Argus C3
The Argus was the first American made 35mm camera, the 35mm until then being the exclusive province of super-expensive German made cameras. The Argus C3 was third in the Argus series and was introduced in 1939 at a retail price of about $12.50. The case is made of Bakelite and solid metal castings; it looks and feels solid. Its nickname was "The Brick" for its less than elegant lines (the Japanese called it "The Lunchbox"). This was the camera that popularized the 35mm format in the U.S. Favored for its rugged and easy-to-fix-in-the field construction it was often carried by WWII combat photographers. Famous war photographer Tony Vacarro carried this camera into Germany, sometimes developing his negatives right in his helmet. Production was discontinued in 1966. I have two of these, one with a serial number indicating a 1939 assembly date, the other probably from the late '40s.
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Brownie Six-16
This is a wonderful art-deco box camera. The Brownie line had numerous models and was made from 1900 to 1966 but my particular model (the Six-16) was made sometime between March 1933 and April 1941. It takes type 616 roll film.
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Kodak Duaflex III
Box camera produced between 1950 and 1954 taking 620 film. It has a hooded lookdown viewfinder and Kodar lenses. 620 film isn't made anymore but with a little ingenuity you can take 120 film and trim the spool ends and it works just fine. There is something about this camera that gives the pictures it takes a kind of ethereal quality thats really beautiful especially in black and white.
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Viscount Aires
This is a very well made and solid Japanese rangefinder camera patterned on the Leica M3. Mine was made in 1959 and has a fixed lense with an aperature of 45mm. There is no built in lightmeter or electrics of any kind so you have to use a hand meter or have really good intuition about lighting. After all these years there is not a bit of play in any of the moving parts.
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My Super 8mm cameras:
Bell & Howell Autoload Model 431
Made 1965
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Canon Auto Zoom 518
Mine was manufatured in 1966. It was rescued from a garage sale for $12 and came with the original case and an unopened roll of Super 8 film from 1971.
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Last Updated
July 19 2008
I have a love of old cameras. Here I talk about my camera collection and the joys, ins and outs of retro picture taking. No electronics allowed!
