Any experience w/ Argus telephotos?

[john_van_v]

Hi all, I guess you all know the Argus bug is difficult to explain.

So instead of fighting it, I am trying to accommodate it, and hence need some advice.

My present thinking is to get a c44 and keep it as a telephoto "point and shoot" mostly for birds and other critters. I might even consider a "brick" as well. Perhaps some of the Argus and third-party lenses are better than others.

Does anybody here have experience with the Argus, and other, telephotos?

 

[J.Ed]

Your choices for Argus telephoto lenses are limited. For the C3 you have the Sandmar 100mm and the Soligor 135mm. The C44 has the 100mm Cintagon. The Geiss America modified C4 has Lithagon 100mm and 135mm, both of which are quite rare. The Cintagon 100 shows up ocassionally as does the Soligor 135. Most easily found is the Sandmar 100.

 

[john_van_v]

I was going to send you this as an email, but posted it instead, so hi.

Here is the list of lenses: http://arguscg.tripod.com/id41.html (if anyone doesn't yet know about it).

I am sure everybody thinks this: it is amazing that such a ubiquitous camera remains a "sleeper."

The work Avotius did is amazing; I guess it was his work I was thinking of when I posted. Probably the lithigons are the best, but they appear to be only for the Gneiss model C-4 -- which must be really tough to find.

It is a shame that Argus flubbed the bayonet part. With 20/20 hindsight, they probably should have modifed the "brick's" screw mount somehow to make it easier to change lenses, and then moved on to the bayonet.

(rambling)
It seems that mounts are the most problematic part of photography, the "adaptall" type mounts are another example. Or even maybe the most problematic part of all technology. The Internet, I think, stands alone on a purely standardized modular base. Unfortunately the rest of engineering will probably never get a clue, as technology seems to be driven by the sales teams in nearly every case with the exception of Soviet engineering, which had its own problem: Communism.