Company:Argus (camera company)

Short description: Camera company

Argus

Argus Building
Industry	Cameras
Founded	1936 (1936)
Defunct	1969 (1969)
Headquarters	Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.

Argus was an American maker of cameras and photographic products, founded in 1936 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Argus originated as a subsidiary of the International Radio Corporation (IRC), founded by Charles Verschoor. Its best-known product was the C3 rangefinder camera, which enjoyed a 27-year production run and became one of the top-selling cameras in history. The company's Model A was the first low-cost 35 mm camera in the United States. Sylvania acquired Argus in 1959 and sold it in 1969, by which time it had ceased camera production (some rebadged cameras continued to be sold under the Argus name through the 1970s). More recently, the Argus brand has been reestablished and is used on a variety of inexpensive digital cameras made by Argus Camera Company, LLC., located in Inverness, Illinois.

Models

Argus C3

A series

• A (1936–1941)
• AF (1937–1938)
• B (1937)
• A2B (1939–1950)
• A2F (1939–1941)
• AA (1940–1942)
• FA (1950–1951)

C series

Argus 21

• C (1938–1939)
• C2 (1938–1942)
• C3 (1938–1968)
• 21 (1947–1952)
• C4 (1951–1957)
• C44 (1956–1957)
• C3 Golden Shield (1958–1966)
• C3 Matchmatic (1958–1966)
• C3 Standard (1958–1966)
• C44R (1958–1962)
• C4R (1958)
• C33 (1959–1961)

Argoflex

Argoflex Seventy-Five

Argus Seventy-Five (Australian made)

• Argoflex E (1940–1948)
• Argoflex
• Argoflex II (1947)
• Argoflex EM (1948)
• Argoflex EF (1948–1951)
• Argoflex Seventy-Five (1949–1958)

• Argus Seventy-Five (made in Australia)

• Seventy-Five (1949–1958)
• 40 (1950–1954)
• Argoflex Forty (1950–1954)
• Super Seventy-Five (1954–1958)
• 75 (1958–1964)

Autronic

Argus Autronic 35

• Autronic 35 (1960 only)
• Autronic C3 (1960–1962)
• Autronic I (1962–1965)
• Autronic II (1962–1965)

Other models

Argus Lady Carefree, plastic camera for 126 mm film cartridges, c. 1967

• K (1939–1940)
• M (1939–1940)
• A3 (1940–1942)
• CC (1941–1942)
• Minca (1947–1948)
• A5 (1953–1956)
• A-Four (1953–1956)
• C-Twenty (1957–1958)
• Lady Carefree (126, circa 1967)
• Carefree (126)

Digital

Argus DC1500

Argus DC3000

• DCV-011
• DCM-098
• DCM-099
• DC-1088
• DC-1500
• DC-1512E
• DC-2185
• DC-3000 (May 2000)
• DC-3185
• DC-3190
• DC-3195
• DC-3270DV
• DC-5190
• DC-5195
• DC-5340
• DC-6340

Awards

Argus had two cameras for children developed in partnership with TEAMS Design. The cameras, the Bean and Sprout, won a Bronze 2009 IDEA award from Bloomberg BusinessWeek and the Industrial Designers Society of America in addition to an Appliance Design 2009 EID award.

See also

• Argus Museum

External links

• The Argus Collector's Group
• Argus Camera Information Reference Site
• The Story of Argus Camera at Ann Arbor District Library
• Argus camera timeline
• Argus patents
• Argus A and Argus C3 at Marc's Classic Cameras
• Argus C3
• The Argus A/A2 Page includes Hrad Kuzyk, "A Modern User's Guide to the Argus A/A2 Camera", 12/2/2006.