Argus Standard C3 (1958-1966)

In 1958 Argus gave the C3 a face lift and produced the Match-Matic C3 and the Standard C3 models. The differences are mostly cosmetic. Mechanically and optically both versions are like the previous C3. 

The Standard C3 is the plain-jane version with all-black leatherette and normal f-stop and shutter speed markings. More than 2 million C3s were made between 1939 and 1966. About 129,000 of them were the Standard C3 model. This example was made in 1959. The Sears catalog listed a Standard C3 camera for $39 ($250 in depreciated 2020 dollars).

The camera body is molded phenolic resin plastic. The front and back are die cast metal trimmed in black leatherette and chrome. The top of the camera has the film advance knob, the accessory shoe, the exposure dial, the film catch and the shutter button. The front of the camera has the shutter cocking lever, the range finder dial, the idler gear that connected the range finder to the lens, the lens, and the shutter speed dial. The bottom of the camera has the tripod socket and the film rewind knob. The back is hinged on the left and the latch is on the right. The camera does not have strap lugs. If you want to use a neck strap you put the camera in its case. Alternatively, you can use a strap that attaches to the tripod socket. The camera is more comfortable to hold when it is in its case.

The standard lens is an f/3.5-f/16, coated Argus Cintar lens with three elements in three groups. Because the lens rotates as it focuses the aperture ring has three scales around the perimeter so one is always easy to see from the top. There aren't any click stops. The lens will take Series V drop-in filters.

The shutter is a behind the lens leaf shutter with three blades. The shutter speed dial is marked from 1/300 to 1/10 second. For time exposures you turned the shutter button from "I" to "B" and used a cable release that screwed into the button. Argus used their "Color-matic" system to simplify exposure settings. For sunny day snapshots with ASA 10 Kodachrome film you used the yellow settings (f/6.3 and 1/50 second). With ordinary black and white film in sunny weather you used the red settings (f/8 and 1/100). The green setting (1/25) is for flash bulbs indoors or at night and has an icon of a flash bulb as an additional reminder. A label in the top of the leather case reminded you of the settings. With the standard 50mm lens you set the distance at 15 ft. (marked with triangles on the range finder dial) for subjects 10 or more ft. away to be in focus.

The viewfinder and range finder are separate. The viewfinder is a reverse galilean type that reduces the image by about half and shows the field of view of the standard 50 mm lens. The range finder is a split image type that is coupled to the lens by the idler gear. Turn the lens to focus. Your subject is in focus when the two halves visible in the range finder window are aligned. The range finder is not magnified.

The standard 50mm lens could be unscrewed and replaced with an Argus Sandmar 100mm telephoto lens or an Argus Sandmar 35mm wide angle lens. A viewfinder that slipped into the accessory shoe showed the correct fields of view for the 35mm and 100mm focal lengths. The accessory lenses were made by Enna-Werk, Munich, Germany. A Soligor 135 mm lens made in Japan was also available. The accessory lenses are coupled to the range finder by the same idler gear as the standard 50mm lens.

Argus made a flasholder that plugged into the right side of the camera. At some point the German company Kaiser made an adapter for flashes having standard PC sync connections. This adapter will work with electronic flashes.

An Argus LS-3 selenium cell light meter was available to fit the accessory shoe on the Standard C3. A modern light meter such as a Sekonic L-208 Twinmate will fit the accessory shoe.

To load film you open the back, put the film cassette into the right side of the camera and insert the leader into the take-up spindle on the left side of the camera. You next close the camera back and turn the film winding knob until it stops. To advance the film you push the film catch and turn the film advance knob about a quarter turn, let go of the film advance lever, and continue to turn the film advance knob until it stops. You do this twice more. The next step is to turn the exposure dial counterclockwise until zero is against the index mark. You are ready to make the first exposure. Check your focus, aperture and shutter speed, cock the shutter and press the shutter button, being sure to keep your fingers away from the shutter cocking lever. Advance the film immediately after taking a picture. There isn't any double exposure prevention or skipped frame prevention.
The C3 was one of the the most basic adjustable cameras you could buy.

