[rollei_list] Re: Argomania
- From: Richard Knoppow <dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 05:21:35 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
-----Original Message-----
>From: Javier Perez <summarex@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Jan 8, 2010 11:24 PM
>To: Rollei List <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Argomania
>
>
>Hi Don
>
>Actually I think that wasn't a design defect. I'm not sure how the story goes
>but that switch was NOT an X/M switch. It was something else and it was meant
>to be used with the Argus flash or something like that. I have a few Arguses
>including my favourites the C33 and C44. I keep them in the closet next to my
>Claruses (Clari?)! Fun cameras!
>
>Javier
>
>
>
>Date: Fri, 8 Jan 2010 15:09:14 -0600
>To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>From: dwilli10@xxxxxxx
>Subject: [rollei_list] Re: Argomania
>
>At 12:01 AM 1/8/2010, Javier wrote:
>
>Hi Everyone
>
>FYI, you might want to have a look at this book about Argus cameras. Since
>most of you are serious camera collectors or photo historians, I don't have to
>explain the significance of the old Argus to photography! I'm sure the
>veterans among you have some interesting Argus stories
>to tell.
>
>Javier
>Thanks,
>
>My High School Graduation present (exactly 60 years ago) was an Argus C4. (I
>really wanted a Kodak 35, I think it was called).
>
>I used it through college and bought a battery-powered flash for it in Panama
>in 1953 during my Midshipman Cruise. It was disappointing at first. I kept
>getting low exposures, regardless of the F-stop setting. I finally opened
>the camera and pointed the flash on the behind-the-lens shutter and found that
>the F speed setting was causing the flash to fire when the shutter was half
>open, so that the shutter was acting as the F-stop. I then took the camera
>open, ground a new cam on the shutter drive shaft, and created an X-sync.
>
>That worked fine and I still have an under water housing I made for it but
>gave the camera to someone a few years back. It had a design defect in that
>the "shutter-toggle", a lever that runs in a grove in the shutter drive shaft
>would break every few months. Argus always gave me replacements but they
>finally became unavailable and the camera sat around for 30 or so years. I
>couldn't bear to toss it out so I found someone who wanted it so I sent it to
>a new home.
>
>The first time the toggle broke I sent it back to Argus and they repaired it
>but the bent my new set of flash contacts away from the cam. I bent it back
>and it worked fine. I do remember that I had to add a light shield to keep
>the spark at the contacts from exposing the frame.
>
>I think the strobe battery was 67 volts, perhaps more, and that was what was
>supplied to the capacitor. Nice little German-made strobe.
>
>The book looks interesting but it's out of my price range.
>
>Regards to all.
>
>DAW
Class-F bulbs were gas-filled flashbulbs with a delay time of 5 ms. These
could be used on simple box cameras without synchronizers because the shutter
speeds were slow enough. However, they will not work with strobe. The more
common flashbulbs were Class-M which have a delay of about 20ms between being
fired and the peak of light output. These require a synchronzer, either a
magnetic solenoid or an escapement in the shutter. These also, of course, will
not work for strobe since the flash will have fired long before the shutter
begins to open. Since at Class-X or stobe a shutter is set to trigger the flash
when just wide open Class-X can be used with Class-F lamps at fairly slow
shutter speeds or with Class-M lamps at quite slow speeds. Class-F lamps have a
very short total duration so they provide a modest amount of motion stopping
with simple box cameras.
--
Richard Knoppow
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Los Angeles, CA, USA
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