feet away.

The shutter is a rotary type with a speed of about 1/50 of a second. The shutter is cocked when the film winding knob is turned and a red flag appears behind the lens to tell the photographer that the camera is ready to take a picture. After the picture is taken the red flag disappears to tell you to advance the film. This simple double exposure prevention system eliminates one common amateur mistake, although it is still possible to overlap frames by winding too little, or skip a frame by accidentally winding too far. A small lever near the shutter button lets you switch from "instantaneous" (1/50 second) to "time" (the shutter stays open as long as you press the shutter button).

The viewfinder is a large, bright, waist-level brilliant viewfinder. A brilliant viewfinder has two positive lenses and a mirror, and produces a mirror reversed, but upright, image. A brilliant finder does not show whether the subject is in focus. On a 75 the taking lens sees a wider scene than the viewfinder does. This feature does reduce the chance of cutting off the top of the subject's head in the picture, but you might also get extraneous detail around the edge of the picture that you didn't see in the viewfinder.

The cameras take twelve 2-1/4" square pictures on a roll of Kodak 620 or Agfa PB20 film. You space the pictures on the film by looking through the little red window at the numbers printed on the backing paper. They will work with modern 120 size film if it is re-spooled onto a 620 spool. Size 120 films can't be used as-is with these cameras because the film spools are too big to fit. 620 film is the same as 120 film except for the spool it is wound on, which means you can re-spool a roll of 120 film onto an old 620 spool to use in these cameras. You need to re-spool in total darkness inside a darkroom or inside a film changing bag. For daylight pictures you need to use 100 speed black and white or color film.

The Seventy-fives are similar to the Kodak Duaflex with a Kodet lens, the Ansco Rediflex, the Spartus Full-Vue, and others. These are family snapshot cameras for sunny days outdoors or for flash pictures indoors. The list price in 1950 was $14.89, which was roughly equivalent in buying power to $140 in depreciated 2019 dollars. Old Seventy-fives are fairly easy to take apart and clean. They are so simple mechanically that there isn't much to go wrong.

Argus A-four (1953-1956)

The Argus A-four is an inexpensive camera that works and looks a little like the Kodak Pony 135. The viewfinder is a reverse galilean type. The lens is a coated Argus Cintar f/3.5 44mm triplet with front cell focusing. Aperture settings (f/3.5 to f/22) are on the top of the lens. The shutter is a set and release, rim-set leaf shutter with speeds of 1/25, 1/50, 1/100 and 1/200 second plus bulb. For ordinary sunny daylight pictures there are shutter speed reminders on the bottom of the lens: red for black and white film (1/100) and yellow for color film (1/50), and there is a black reminder for flash (1/25). The aperture scale on the top of the lens is color coded for sunny daylight settings with red for black and white (f/8) and yellow for color (between f/5.6 and f/8). The shutter was made by AGC in Calmbach, West Germany. The back comes off for loading film. The exposure counter is manually set to the number of pictures on the roll and counts down to show the number of exposures left. To take a picture you cock the shutter by moving the lever on the top of the lens and press the shutter release lever on the side of the lens. To advance the film for the next picture you rotate the wind knob on the top right. The shutter release and the film advance are interlocked to prevent double exposures or skipped frames. When you reached the end of the roll you rewound the film by pressing the chrome lever on the back and rotating the rewind knob on the top left. The lens takes a slip-on 1-3/16" (30mm) Series V filter adapter.

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The camera really was a late bloomer because Kodak had the similar Pony 135 out three years before Argus brought out the A-4.

Perfex Speed Candid (1938-1939)

The Perfex Speed Candid 35 mm camera was produced by the Candid Camera Corporation of America, Chicago, Illinois. The Candid Camera Corporation of America (later just Camera Corporation of America) was one of the companies formed to exploit the miniature camera craze of the 1930s. The Perfex Speed Candid is notable for its steam-punk appearance. The main body was molded from a phenolic resin and has a chrome plated steel face. The face of the camera has the shutter release button and a Graf Perfex Anastigmat f/2.8-22 50 mm lens in a helical focusing mount. The lens has three elements and was made by Graf Optical, Chicago, Illinois. Later Perfex cameras had lenses by Wollensak, Rochester, New York. The top of the camera has a film advance knob, a film advance release button, an exposure counter, an uncoupled split-image range finder, the shutter cocking knob and speed selector (1/25, 1/50, 1/75, 1/100, 1/200, 1/500 and Bulb), and a reverse galilean viewfinder. The back of the camera is made from cast steel and has an exposure calculator and two sliding latches. The bottom of the camera has a tripod socket, an extinction exposure meter and the film rewind knob. The back of the camera comes off for loading film. The film runs from right to left, similar to the Argus cameras, and opposite from most other 35 mm cameras. The back of my example is hard to remove. It probably wasn't as stiff when the camera was new.

