Argus C4

[Robert Ross]

Hello All

I purchased an Argus C4 with the cintar 2:8 lens, Argus carry case, Argus lightmeter, Argus Flash, everything was very clean, camera is fully functional. It could use a mild cleaning. Also got 2 Minolta 16 msub-minatures thrown in..for a grand total of 25.00, did I do ok?

Robert

[Randy]

Sounds good to me, got any pics of th Argus?

[mickeyobe]

"did I do ok?"

Yup.
It's a good solid camera with a nice clear coupled range finder and interchangeable lens capability.

Mickey

[PeterW]

Hi Robert,

Don't know much about the Argus C4, but no-one's commented on the two Minolta sub-mins. Years ago I used to carry two or three sub-mins in my pocket at industrial exhibitions and vehicle shows. I used them as notebook cameras to take pictures of any interesting bits of designs that I wanted to write about. It was quicker and easier than making sketches.

I had a Minolta 16 and a couple of Russian sub-mins, one a Vega 2 and the later model of this which was labelled Kiev. I used to load the casettes from bulk 16mm cine film rated at about 200 ASA. Fifty feet of film lasted me ages.

I developed the film in a Minolta tank and though the edge perforations cut into the top and bottom of the frame a little I allowed for this. Running costs were almost negligible.

The results were about the same as you get nowadays from a 2 mega pixel mobile phone (cell phone) with a camera built in. I found them really useful but now I would probably use a compact digital with a couple of spare memory cards.

Sub-mins are still fun to use, and there's a quite thriving group for them on the internet. There's a guy on the internet somewhere in the US who stocks Minolta 16 cassettes loaded with un-named 200 ASA black and white. I bought half a dozen from him but haven't used them because my Minolta tank is packed away somewhere and I can't find it!

PeterW

[scott]

Robert, have you tried out your Minolta 16mm cameras, yet?

I think they are fun to use, but I also think you have to be both very nostalgic and extremely patient to use them.

I understand most camera shops sold film cassettes for them in the 50s and 60s, but now they're pretty hard to find.

I put together a crude apparatus which I use to slit a roll of normal 35mm film into two 24-exposure rolls of 16mm film.

I also had to put together a special negative-scanning frame.

I have a Minolta I (fixed-focus 3-element lens), Minolta II (fixed-focus 4-element lens), and a Kiev 30 (focusing 3-element lens).

Peter, I found that the adjustable reels in my Yankee tank (which I also use for 35mm and 120) will adjust down to 16mm, and that works fine for me.

Nowadays, with tiny digital and cell-phone cameras, these 16mm cameras don't seem very miniature anymore. But back when most people were carrying Brownies and TLRs, I'm sure it felt very cool!

Here's a set of my 16mm photos. It is fun to experiment, but unfortunately, very few of the photos are sharp, and I seldom get the kind of contrast that I like.

www.flickr.com/photos/21506490@N00/sets/72157607142726686/

Minolta II, Ilford Delta 400, on a train leaving Tainan (southern Taiwan)