The Argus A2B was a variation on the original Model A. It came out in 1939 and added an extinction type exposure meter to the basic Argus A body. My copy is from 1940 and is still the original version with the uncoated lens and black faceplate. Like the Argus A, it's a nice small package, especially with the lens collapsed. The back has a fantastic Art Deco design. The extinction meter is an interesting contraption that was built into a few cameras around this time and you could also buy separately from other vendors. It basically uses a strip of plastic or celluloid that you look through that has gradations of opaqueness. First you set the topmost north-south slider to your film speed. 72 i

The Argus A was the camera that really made 35mm cameras popular in America. It launched in 1936 and in many ways tried to copy the Leica, which was the first camera to popularize 35mm film, but was too expensive for most amateurs. The Argus A sold for $12.50 and was about one tenth the cost of a Leica. If I compare my 1930 Leica I model A (left) to my 1937 Argus A (above), I see they both used 35mm film, both had a fixed 50mm lens which could collapse into the body to promote portability and both had a fixed viewfinder. The Argus A was engineered to produce more cheaply. As compared to the Leica IA, they have a Bakelite body instead of metal, a slower lens (f/4.5 vs 3.5), a more limited ra

Argus was originally known for making the 35mm camera popular in America through their highly affordable A and C3 series cameras. But they certainly noticed the big craze over Kodak's new 126 film cartridge which debuted in 1963 and sold 12 million Kodak cameras by 1966. Argus entered the 126 camera market in 1964 with the Argus 260. The Instant Load 284 was released in 1967 as the top end of the Argus 126 cartridge lineup and originally sold for $87. At this stage in its history, Argus was having other manufacturers make a lot of its models and the 284 was made in Japan by Sedic. It has a hot shoe, a flash cube socket and a PC socket - this is the most options for flash on any camera I own

If you have a darkroom or changing bag, it’s pretty easy to reload 126 cartridges with 35mm film. Here’s what you need to know. Selecting which film/126 cartridge to use You can pick any 35mm film you want, just be aware that each 126 camera has its own requirements for which ISO speed film they use. The 126 cartridges had notches indicating the film speed and the higher end 126 cameras could automatically read the film speed from the cartridge notch. The cheaper 126 cameras often just assume ISO 160. Given the wide latitude of modern film, I haven’t had a problem using ISO 100 or 200 in the 126 cameras I’ve tested. If your 126 camera doesn’t have a cartridge inside it, buy one off eBay. Tr

I had a number of Nikkormat FTn cameras and they're pretty cheap on eBay, so I decided I would make one into a desk lamp. See my separate post on the FTn as a camera. Making my spare FTn into a desk lamp was pretty easy. Parts required are a 12v LED bulb, a 12v power supply and a couple of small wire nuts. Steps are as follows: 1) I destructively drilled a hole in the back big enough to run the electrical cord through, but you could remove the rewind crank and run the wire through that. 2) Put a knot in the electrical cord inside the camera body so it won't pull out. 3) Use the FTn's mirror lock up button to lock up the mirror. 4) Set the shutter to Bulb and open the shutter curtain. 5) Ins

I previously made a lamp from a spare parts Nikon FTn, but my Argus collection was getting jealous, so I decided to make an Argus camera lamp. The easiest starting point is the oldest model Argus flash which has a socket that fits the Edison base bulbs that we use in our ordinary household lamps. I can't image using a flashbulb as big as a regular light bulb, but that's what they did from the 1920s until much smaller M type bayonet bulbs started gaining the lion's share of the market. The Argus flash was originally made to run on three volts from two C batteries to trigger a flash bulb when the camera shutter was released. I modified my flash to run continuously on 110 volt AC power. This fl