Argus

C3 and C3 Matchmatic

Argus Inc. was a camera maker based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. Before 1939 it was International Research Corporation, a department of International Radio Corporation, Ann Arbor. It was the American company that popularized the modern cartridged 35mm film in the U.S., especially by its characteristically brick-shaped rangefinder cameras. The first camera of Argus, the Argus A, resulted from a patent that the company received in 1936. Before that time the company had produced radios, among them some bakelite models.

Argus became a great name in the Ann Arbor's economy. Several buildings of its heydays are still known as Argus building. One of these pearls of the city's brick architecture has become a modern office building now, with a public area where a permanent exhibition of Argus cameras is shown, the Argus Museum.

Some Argus products were OEM products made by other makers.

Argus buildings

Argus Building, 535 West William Street now an office building, home of the Argus Museum

Characteristic house corner of a former Argus building that became part of the University

The entrance of that building

The entrance of another Argus building

List of Argus Cameras

A-series

• Argus A
• Argus A2B
• Argus A2F
• Argus AA
• Argus A3
• Argus AF
• Argus B
• Argus FA

A-series Links

• 35mm For The Proletariat: A Modern User's Guide To The Argus A/A2 Camera

C-series

• Argus C
• Argus C2
• Argus C3
• Argus C3 colormatic
• Argus C3 Golden Shield
• Argus C3 MatchMatic
• Argus C3 Standard
• Argus C33
• Argus C-twenty

Autronic Series

• Argus Autronic 35
• Argus Autronic C3
• Argus Autronic I
• Argus Autronic II

TLR

• Argus 40
• Argus 75* Argus Super Seventy-Five
• Argus Argoflex
• Argus Argoflex E
• Argus Argoflex EF
• Argus Argoflex EM
• Argus Argoflex Forty
• Argus Argoflex II
• Argus Argoflex Seventy-Five

Other

• Argus 21

• Argus A-Four
• Argus C4
• Argus C44
• Argus C44R
• Argus C4 Modified
• Argus C4R
• Argus Model M
• Argus 127 (Whitehouse Products)
• Argus CR-2 (Chinon)
• Argus/Cosina STL 1000 (Cosina)
• Argus Lady Carefree and Argus Flash Sensor 235x (Sedic)
• Argus V-100 (German OEM)

Sources

Links

• Argus page at Collection G. Even's site
• Various Argus Camera at Sylvain Halgand's collection
• Argus Camera Historyon the Argus Company site
• Mark O'Brien's Argus Camera page
• Argus Camera Photographers Group and Pool on Flickr

Manuals

• Listing of different Argus instruction manuals in PDF format

Books

• Henry J. Gambino: "Argomania", 2005