Argus Day with my Argoflex

Focus No. 9 · Aug 10, 2010

Today I used my recent purchase of a used Argoflex model E. I did a bit of research to ensure that the camera would accept 120 although it was designed for 620. The camera is in pretty good condition but it lacks the sport finder. So this morning I loaded the film and proceed to wind. And wind. And wind. And wind again. Something isn't right..shouldn't I see numbers in the little red window? So I open the back to peek and see that I had advanced past frame 2. But the indicators are not in the middle. I proceed to wind 3-4 turns, take a shot and wind another 3-4 turns for another shot etc. Although guessing how many turns to the next frame..I still kept my eye glued to the red window..but no numbers ever appeared. I have no idea what the pro shop will think or be able to do to create full frame prints. So much for my $$experience$$ for MF and ARGUS DAY.

I have a very expensive decayed light box aka Box-Tengor...that came loaded and the numbers appeared in that camera's window.

Scratching my head, :confused:

Focus No. 9 · Aug 10, 2010

p.s. just figured out what I did wrong..the little window has a cover operated by a wing styled knob...I got the open/close position backwards... I'm now on frame 12. Geez.

Rick A · Aug 10, 2010

Congratulations! You have now put the number one error(pun intended)of the old MF red window "what the heck exposure am I on" goof up behind you. Now you can work on the "oh crap, I forgot to set the ______" (fill in the blank)screw up. Heck, you probably have some incredible shots that are gonna come out okay after all. Keep up the good work.

DWThomas · Aug 11, 2010

I readily admit going out to shoot with some of the older cameras after sloughing off into laziness with point and shoot auto-everything taxes me a bit from time to time, but once past the initial challenge, it's pretty exciting. I was out earlier today for Argus Day with my venerable C3, purchased new by me in 1958 but gathering dust in the back of a closet from about 1965 to 2006! I still bang a finger with that shutter cocking lever occasionally, but all in all it does OK.

Hopefully you managed to get a few decent frames in spite of the window error. And you get points just for getting out and trying an Argus product today!

guitstik · Aug 11, 2010

Argus Day? Damn, I didn't even know about it. I have a seventy-five that I have been dying to shot but I have to respool the 120 film cause it just won't fit right.

rjbuzzclick · Aug 11, 2010

I didn't get out with any of my Argi (?) yesterday, too much to do. I wish I could have...

I'm curious about you saying that your E lacks the sports finder. I have an E, and the sports finder is just the center section of the front of the hood that pushes down revealing a square frame. The rear of the hood has a smaller square that makes the back of the sports finder. Does yours have a different hood?

Anscojohn · Aug 11, 2010

guitstik said:
Argus Day? Damn, I didn't even know about it. I have a seventy-five that I have been dying to shot but I have to respool the 120 film cause it just won't fit right.

***************
Ditto. And my Argoflex has a sports finder. Check out my avatar.

DWThomas · Aug 11, 2010

Apologies to those who hadn't heard about Argus Day. I posted about it on the Collector & Antiques forum the other day, but I had been reluctant to say too much about it because the last two years the follow-through on getting the pictures online has been pretty slow and erratic. I suppose in the future we could just consider it a virtual event and exercise the cameras regardless of what happens afterward. An indication on the Flickr discussion group that the "management" was still around and saying the event was on only happened a few days ago.

So hey, the next Argus Day should be Argust 11th, 2011, we'll try harder.

Focus No. 9 · Aug 11, 2010

Reid, I guess I had the sports finder confused with the spot focusing lens(?). I had to go back and re-read Matt's article
http://www.mattdentonphoto.com/cameras/argoflex_e.html. I found a picture of the mini-lens in a manual that butkus has posted, but did not wish to infringe on his copyright. Other than not being complete it looks with exception to slight brassing like it came right out of the box.

Back to the shooting. I was set up and ready to go hoping to catch the early morning light and clouds, the neighborhood. Per the meter I set the aperture to between 6.3 and 4.5. Did everyone have superman vision in those days? Teeny-weeny numbers.

The tri-x was 100 so I set the shutter at 100. The "12" frame shot at the end of the day was set at 12.7.
It will most likely be blurry...can't seem to focus in fading light. The morning "off frame" shots were set to inifinity.[can't focus in early light either]

Focus No. 9 · Aug 11, 2010

DW. I have a C-3 Matchmatic. Came with flash and bulbs! And a soligor telephoto. The camera is too scary looking to operate. I also purchased a GSN rangefinder from the same photog. It came with the original (nearly new) never-ready case and tele wide adapters, special parallax viewfinder that sits on the shoe(?) to work with the adapters. I have used the GSN. But I did not enjoy the experience and in fact it still has a 1 or 2 frames left. It's been sitting for months. I guess I should just rewind / develop as I doubt I will pick it up to take another shot. Because of that I will probably not get close to the C-3. I had/have a horrible experience with a minoltina al-s. I think I had better times with the Konica EE-matic, but can't find the proof.

Looking forward to your Argus Day C-3 celebration results!

Focus No. 9 · Aug 11, 2010

Thank you Rick,,,you have some great supportive posts. I have a handful of point and shoots that came in wholesale lots. Haven't tested. Your welcome to them to hand-out to the neighborhood kids if your still involved with that. Just PM me.

edit: neighboorhood replaced. my fingers and my brain don't get along to well.

Focus No. 9 · Aug 11, 2010

Anscojohn said:
***************
Ditto. And my Argoflex has a sports finder. Check out my avatar.