Nikon Nikkormat FT2 (1975-77)

About 500,000 Nikkormat FT2 cameras were made by Nikon from 1975 to 1977. It sold with a standard f/2 50 mm lens, and an f/1.4 50 mm or f/1.2 55 mm lens was available as an extra cost option. The complete range of Nikkor F mount lenses available at the time could be used with the FT2. It came in all black or with chrome top and bottom plates.

The camera body is die cast from an aluminum alloy. The top of the camera has the rewind crank, a light meter readout, the flash shoe, the depth-of-field preview button, the exposure counter, the shutter button and the film advance lever. The front of the camera has the self-timer lever, the shutter speed dial surrounding the lens mount, the film speed index, the shutter speed lever and film speed lock, the lens release button, the mirror lock and the light meter coupling pin. The bottom of the camera has the rewind release button, the tripod socket and the battery cover. The back of the camera has the viewfinder eyepiece. The left side of the camera has the flash PC socket and the latch for the back cover.

The shutter has vertically traveling metal curtains. It runs from 1/1000 to 1 second plus B. The shutter button is threaded for a standard cable release. The self timer gives about an 8 second delay. The shutter speed is set by using the lever on the dial surrounding the lens mount. The lever gets in the way of the lens release button when the shutter is set to 1/4 or 1/8 second. The instruction booklet advises against leaving the shutter cocked overnight or longer.

The viewfinder has a split image prism surrounded by a microprism ring at the center of the ground glass. There is a circle showing the center weighted area of the light meter. The meter needle is at the right and the shutter speed is visible at the bottom. The focusing screen is not interchangeable, although I think there were factory options for different focusing screens.

One improvement from the previous Nikkormat FTn is that the light meter on the FT2 was powered by a silver oxide button cell instead of a mercury cell. This means that the light meter uses a currently available battery. The battery compartment has the typical screw cover with a slot for a coin to turn the cover. The light meter can be set for film speeds running from ASA 12 to ASA 1600 using the index on the shutter speed ring. You pull out the catch on the shutter speed lever and slide the film speed index to the correct number for the film you have loaded in the camera. You need your fingernails to slide the index. The light meter uses a cadmium sulfide cell to read light through the lens. You get a good exposure under most circumstances by centering the needle visible in the lower right of the viewfinder or the one on the top of the camera as you adjust the shutter speed and lens aperture. The light meter uses the normal Nikon 60/40 center weighted system. The film advance lever acts as the meter switch. The meter is on when the film advance lever is pulled back to uncover the red dot on the top of the camera and off when the film advance lever is pushed in to cover the red dot.

The camera back is hinged on the right and has a latch on the bottom left. Loading film is like most manual 35 mm cameras. The film winds onto the take-up spool emulsion side out. The film counter resets to "S" for start when you open the back of the camera. It takes 3 pulls of the film advance lever to get to frame 1. The exposure counter is under a little magnifying glass on the top of the camera. To rewind the film you press the release button on the bottom of the camera and rotate the rewind crank on the top left.

To remove the lens you press the lens release button and rotate the lens to the right. To replace the lens you push the light meter pin all the way to the right and set the lens to f/5.6. You need to make sure the meter ears on the lens engages the meter pin on the camera when you put on the lens, then turn the lens counterclockwise until the lens release clicks. Finally you do the “Nikon Shuffle” by turning the lens aperture ring all the way to the left and then all the way to the right. This will set the light meter to the maximum aperture of the lens (f/5.6 to f/1.2, depending on the lens). You can check this by looking at the scale on the right side of the lens mount. A small red dot appears on the scale to confirm that the meter is set to the maximum aperture of the lens. If the lens does not have meter ears it is still possible to meter using the stop down method by pressing the depth of field button on the top of the camera. The meter coupling pin has to be pushed all the way to the right for this to work.  The camera can use any Nikon F mount lens with a manual aperture ring.  "G" type lenses will not work because the camera does not have the electrical contacts that control the aperture.

The mirror can be locked up using a slide on the lens mount above the lens release button. This allows mounting some Nikkor fisheye and wide angle lenses that protrude into the mirror box. Mirror lockup also can reduce vibration from mirror slap when you are using a telephoto lens.

