I went to a flea market and found these 2 TLR's

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Rage

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Hi, this is my first post.

I am Jeroen (nickname jeroen was already gone) and I am a graphic designer/illustrator from Amsterdam with a long time passion for photography.

We went to a flea market last week. I was hoping to find a nice medium format camera like a Rollei or something like that. I came home with this pair though 😀

The first thing I found was this cute little plastic/aluminum 1950's Argus Super 75.

It has a 65mm f8 (!) lens. It has 3 f-stops; f8, f11 and f16. There are instructions inside the viewer cover what stop to use in what weather condition. Shutterspeed is fixed (don't know how fast, I found some info on the net that it's somewhere between 1/30 and 1/50) or what would be "bulb".

It seems to be in mint condition and I payed € 15,- for it.

_MG_2528.jpg



Secondly, my heart missed a beat because my first thought was that I found my Rollei, but it turned out to be something else. Since the brand/light meter cover is missing I had no idea what I bought. But it appears to be a 1958 Minolta Autocord LMX.

It has a 75mm f3.5 lens and I payed € 50,- for it.

_MG_2522.jpg


I shot a roll of b&w film with the Autocord this week and although it works, I have send it for a proper restauration. Everything seems to be a bit stuck, so it could do with a good cleaning and adjusting.

Here's one of the photo's that I took.

20100403172124_000005.jpg


If anyone has more info on these, I would love to hear it.
 
welcome!

welcome!

welcome to the forum, jeroen

it looks like you had a lot of fun, and some good value for €65 spent. i don't know the argus, but have heard some good words about the minolta autocord cameras.

please post some results from your newly restored autocord when available.

greetings from hamburg

rick
 
The Autocord should do you very very well indeed.

I have a 1965 model with no meter.

Very wise in getting it looked at if it's a bit stuck on its moving parts, these cameras have fragile focussing levers and if forced they will break. Getting it all freed up with give you one extremely capable TLR that I rate very very highly.

Whole bunch of stuff I've been uploading on my Flickr pages from an Autocord if you're interested in the potential.

Vicky
 
Some will say it's actually better than a Rollei. The Rokkor is a Tessar design (4 elements in 3 groups), but it's a Rokkor!
The quality of construction of 1960s Minolta is absolutely outstanding. I have a 1966 Hi-Matic 9 and although it's a "compact" camera, it weighs 750g! 50€ for an Autocord is a real bargain, as those cameras usually go for more than 150€...
 
The Autocord is a brilliant camera. But having both, the Autocord and a Rolleicord Vb,
I must say that it's nonsense to claim that the Minolta is better than the Rollei.
They play in the same league, period. Anyway, you will be totally satisfied after the CLA,
no need to search for a Rollei anymore!

wallace
 
The Argus Super Seventy-Five is a decent camera, for a scale-focus (?) TLR.

The biggest downside is that it only uses 620 film ( I'm pretty sure; my Argus 75 was 620-only.).

You may be able to buy 620 from big vendors, such as B&H Photo, but it is expensive and your choices of film will be limited.

If you are industrious and determined, you can re-spool 120 film onto 620 spools, and expand your choices of film; but be sure to ask for your spools back when you send the film to be processed.

As others have noted, the Minolta is a quality camera.... enjoy !


Luddite Frank
 
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I got my Autocord back from CLA and I shot a film with it that I should get back in a few days. The guy that CLA'ed it also made a new focussing knob and fixed the lightmeter. How cool is that? 😀
I'll post some results when I have my film back.

In the meantime... I am afraid I have a new hobby in collecting old camera's. The "film" camera market seems to be so dead that one can buy mint conditioned oldtimers for just a few bucks at the moment. It appears to be the perfect moment to start a fresh collection.
 
Luddite Frank said:
The biggest downside is that it only uses 620 film ( I'm pretty sure; my Argus 75 was 620-only.).
You may be able to buy 620 from big vendors, such as B&H Photo, but it is expensive and your choices of film will be limited.
If you are industrious and determined, you can re-spool 120 film onto 620 spools, and expand your choices of film; but be sure to ask for your spools back when you send the film to be processed.
Luddite Frank
Click to expand...

Msr Rage; As you're in Europe you might be able to follow this link up. Efke are still offering 127 film and also list 620 on their website. http://www.fotoimpex.de/Home/films/e-127/body_e-127.html
 
I was wondering about that focusing knob, as I didn't see one on the camera in your photo. As others say, the lens on this camera is very, very good. I certainly think it's head and shoulders better than a Rolleicord Xenar, but people have subjective opinions about image quality. I will just say, to me, it has one of the best lenses in photography and leave it at that. The Rokkor is a great lens in 35mm photography as well. The only Japanese lens I've ever seen that has that 3D quality like a Leica. Enjoy your Autocord. I bought one myself recently after selling my first one and regretting it afterward. That camera will out shoot 99% of medium format cameras, and unless you want to pay big money for a Rolleiflex 3.5F or one of the 2.8 models you're going to get some of the best image quality in MF. The only cameras I've used that are as good or better are the Voigtlander Bessa RF/ Bessa II w/ Heliar lenses, or a Hasselblad.
 
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Here is a test shot that I did with the Autocord after CLA. I scanned it on a simple flatbed scanner with a couple of desk lamps over it.
Need a new scanner. And a handheld lightmeter. And the money to pay for that...

20100519140114_img_0001a_min.jpg
 
Concerning the Argus - I always considered it a TLR Box Camera. That doesn't mean it's a bad buy. You should have a good time with it. I am currently about 1/2 mile from where it was made in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. When I was a kid, everyone I knew had an Argus camera as they were a local product.

Instead of re-spooling 120 film on 620 spools, I just cut down the spool flanges. This shows you how:
http://mconnealy.com/vintagecameras/120in620/
It works well so long as you sand/file the edges smooth. Try not to get the sanding dust between the film and the spool flange as it could get on the film and make spots.

Oh, and welcome to RFF!
 
@bsdunek
I agree on the Argus being a box camera (wrong thread name).
Thanks for the link about the 620 spools. I have bookmarked it and I will certainly try that some time. Shooting with the Autocord is enough 6x6 for the moment 🙂
I am using the Argus for some "Through The Viewfinder" photography fun.
There's some examples in this Flickr set: http://bit.ly/amlpzT

edit: I have been in Ann Arbor once. That was years ago in the early '90-s when I did a summer road trip in the USA. Oh, sweet memmories...

Woof.
 
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