Argus: Argus A Black Price Guide: estimate a camera value

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Argus: Argus A Black

CollectiBlend Average Index

	Average	Very good	Mint
	$5-10	$5-10	$10-20
Estimate value accuracy:

Camera rarity

(Somewhat rare. Votes: 9)

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1936-1941. 35mm cartridge, viewfinder camera. First camera by Argus. First American 35mm camera to use Kodak cartridge. Several changes during the lifetime of the camera:

type 1: fixed pressure plate, steel back, round spring wire, smaller lens elements, sprockets on one side of the film, embossed front dial;

type 2: tripod socket added, rewind knob thickened;

type 3: floating pressure plate, aluminum back, squared spring wire, larger lens elements, sprockets on both sides of the film, painted front dial.

Black is the least valuable model. In ascending order of value: black, gray or olive, brown/gold, and ivory/gold (most expensive, very rare).

Camera manual

Camera featured in these collections: wissowatius Russell_Saburuko Zely HWCollectables kamera king gtuned Jeff L spydr955 bill339 justakidwithacamera JimBot KevinWilburnPhoto eppaar OhioCameraSwap blammert russwm atarget3 tonymc Christopher vayasteve Alexey_Grishin busedad Oldsalt53 DoozerNZ bkphoto magmabrawler

Camera sales and other sources with added premiums,
converted and inflation-adjusted prices:

	Date	Condition	Price

	2003-02-28	B	$22
	2002-01-01	B	~$17
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Post a reply

by Luvantique » Sat May 15, 2010 9:54 pm

This is not the first American 35mm camera, by a very long time. The first American 35 was the first (commercially manufactured) 35mm still camera in the world, the Tourist Multiple, first sold in 1913, beating out the Simplex by a very narrow margin. The Ansco Memo appeared in 1925, so Argus was hardly the first. A possible but more iffy early member would be the Retina line, made in Germany by the American-owned company Eastman Kodak.

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by diser » Sun May 16, 2010 2:30 pm

You are right, I need to rephrase this. Argus A was the first american camera to use Eastman Kodak 35mm cassette. Does this sounds better?

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by bjully » Sun Jun 27, 2010 8:33 am

Hello, I am a first time user of the forum as I just bought an Argus V100. I am trying to understand how to use it amd am very excited about this camera. The light meter apparently doesn't work. My first issue it that I have to set film exposure index on the meter. If it is broken why would I do this? Is it like an ASA setting? The manual tells me to set it according to the index of the film and there is a chart with various film brands, eg Anscochrome Daylight with Daylight 32 and Tungsten 8. I happen to have a fuji film and have no idea where it would fit in. Can you help me? Thanks in advance.

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by diser » Mon Jun 28, 2010 8:08 pm

I'd ask this question in the the arguscg group at yahoogroups.com, you'll need to subscribe first though.

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