This example is in decent shape despite the little dent in the back and works fine. It is a mass unit of a camera, weighing in at two and a quarter pounds. Nikkormat was the name for export models. The version for the domestic Japanese market was called Nikomat. The Nikkormat is your classic manual focus, manual exposure camera with a through the lens light meter. Nikon made the Nikkormat as a camera for photographers who wanted to use the excellent Nikon lenses but didn't want the professional F2 camera, or wanted a backup for their F2.

The Nations Silo on Centennial Blvd, Nashville, TN. Artist Guido van Helten painted a portrait of Lee Estes on an old grain elevator.

Kodak Stereo Camera (1954-1959)

The Kodak Stereo Camera was introduced in 1954 and discontinued in 1959. The original list price was $84.50. The camera was intended to produce stereo slide pairs on 35mm Kodachrome slide film. About 100,000 cameras were sold. My camera has serial number 010213, which probably would make it a 1954 product. This was not Kodak's first venture into the stereo photography market. In the first quarter of the 20th century the company made stereo Kodaks and Brownies that produced prints for parlor stereo viewers.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

Film Chamber

The camera has a mostly plastic body with some aluminum parts. The top of the camera has the rewind knob, the flash sync ASA bayonet connector, the exposure counter, the shutter speed slide, the aperture lever, a film reminder dial, the shutter button and the film advance knob. The front of the camera has the left and right lenses, the cable release socket, the viewfinder window and a spirit level. The back of the camera has the viewfinder eyepiece. The spirit level is visible in the viewfinder to help with holding the camera level. The camera must be level to get the stereoscopic effect in the finished slide. The right side has the latch of the camera back, which is hinged on the left side. The bottom of the camera has a shutter cocking slide, the tripod socket, and the rewind release.

The lenses are matched, front cell focusing, f/3.5-f/22 35mm Kodak Anaston lenses with three elements in three groups, similar in design to the lens in the Kodak Pony 135. The right lens has a distance scale and a depth of field scale. The left lens has suggested settings for Close ups (4-7 ft.), groups (7-15 ft.) and scenes (15 ft. and beyond). The lenses are interconnected so they focus together and have the same aperture settings. The lenses are threaded for Series V drop-in filters. Useful filters would be skylight (Wratten 1a) and color correction (Wratten 85 or Wratten 80a) filters.

The shutters are two-blade leaf shutters that are cocked by advancing the film. The manual shutter slide on the bottom of the camera can be used to cock the shutters when the camera is unloaded, or for deliberate double exposures, or to retake a picture indoors if the flash bulb failed to fire. The shutters are interconnected to fire together at the same settings. Shutter speeds are 1/200, 1/100, 1/50 and 1/25 second plus bulb. The shutters are synchronized for flash. An ASA bayonet flash connector is provided.

The exposure calculator on the top of the camera is for use with ASA 10 speed Kodachrome film outdoors on sunny, hazy or cloudy bright days. Kodachrome was in many ways ideal for stereo slides because of the vivid colors and fine grain. Probably Fujifilm Velvia would be the closest modern slide film. The shutter speeds and apertures are adequate for modern ISO 50-100 color slide films outdoors. If you use the calculator you just need to remember that modern film is 5 or 10 times faster (2-1/3 or 3-1/3 stops).

The Kodak Stereo Camera uses 35 mm slide film. In the mid-fifties, Kodak sold 35 mm Kodachrome slide film in 20 exposure rolls for regular cameras, which would give 15 stereo pairs, and 36 exposure rolls, which would give 28 stereo pairs. Kodak also sold Kodachrome film in a length that gave 20 slide pairs and included developing and mounting. A currently available roll of slide film for 24 single pictures would give about 18 stereo pairs. The exposure counter has setting marks for 15, 20 or 28 exposures and counts down to zero. The centers of the 15/16 inch wide images in a stereo pair are 2-13/16 inches apart and the film advances 1-7/8 inches on each shot, with the result that stereo pairs are interleaved as follows on a 36-exposure cassette of film:

Start | 1 right | blank | 2 right | 1 left | 3 right | 2 left | 4 right | 3 left | ... | 26 right | 25 left | 27 right | 26 left | 28 right | 27 left | blank | 28 left | end.

