C-3 has a leaf shutter, somewhat in front of the focal plane. I am not at home with a C3 to measure
I mounted a pinhole on a Deckel mount from a broken Kodak Retina Reflex lens and installed it like a lens. I think it was 41.5 mm in my case (ended up slightly recessed, I guess). The camera flange distance is 44.7 mm. Coverage and angle of view were 'normal', and I never noticed (nor expected) light falloff at that distance. The problem with this configuration is that I could never do a wide angle. The mirror was not a problem in the 'mount in front of shutter' configuration.
See the link below for others.
Dead Link Removed
Maybe I misunderstood your comment on distance from the film plane.
Nearly all SLR lenses are 'retrofocus' so, for example, a 200 mm lens need not be 200 mm from the film plane at infinity focus (as it need be in a view camera with a non-zoom lens).
I would assume the standard 50 mm lens on a C3 is not retrofocus. I don't know the lens flange distance but would assume it is 50 mm minus the distance from the flange mount to the relevant lens node (1. I don't know which one is important 2. Far easier to just measure the flange to film plane distance and note that it is probably less than the lens f.l.). Actually, looking at the referenced link above, there are some flange distances on some RF's that are shorter than typical SLR's.
Contax RF is 34.85 mm
Canon screw mount 28.8
Leica screw mount 28.8
Narcissus (here's lookin' at you) 28.8
So if Argus was thinking at all like everyone else, it may be on the order of 29 mm.
You could possibly (probably) accomplish a wide angle camera construction with a short flange distance RF, depending on the location of the pinhole vs. the shutter.
I once converted a Kodak 35 RF with a bad lens. When I was done I had a bad shutter too. I used aggressive double stick tape and slipped and got some on the shutter. Initially I left the lens body intact for looks, but it created a round image. I later took the lens barrel off and used a refrigerator magnet for a shutter after gluing a metal ring on the camera.
Murray,
That's a bunch of info, thanks. Pardon my ignorance, but what's a Deckel mount?
I guess first I should try to figure out how close the pinhole needs to be to the film so that the image circle is just about the diameter of a frame.
Next, I realize that in my original post I claimed to not own a rangefinder, then went ahead in my next post and mentioned the c2. To clarify, I meant that I didn't own a rangefinder with interchangable lenses. The c2 has a fixed lens, although I have taken it off so I suppose it is a candidate.
On my Argus STL 1000 (the slr) the front of the body where the body cap sits, is about 47-48mm from the film plane. The mirror swings to within 10 mm of the front, so I guess I could get a recessed body cap pinhole to about 38mm from the film without interfering with the mirror. Would that get the image circle where I want it? I have to look up that calculation.
On the argus c2, it looks like the shutter is about 35-37mm from the film plane. I got the glass part of the lens off, but I can't see how to take out the inner threaded piece or the ring that connects to the range wheel. I suppose I could do something recessed, if I could figure out what the inside thread measurement was. Is that a good direction to go in?
(all measurements are approximate, I was trying not to poke the ruler through any shutters)
Thanks