The first camera I bought for myself was an Argus C3. That would have been about 1958 when I was just out of high school. Argus was still making the camera, but I got mine used in a pawn shop. I don't recall exactly what became of that first one; I've bought several more in the last ten years and have enjoyed shooting them again. I found the 35mm Sandmar a couple years ago on eBay. The maximum aperture is f/4.5; it's a little slow, but it is coated and reasonably sharp. The C3 and the Sandmar always seem a good choice for shooting at car shows like the early Spring one I went to this morning in Old Town Albuquerque.
One of the two nearby Walgreen's Drugstores has stopped processing 35mm film. The other is due to shut down its Fuji machines in a couple days. It seems my C3 and I have come full circle.
4 comments:
Beautiful pictures, again. You will have to get into B&W developing and scanning.
Hi Mike,
Nice pictures. I really like The C-3. I also picked up one of these lenses. What is the finder on your Argus? I don't recognize it. Sorry to hear of your processing troubles. I can still get 35mm processed (for now) but must send rollfilm off in the mail.
Regards, Jon in Connecticut.
These photos have "that C3 look," especially in terms of color. I don't know what it is, but there's just something unique about the colors the Argus C3 lenses return.
I'm impressed with the creamy tones you got across that Eldo.
If you click the "Argus C3" tag at the bottom of this post you will be able to scroll down to the post I made when I first acquired the wide angle lens and the viewfinder. What you can see there is a top view of the finder showing the movable mask for switching between the accessory wide and tele Sandamar lenses. Mine is a clip-on type for the C3 made before the camera was equipped with a top-deck accessory bracket. The finder is bright and a pleasure to use, but it shows quite a bit less of what you will actually get in the frame with the 35mm lens.
The Argus lenses do produce a distinctive look. I like the way they render colors and they seem as sharp to me as any lenses of their type.
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