As an aid to mounting the images, the film gates are notched to mark which images were left and right in a stereo pair. The right image had two notches while the left image had one.

Kodachrome slide film and Kodak stereo slide mounting services are long gone. E-6 process slide film is still available and slide mounts and slide mounting services are still available from internet sellers. The slide mounts are about 4 inches wide by 1-5/8 inches high and have openings, left and right, that are about 21 mm wide by 23 mm high and are spaced about 62 mm on centers. The spacing between the slides is about the same as the distance between your own two eyes, but slightly less than the distance between the lenses on the camera, which increases the stereo effect. The openings in the slide mounts are slightly smaller than the images on the film to allow a little room for adjustment. The slides fit into a stereo viewer or can be projected and viewed through special glasses. The best stereo effect is with subjects 7 to 20 feet away from the camera. Stereo macro shots would require prisms to create convergence in addition to the closeup lenses. Macro sets did exist for the Stereo Realist camera, but I don't know whether they would work on the Kodak Stereo. Distant subjects are too far away for a natural stereo effect.

The modern era of stereo photography began in 1947 when the David White Company brought out the Stereo Realist camera. The Realist set the standard for the format and was the most popular and longest selling stereo camera. The Kodak Stereo used the same format as the Realist, as did other stereo cameras that were brought out by companies such as Bell and Howell/Three Dimension Company, Graflex and Wollensak/Revere. The View-Master Personal Stereo Camera used the same format as the familiar View-Master reels. Kodak was late to the party with its stereo slide camera. At first it outsold even the Stereo Realist, but sales of all stereo cameras declined when the novelty began to wear off and the camera was discontinued in 1959. The Stereo Realist continued 12 more years, I think basically until they ran out of parts. David White Instruments is still in business.

In the digital age you could scan your film and create stereo images for a computer screen or make stereo cards for an old-fashioned parlor stereo viewer. Stereo slide mounts and viewers are still available.

Slide Viewer and Camera

Stereo Slide

LegacyPro Ascorbic Acid Powder B&W Film Developer

LegacyPro Ascorbic Acid B&W film developer is similar to Eastman Kodak Xtol developer - both use Sodium Erythorbate instead of Hydroquinone as one of the developing agents. Replacing the Hydroquinone with Sodium Erythorbate makes it possible to mix the developer with room temperature water instead of hot water. Because Erythorbic Acid is a stereoisomer of Ascorbic Acid, you see LegacyPro or Xtol described as being based on Vitamin C. That is not exactly the case because Erythorbic Acid and Ascorbic Acid don't have the same biological activity. However, both work for developing film. Vitamin C powder from the health food store is an ingredient in the home-made Caffenol developers that use instant coffee as a developing agent.

One drawback to LegacyPro (and Xtol) is that the smallest available package is enough to make 5 liters of stock developer. Five liters can develop twenty rolls of film and has a shelf life of about 6 months in unopened full bottles and 2 months in partially full bottles. Unless you are developing film at a pretty steady pace, the developer could go bad before you use it up. Unfortunately, LegacyPro doesn't give any warning that it is getting too old by changing color like most other developers. One day it works and the next day it doesn't. One method to keep the developer as fresh as possible it to divide the mix into several bottles and open only one at a time. You can avoid losing a roll of film due to old developer by doing a chip test. Put a small piece of film in some developer and stir it for a few minutes. The film should turn completely black if the developer is OK to use. One good thing about LegacyPro is that you don't need hot water to mix it. It is also much less expensive than getting your film developed at a lab.

LegacyPro is supposed to produce negatives with fine grain and good sharpness (acutance). The Massive Dev Chart (look up Eco Pro) gives recommended times for developing just about any black and white film.

Kodak Chevron (1953-1956)

The Kodak Chevron was a range finder camera that took twelve 2-1/4" square pictures on a roll of 620 film or eight 28 mm x 40 mm pictures using an adapter for 828 film.

