Fraternal Twins

I acquired the camera on the right some time ago, and it has made some nice pictures for me.  A small, intermittent light leak led me to buy another recently.  The Argus 40 seems to differ only in a few cosmetic details from the Argoflex Forty.  The second one had no light leaks, but the internal lens surfaces required some cleaning.  I partially disassembled the Argoflex while I was working on the new one and found that the middle lens element was a little loose in the mount.  We'll see if that was what was responsible for the light leak.

Meanwhile, the Argus 40 seems to be working perfectly.  The 75mm coated Varex Anastigmat is nicely sharp, and I very much like the tonal values it produces on TMAX 100.

Return to Tent Rocks

We went back to Tent Rocks on Monday. Arriving around 10 AM, we found ourselves sharing the narrow path up the slot canyon with quite a few other visitors. A few people asked about my old camera, an Argoflex 40. Quite a few more commented on Margaret's Eastern Washington University hoodie, and everyone seemed to be amazed that she was making the hike in flip-flops.











I shot TMAX 400 in the Argus with the ISO at 200. Development was for 6.5 minutes at 22 degrees F in Rodinal at 1:50.

Downtown Albuquerque

Argoflex 40, TMAX 400


Life Magazine, 11/09/53

Argus Cameras of 1955



Thanks to Carlos Avilez, I have been able to add a page to the Ephemera section of my Vintage Cameras site displaying a sales brochure with details of the 1955 offerings from Argus.

Carlos' flickr photostream under the name Soulrac has some extraordinary images, including many made with simple cameras from the period illustrated in the brochure.