Essay 11, say wait a minute...

[murrayatuptown]

I'm not sure I believe my eyes..can I put a different lens on my Argus C3 if I can't find the Argus accessory lenses? There might not be an cost advantage, but I didn't know that.

Or did I misunderstand, or does it only apply to modern RF's?

Thanks

 

[phototone]

I'm not sure I quite understand your statement?/question above. However, YES the Argus C3 does accept accessory lenses, although rather tedious to mount and unmount due to having to align the idler gear and rangefinder gear and the gear teeth on the lens barrell. I believe they made a 35mm and a 90mm, perhaps others. Later Argus camera designs had slightly easier lens changing. The C3 is a leaf shutter camera and the shutter remains in the camera when the lens is removed.

I should not be impossible to find the accessory lenses for the C3 if you diligently watch the popular auction sites.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

The accessory lenses were made by Steinheil, and mine is marked made in the US occupied Zone of Germany. It is a 100mm F4.5 lens, made to look like a Zeiss lens for the Contax. The lens includes a mask for the Tiny C3 finder, as it does not have an accessory shoe. The C44 will take an accessory finder. The later C3 manuals deny the existance of these lenses and state that the lens of the camera is removable so that you can use it on your enlarger. Funny thing is that the wide-angle and Telephoto lenses were made for and sold by Argus.

If you want a good German Rangefinder that takes a range of lenses, look to a Retina IIIS. $200 should pick up a Camera, 35mm F2.8, 50mm F1.9, and 135mm F4 lens. It is a top notch camera with a great finder with projected/parallax corrected framelines.

 

[jlw]

I'm not sure I believe my eyes..can I put a different lens on my Argus C3 if I can't find the Argus accessory lenses? There might not be an cost advantage, but I didn't know that.

Or did I misunderstand, or does it only apply to modern RF's?

I'd have to go back and re-read it, but I think that somewhere farther up the essay it limits those remarks to "every 35mm RF camera currently in production" or words to that effect.

However, yes, there were some independently made lenses for Argus C3. I'm pretty sure I saw a Soligor tele once, on the bargain table at a camera show.