quarter of the way around the inside rim and cut it off. Try to fit it on the lens mount. Continue this process of unwrapping and trying until the lens cap fits snugly. Use the razor to trim the excess plastic and tape, and admire your new lens cap! If making a lens cap for the
Hand-Held Or Accessory-Shoe Mounted Rangefinder
These devices measure the distance between the camera and the object being photographed. They are used to ensure that your subject appears in focus. While they were popular from the 30’s to the 50’s, SLR cameras and cameras with coupled rangefinders made them unnecessary.
Rangefinders are more practical on the Argus AF and A2F with their variable focus. Companies that manufactured rangefinders for accessory shoes include Watameter, Telex, Hugo Meyer, Rainbow, Waltz, and Ideal. They often had a clip which sat in a camera’s accessory shoe.
Flash Guns
The main selling point of the Argus AA and FA was their ability to use flash. While this does not seem fantastic to us now, it was revolutionary at the time of the introduction of the AA. The flashbulb had only been invented a few years earlier; many photographers still used dirty and dangerous flash powder. Candid indoor pictures, night shots, and flash fill photography all suddenly became possible with the introduction of
Unfortunately, flashbulb photography now has several distinct disadvantages. Flashbulbs are no longer widely manufactured, and while they are not rare or even uncommon, they soon will be. Even those that can still be found are aging and becoming less reliable. Flash bulbs require large flash guns and produce much more light than electronic flashes, making them much more intrusive for public use. Like the once- common vacuum tube, the flashbulb belongs to that growing family of
When acquiring a flash for your Argus camera, make certain that you purchase a flash that will fit your camera. The Argus AA uses a flash gun whose flash posts are 3/4ths of an inch apart (center to center). This flash is also used with the Argus C3.
The Argus FA uses a special flash however, that is not compatible with the Argus
AAor C3. For a flash to fit the Argus FA, the flash posts must be 1.2 inches apart (center to center).
There is one flash accessory that can be used with any Argus camera. When flashbulbs first became popular, many cameras could not be easily adapted for use with a flash. Several companies tried to capitalize on this by making flash adapters that would screw into a generic Cable Release Socket and synchronize the camera shutter with a flash gun. These adapters can still be found. They do, however, require a bit of fine tuning and this will consume some of your precious supply of flashbulbs.
On a final note, be aware that due to considerable timing differences an electronic flash cannot just be connected to a camera that expects flashbulbs. Modern electronic flashes cannot be used with a flashbulb camera without timing alterations to the camera.
Download this book for free at http://www.TheArgusA.com/
40