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The Speed Candid was followed by designs having all metal bodies and chrome tops. Camera Corporation of America closed shop in 1950.

Vokar (1946-1948)

The immediate post-Second World War era saw the revival of pre-war camera companies as well as the emergence of a few new companies to make products to fill the gap left by the yet to recover German camera industry. Vokar Corp. (formerly Electronic Products Manufacturing) had developed a couple of camera models immediately before WWII and was able to get a 35 mm camera in production during the Fall of 1946. The slightly different Vokar II came out in 1948. The Vokar had a body assembled from pressed metal parts with a three element f/2.8 50 mm lens in a leaf shutter that ran from 1/300 to 1 second plus bulb. It had a combined coincident range finder and viewfinder. The lens focused as close as 4 ft. The Vokar cameras were not successful - they didn't survive long enough to appear in the 1950 Popular Photography camera directory. The most successful Vokar product was a chemical solution to fix scratches on film. It is still available under the name Edwal No-Scratch. The Vokar camera isn't a bad looking design. Like a lot of 35 mm cameras of the era, including the original Leica, the Vokar doesn't have strap lugs. To wear it around your neck you need to put it into its leather carrying case. The shutter speeds slower than 1/300 second stick on my camera, which is a sign that the shutter needs cleaning. I don't think I am going to try to make this a user camera.

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Zeiss Ikon Contax IIa (1951-1961)

The Zeiss Ikon Contax IIa is an interchangeable lens range finder 35 mm camera that is an updated version of the pre-war Contax II. This "black dial" version of the Contax IIa was made about 1951 in Stuttgart, West Germany.

Front, with a folding van Albada finder in the accessory shoe.

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Shutter Speed, Winding Knob, Exposure Counter and Shutter Release

The Contax IIa has a metal, vertically traveling focal plane shutter. You set the shutter speed using a single dial that is concentric with the film winding knob, the exposure counter and the shutter button. Shutter speeds are 1 second, 1/2, 1/5, 1/10, /25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/250, 1/500 and 1/1250 second. Supposedly the shutter is good for 400,000 actuations.

The "black dial" version of the camera was synchronized for flashbulbs at 1/25 second or for electronic flash at 1/50 second. You needed to attach either the model 1361 sync switch for flashbulbs or the model 1366 sync switch for electronic flash. The switch screwed into a socket on the back of the camera and had a 3 mm PC sync socket for the flash unit. The reason for the different switches was that a flashbulb takes 20 milliseconds to reach full brilliance, while an electronic flash takes just a millisecond to reach full brilliance. The different switches allow for the difference in timing. The "color dial" version of the Contax, which came out in 1954, automatically switches between bulb sync and electronic sync when the correct shutter speed is selected.

The normal lens was an f/3.5, f/2.0 or f/1.5 50 mm lens, depending on how much you wanted to pay. The f/2.0 version seems to be the most common. You could get additional lenses ranging from 21 mm up to 500 mm focal length, matching auxiliary finders, reflex focusing attachments, close-up equipment, etc.

The Contax had an internal focusing helicoid for the 50 mm lens, which permitted the 50 mm lenses to be quite small. To remove a 50 mm lens you rotated the lens to the infinity focus setting, where it would latch. You held down the latch on the lens mount, rotated the lens counterclockwise and lifted it out.

Because when focusing they moved in and out at a different rate than the 50 mm lenses, the wide angle and telephoto lenses had their own focusing helicoids built into the lens. They attached to the external bayonet mount and coupled to the range finder. Both the camera and the lens had to be focused at infinity to attach or remove the lens. Close focusing macro lenses and long telephoto lenses attached to the Flektoskop or Panflex reflex focusing attachment. These attachments had a reflex mirror and a focusing screen built in, just like an

The f/2 50 mm Sonnar lens in the picture was manufactured in Jena, East Germany. The Zeiss plant there had been nationalized by the East German government after WWII, but continued to make products with the Carl Zeiss name for a while. Carl Zeiss, Inc., New York, imported lenses from the East German company; therefore, East German Zeiss lenses are not hard to find in the USA. Carl Zeiss, Inc. had been owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation and functioned as the US agent for all Zeiss products. It was enemy alien property during WWII and was taken over by a federal Office of Alien Property Custodian. It continued to operate under federal control until it was returned to the Carl Zeiss Foundation about 1960.

