The Argus C3
1939 to 1966
A heavy, cheap, rectangular 35mm rangefinder from Ann Arbor, Michigan, nicknamed the Brick. Millions of Americans learned 35mm photography with one.
How it began
German 35mm cameras such as the Leica and Contax were expensive. Argus, a company in Ann Arbor founded to make radios, set out to make an affordable American 35mm camera and launched the C3 in 1939.
How it works
The C3 is a box with a lens, a coupled rangefinder linked to the focus by a gear, and a separate viewfinder. Its odd, blocky shape came from building it like a radio, around a simple chassis.
Why it mattered
It sold for about $30 and was tough and reliable. For more than two decades it was the 35mm camera most Americans could afford, and it made colour slides on Kodachrome a mass hobby.
Limits and what replaced it
It was heavy, slow to use and its finder was separate from the rangefinder. Japanese rangefinders and SLRs, cheaper and better, ended its run in the 1960s.
Today
Common on the second-hand market and loved for its looks; it appears in films as the classic mid-century American camera.