Front

Back

The camera body was die cast aluminum. The front of the camera had the shutter release, the cable release socket, the shutter speed dial, the aperture lever, the flash sync setting lever, the ASA standard flash sync bayonet post, the shutter cocking lever, the focusing dial, a depth of field scale, the film advance release lever,and the windows for the range finder and view finder. The top had the strap lugs, the exposure counter, a dial to set the viewfinder for full size 2-1/4" pictures or 828 size 28 mm x 40 mm pictures, and a film plane position mark. The back of the camera had the film advance lever, the eyepieces for the viewfinder and range finder, a film reminder dial, the iconic little red window, and a lever to open the shutter that normally closed the window. The sides of the camera had sliding latches for the camera back.

The lens was a coated ("Lumenized" in Kodakese) f/3.5, 78 mm Kodak Ektar with four elements in three groups. The lens was threaded for Series V filters and accessories.


Kodak Ektar f/3.5 78 mm Lens, from the Kodak Data Book "Kodak Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses", 5th Ed., 1955, p. 40

The shutter was a Kodak Synchro-Rapid 800 shutter, which soon after WWII was the first leaf shutter to break the 1/500 second shutter speed barrier. The shutter used a set of 5 swiveling blades to achieve this speed. In most leaf shutters the shutter blades oscillated from closed to open to closed again and remained closed while the shutter was cocked. In the Synchro-Rapid 800 shutter the blades swiveled in only one direction when the shutter went from closed to open to closed. They swiveled back to the starting position when the shutter was cocked. Because the main shutter was not self capping while the shutter was being cocked, a second pair of shutter blades closed the aperture during cocking. The Synchro-Rapid 800 had the reputation of being unreliable. The fact that you could damage the shutter by turning the shutter speed to 800 (or off 800) while the shutter was cocked probably contributed to its reputation for unreliability. The instructions cautioned against doing that.

Kodak Synchro-Rapid 800 Shutter,from the Kodak Data Book "Kodak Lenses, Shutters and Portra Lenses", 5th Ed., 1955, p. 40

The back came off for loading film. The side latches slid down to unlatch the back. The supply spool was on the right and the take up spool was on the left. If the exposure counter wasn't set at "N", you needed to press in the film advance release lever and turn the exposure counter clockwise until the "N" was next to the index mark. You then loaded the film and pushed the film advance lever until the number 1 for the first exposure showed through the red window. At this point you turned the exposure counter clockwise to put the "1" next to the index mark and you were ready to take the first picture.

The Chevron used a split image rangefinder. The rangefinder eyepiece was immediately below the viewfinder eyepiece and with a little practice it was possible to see through both eyepieces at once.

The shutter needed to be cocked manually before you could take a picture. The shutter release was interlocked with the film advance to prevent unintentional double exposures. If you wanted to make a double exposure you would use a cable release.

To advance the film you would press the advance release lever momentarily to unlock the mechanism, then use your left thumb to push the film advance lever until the film stopped for the next picture. After the twelfth shot the exposure counter moved to "N" and the film advance stayed unlocked to allow you to roll the film completely onto the take up spool.

This example was made in 1953 according to the date code on the lens ("RM" = '53) and was serviced by the Kodak service center in Oak Brook, Illinois, in December, 1966, according to the sticker inside the film take up chamber. It still is in good condition. For some reason the shutter has the correct aperture scale for an f/3.5 lens on the front, but the aperture scale for an f/4.5 lens on the top. Possibly the f/4.5 scale was put on when the camera was repaired. Kodak did use the same shutter for some f/4.5 lenses.

Aperture Scales

This camera is a good picture taker. If you were used to handling a range finder camera you would have found this camera pretty easy to use. It is a lot different from the automated cameras of today.

H. G. Hill Park, Nashville, Tennessee

The Chevron was introduced in October 1953 and discontinued in December 1956. The original list price was $215, which was reduced to $195 in 1954. $195 had the same purchasing power in 1954 that $1894 has in 2020. This was an expensive camera. I think the short time the Chevron was on the market indicated that sales were disappointing. This was the last high-end, medium format camera Kodak produced. The Chevron looked a little like a hybrid of the Kodak Medalist (1941) or Medalist II (1946) and the Signet 35 (1951). The rivals to the Chevron were the many 2-1/4" x 2-1/4" (also called 6x6) cameras available at the time. The camera market was moving, with Japanese camera makers like Nikon beginning to take the place of the long dominant German manufacturers, and American manufacturers exiting the precision camera market.