The Contax IIa had some nicer features than the Leica IIIf which came out around the same time. The Contax had a combined viewfinder and range finder eyepiece, while the Leica had separate viewfinder and range finder eyepieces. The Contax had a single shutter speed dial, while the Leica had separate fast speed and slow speed dials. The Contax was easier to load because the whole back came off for loading film. On the Leica you had to remove the bottom plate and slip the film between the pressure plate and the film gate. Despite its features and excellent lenses, the Contax was less popular than the Leica. For one thing, the Contax was more expensive. The US list price in 1951 for a Contax IIa with an f/2 50 mm lens was $405, which had the buying power of about $4,000 depreciated 2019 dollars. A Leica IIIc with an f/2 50 mm lens cost about $350 ($3,500 equivalent). The improved 1954 Leica M3 and cameras from Japanese companies, notably Canon and Nikon, further cut into Contax sales and rather than update the Contax, Zeiss Ikon developed new single lens reflex cameras. SLRs proved to be for more popular than range finders; however, this did not prevent the Carl Zeiss Foundation from shutting down Zeiss Ikon in 1972. German precision cameras simply were no longer competitive with Japanese cameras. Leica managed to survive by going after the luxury market with astronomically priced cameras.

The Contax branded cameras made in 1974-2005 were built by Yashica (later Kyocera) under license from Zeiss. Zeiss still makes lenses and optical equipment.

Casts of the Elgin Marbles, the Parthenon in Centennial Park, Nashville, Tennessee.

Agfa Memo (1939-1941)

The Agfa Memo was made by the Agfa Ansco Corp. in Binghampton, NY, from 1939 through 1941, the Second World War putting an end to camera production for the duration of hostilities. It is a folding 35 mm camera that used normal 35 mm film in the unique Ansco film cartridge. The Agfa Memos have front cell focusing lenses and set-and-release shutters. The cameras came with different lenses and shutters, depending on the price. My full frame model has an f/3.5 lens and the half-frame model has an f/4.5 lens. Both have shutters that run from 1/2 second to 1/200 second plus bulb and time. "Bulb" means that the shutter remains open as long as the shutter release is pressed. "Time" means that the shutter opens when the release is pressed and closes when the release is pressed for a second time. The shutters were not synchronized for flash. Each camera has a depth-of-field calculator on the top and a tripod socket on the bottom. The viewfinder is a reverse galilean viewfinder. The top also has an accessory shoe for an auxiliary range finder. In 1939 the advertised price was $25 for the f/4.5 lens model and $35 for the f/3.5 lens model, equivalent in purchasing power to about $465 and $650 in depreciated 2019 dollars.

Full Frame Memo with f/3.5 Lens

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Half Frame Memo with f/4.5 Lens

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Inside

The film advance is a slide across the back of the camera. A push of the slide advances the film one picture and increments the exposure counter. The film travels from a supply cartridge to a take-up cartridge. The film in the full frame memo goes from right to left while the film in the half fame memo goes from left to right. The cartridges hold film for 24 full frame, 24x36 mm pictures or 48 half-frame, 24x18 mm pictures. The Memo cartridge first appeared in 1927 for the earlier Ansco Memo camera and had some success. The similar Agfa Karat cartridge (new in 1936) was half as large. The Agfa Memo could use either cartridge, but the Memo cartridge was too large for the Karat cameras. The Kodak Daylight Loading Magazine (new in 1934) became the standard for 35 mm film, and most of the other 35 mm cameras on the market could use Kodak magazines.

Ansco was one of the oldest photographic supply companies in the US. Scovill Brass, founded in 1802, began to make daguerreotype plates very soon after the daguerreotype process was invented and continued to make various photographic devices until it merged with the E and H T Anthony Company in 1902 to form Anthony and Scoville Co. (later Ansco). The E and H T Anthony Company was a leading photographic supply company in the last half of the 19th Century. Dry plates from a small start-up company, Eastman Dry Plate Co., were just some of the many products E and H T Anthony sold. Eastman Dry Plate because Eastman Kodak and grew much larger than Ansco by 1928, when Ansco merged with the German Agfa company, part of the giant I G Farben combine. Agfa Ansco Corp. was enemy alien property during WWII and came under the control of the federal government's alien property custodian. After WWII Agfa Ansco was reorganized as General Aniline and Film, later GAF, and GAF still exists as a roofing products manufacturer. Agfa merged with the Belgium firm Geveart after WWII, and Agfa-Geveart is still in business.