Argus Model 19, Minca 28 (1947-1948)

The Minca 28 was a pared down version of the pre-WWII Argus Model M. The camera was designed by Leonard A. Wilkinson, an employee of Argus, Inc. The Minca 28 had three aperture stops, a single speed shutter, and a non-retracting, f/9.7-f/16, 47mm two element lens. It took eight 24mm by 36 mm pictures on size 828 roll film. The same camera was also made with the names Camro 28 and Delco 28. A no-name version was probably made as a give-away camera. It was one among the cheap miniature cameras like the Winpro 35 or the Spartus 35 that popped up right after WWII. Argus supposedly sold the design and tooling to a company in Philadelphia after Argus stopped production.

The body of the camera is molded plastic with some metal parts. It has a reverse galilean viewfinder at the top. The lens was non-retracting. The aperture selection dial is on the top of the lens barrel. It is marked "bright" (f/16), "cloudy" (f/11) and color (f/9.7). Color film would have been Kodachrome for slides taken only in bright sunshine. Black and white film would have been a medium speed black and white film like Plus-X or Verichrome. The aperture stops are circular openings in a metal plate; therefore, you can't select intermediate apertures. The "time" or "instant" shutter selector is on the right side of the lens barrel as seen from the front. The shutter release is on the left. The shutter speed is about 1/25 second. The lens is a fixed focus two element lens with a close focus distance of 5 ft. Argus called it a "Lumar" lens. The bottom of the camera has a tripod socket and the film advance knob. There is a sliding catch on the right to open the back of the camera for loading a roll of 828 film. The picture number is visible through a little green window on the back of the camera.

828 film is all but discontinued. Only Film for Classics re-spools modern film on 828 spools and their film goes for more than $20 a roll. It is possible to tape a length of 35 mm film to a couple of 828 spools to use in this camera with the green window covered. You need to load and unload the camera in a darkroom, and guess at the spacing. With a little more effort you could trim a length of backing paper from 120 film and roll your own "828" film from 35mm film. Because a picture taken by the Minca 28 is the same 24mm x 36mm size as a 35mm camera instead of the larger 28mm x 40mm Kodak Bantam format, the sprocket holes won’t intrude into the picture.