The Unobtainables.

While not entirely unobtainable, some American 35 mm cameras are very rare and expensive - too rare and expensive for me.

1. The Kodak Ektra Camera by Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY. In the late '30s, Eastman Kodak Company set out to make a system camera of the same class as the Zeiss Ikon Contax or the Ernst Leitz Leica. The result was the Kodak Ektra Camera, which had the misfortune to come out in late 1941, just before civilian camera production was stopped because of WWII. Kodak did not revive production after the war because the selling price would have to have been more than the market could bear in order to cover the cost of making the camera. Roughly 2,500 cameras were made with an original list price of $325.00, which had a buying power of about $5,400 depreciated 2020 dollars. Examples appear on eBay occasionally for more than $2,000. Kodak Ektra on Flickr by Benjamin C.

2. The Bell & Howell Foton by Bell & Howell Company, Chicago, IL. Bell and Howell decided after WWII to bring out an expensive system camera that was a market failure because of the price. The original list price in 1948 was $700, which had a buying power of about $7,700 depreciated 2020 dollars. Leitz and Zeiss could sell excellent cameras for half the price and the Foton did not sell well. Bell & Howell Foton on Flickr by John Bosko.

3. The Kardon camera by Premier Instrument Corporation, New York, NY. Premier Instrument Corporation won from the U.S. Army Signal Corps a contract to make a U.S. version of the Leica IIIa, but the end of the war reduced the Army's requirement for new cameras and the civilian version did not sell well. The list price for the civilian version in 1950 was $262.50 exclusive of the 25% federal excise tax, or $328 with tax, which would be about $3,300 in 2020 dollars. Examples appear on eBay for over $2,000. Eastman Kodak Company made the standard lens for the Kardon and put the same lens on one version of the Retina II made by Kodak AG in Germany in the immediate post-WWII period. Kardon Camera on Flickr by Christopher Chen

4. The Detrola 400 by Detrola Corporation, Detroit, MI. Detrola was making radios and 127 format cameras in the '30s when it decided to produce a 35 mm camera in imitation of the Candid Camera Corporation of America's Perfex line. The advertised price in 1940 was $69.50. The product was unsuccessful and only about 800 were made. Detrola 400 on Flickr by Rick Oleson.

5. The Zephyr Candid Camera by Photographic Industries of America, New York, NY. Supposedly made in 1938. I've seen only a copy of advertising art. Advertisement on Flickr by sunivroc

LOMO Lubitel 166 Universal (1993)

The LOMO Lubitel 166 Universal is a twin lens reflex camera for size 120 film. "Lubitel" in Russian means "amateur." LOMO stood for "Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Association" (roughly). My camera was made in 1993 according to the serial number, 93032341, on the bottom. The first two numbers give the year the camera was made. It is marked "Made in USSR" although by 1993 the USSR was already two years gone. Possibly a million Lubitels were made.

Front

Back

The camera has a molded plastic body with a tripod socket and an accessory shoe. The camera makes either twelve 6x6cm or sixteen 6x4.5cm pictures on a roll of 120 film, but my camera is missing the 6x4.5 attachments. The lens is an f/4.5 75mm coated triplet in a leaf shutter. Close focusing distance is 1.3 meters. Shutter speeds are 1/250, 1/125. 1/60, 1/30, 1/15 and bulb. The shutter is synchronized for flash and has a self timer, although the self timer on mine does not work. Other features include a film speed reminder dial and a waist level brilliant finder with a ground glass circle in the center for focusing. The ground glass can be magnified by a flip-up magnifier in the finder hood. The front of the finder hood folds in to make a sports finder. There is a little red window in the back of the camera to read the picture numbers on the backing paper.
The Lomography company in Vienna, Austria, offers new Lubitel 166+ cameras, made in China, for rather a lot of money. If you're pining for a Lubitel, it would be cheaper to find an original on eBay instead of going for the expensive imitation. LOMO apparently is still in business in St Peterburg, Russia.

[Update] The taking lens accepts 40.5mm thread-in filters.