Great avatar Anscojohn. Glad your still with us and getting through the latest tech upgrade. At work we finally upgraded to MS Office 2007 and I HATE IT!
signed,
Stormin' Formin' & Normin!
[still doesn't mean I like it ]

Rick A · Aug 12, 2010

Thanks for the offer Focus, but the local 4H pulled the plug on most of the art programs this year, and the kids I have been shooting with are falling away. I still have a couple of kids, and this summer they got to shoot some Velvia courtesy of Anscojohn(muchas gracias AJ)and loved it. We are putting a slide show together, just waiting for the last rolls to return from Fuji processing to finish up. I have no idea what they are going to offer for arts next year, I am staying in touch with them to push for photography, maybe it will be partially funded, or at least let me offer it at my expense.

DWThomas · Aug 12, 2010

Focus No. 9 said:
DW. I have a C-3 Matchmatic. [...] The camera is too scary looking to operate. [...]

Looking forward to your Argus Day C-3 celebration results!

Nah, one step at a time! There are manuals on line if you don't have one. They are definitely not automatic. Mine is not a "Matchmatic" and after a quick look at the manual it does appear they made a complicated beast more complicated, but it can't be too tough to deal with, they sold a lot of them. The biggest real problem I have with my C3 is that the viewfinder and rangefinder windows seem to have shrunk substantially since I was 17.

A selection of my Argust 10th expedition results may be seen here.

rjbuzzclick · Aug 12, 2010

[...can't focus in early light either]

Yeah, it is a very dim viewfinder. I have the magnifier on mine-it would be really hard to focus with out it!

colrehogan · Aug 12, 2010

I didn't get out with my Argus C3, but I am thinking about loading it up anyway and playing tourist.

Rick A · Aug 12, 2010

I managed to get a few shots with my C-3 and some Lucky 100 film. I even got a couple of them in focus(sort-of, mostly, kinda)and as soon as the prints are dry I'll post a couple. I figured out why they call it "Lucky", I was lucky to get it spooled onto the reel, and I was lucky to get it developed (directions in Chinese-TG for panthermic developer).

Focus No. 9 · Aug 13, 2010

DWThomas said:
Nah, one step at a time! There are manuals on line if you don't have one. They are definitely not automatic. Mine is not a "Matchmatic" and after a quick look at the manual it does appear they made a complicated beast more complicated, but it can't be too tough to deal with, they sold a lot of them. The biggest real problem I have with my C3 is that the viewfinder and rangefinder windows seem to have shrunk substantially since I was 17.

A selection of my Argust 10th expedition results may be seen here.

That's my problem...I'm not 17 either! Nice pics. Enjoyed the history and the Knights Dam.

Focus No. 9 · Aug 13, 2010

ralnphot said:
Thanks for the offer Focus, but the local 4H pulled the plug on most of the art programs this year, and the kids I have been shooting with are falling away. I still have a couple of kids, and this summer they got to shoot some Velvia courtesy of Anscojohn(muchas gracias AJ)and loved it. We are putting a slide show together, just waiting for the last rolls to return from Fuji processing to finish up. I have no idea what they are going to offer for arts next year, I am staying in touch with them to push for photography, maybe it will be partially funded, or at least let me offer it at my expense.

-sorry to hear that Rick, keep us posted. Hope the slide show is a success.

Focus No. 9 · Aug 18, 2010

ArgusDay Returns

Well gang here is a picture that the shop was able to square to 5 x 5 inches. This is cropped however. I will post a second shot in the technial forum as there is an ugly spot on it. All prints have a huge amount of dust along the lower third. The camera appears clean...the white specs drive me nuts. Can't submit those in a contest! So anyway I got 7 prints out of 12 frames. The last was as I suspected blurry. I also think that with a 75mm lens that getting to close to large objects is not aesthetic. Another lesson learned?

.........

Sirius Glass · Aug 18, 2010

Where are the photographs?

Steve

Focus No. 9 · Aug 18, 2010

hmmm. the above post was to inlcude a picture insert using the apug gallery..don't know what when wrong. why upload to gallery if i have to re-upload from my pc using advance menu paperclip attachment? as i've done here.

i also think I should gone wide open to 4.5.

DWThomas · Aug 18, 2010

Focus No. 9 said:
[ ... ] All prints have a huge amount of dust along the lower third. The camera appears clean...the white specs drive me nuts. Can't submit those in a contest!

The Argus Day thing is not a contest, so there's no reason not to submit if you want to. There's no prizes, just the "sharing" with other Argus owners and maybe increasing public awareness of the brand. After all, it's what you got on Argus Day -- and most people would likely be amazed that anything recognizable comes out of cameras 50, 60 70 years old. (Can always say "forgive crappy scan" and no one will know.)

Heh heh, the tree suggests to me you're not in Pennsylvania.

Focus No. 9 · Aug 18, 2010

DWThomas said:
The Argus Day thing is not a contest, so there's no reason not to submit if you want to. There's no prizes, just the "sharing" with other Argus owners and maybe increasing public awareness of the brand. After all, it's what you got on Argus Day -- and most people would likely be amazed that anything recognizable comes out of cameras 50, 60 70 years old. (Can always say "forgive crappy scan" and no one will know.)

Heh heh, the tree suggests to me you're not in Pennsylvania.

Yes I know, it was the spirit of the day and I participated and felt good about it. What I should have said is.... until I figure out where those wite specs are commin from I won't have a decent print to submit into a competition...like the state fair coming up. : ).

We have palm trees or pine trees ...take your pick. well that's not entirely true. two houses down from the palm is a gigantic pine though.

Argus Day with my Argoflex

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