The Brick: Best Selling American 35mm Camera Ever

The brick has sometimes been described as the American Leica; I've lost count of the cameras known as the something Leica? The poor man's Leica. the Russian Leica, The Leica Leica should have made, etc.? Although comparing this consumer camera with it's professional, German counterpart is overstating the point it does share some of the early Leica's characteristics;

• separate viewfinder and rangefinder windows
• interchangeable lenses
• 35mm format
• cocking the shutter being a separate action from winding on film
• quiet leaf shutter,

The C3 has also been described as the Model-T of cameras (the Leica being the Mercedes) which seems to be a more accurate nick name. Certainly, in it's day, it brought quality optics and tank-like, solid mechanics to the masses where these features had previously only been available to the wealthy elite. It has been claimed to be the best selling 35mm camera ever. Also, like the Model-T, it was originally available in any color you wanted as long as it was chrome and black. It's most deserved nickname is "the brick" due to it's angular design and proportions.

Argus C3

As one of the best selling cameras ever the C3 can be found very easily in the US and very cheaply at that. However common it may be, it would be a mistake to write it off as worthless. It's optics aren't half bad and it lives up to it's 'brick' nickname in both build and aesthetics. To use the brick is to take a step back in time and the C3 was far from a point and shoot; it takes some education and knowledge to get an accurate shot out of the brick but hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic, American amateurs tried and many succeeded. The shooting work flow goes something like this;

1. Advance to the next frame - No single push film advance lever for the C3. First you must release the film advance catch, then wind the film a little before releasing the catch and completing the wind until the frame counter clicked to the next number.
    
2. Set the exposure - no built in light meter so you either had to carry a separate one or use the sunny f16 rule or your experience to judge what that should be. Now set the shutter speed and aperture.
    
3. Focus - using the tiny, yellow rangefinder window focus the camera.
    
4. Cock the shutter - just because you advanced the film doesn't mean that you cocked the shutter. Press down the shutter lever on the right hand front side of the camera.
    
5. Frame the shot - don't confuse the rangefinder for the viewfinder - the viewfinder is the one that isn't yellow.
    
6. Take the picture - the brick isn't the easiest camera to hold but you've got to keep your fingers out of the way of the shutter cocking lever on its return path whilst pressing the shutter release down.

Of course, there's nothing to stop you taking a double exposure or advancing the film without taking any shot so you have to keep your wits about you.

I bought my example of this camera for $17.79 inc P&P from eBay. For that price it came with it's original case and flash and it's original sales box, literature and tag. The camera itself was in pretty good condition except that the shutter speeds are obviously not accurate even to my untrained ear. It seems like the faster speeds (anything over 1/10th of a second) cause the shutter to fire at it's fastest speed (1/500th). I didn't really buy this camera as a user so it's not high on my project list but I would like to fix this problem so I can throw a roll or two through this venerable, old American.

Argus Matchmatic

The C3 was never cutting edge technology even when first released but after a few years of production it was starting to look very dated especially in comparison to some of the competing models coming from Germany and Japan with built in light meters and even some with early forms of auto-exposure. Argus's response to this technological onslaught was the Matchmatic. The Matchmatic is a poorly disguised, though handsome, C3. It wears a new two tone jacket and it came with a complementary light meter which sat on its accessory shoe on the top of the camera. It was a primitive answer to the more advanced competition in that the lens and shutter markings were not the typical f-stop and fractions of a second we are familiar with but a new, simpler numerical system. The idea was that with the dedicated light meter you could read of the appropriate proprietary settings for the Matchmatic's lens and shutter and set them accordingly. Apart from this 'advance' it functioned just like any other brick.

I bought my Matchmatic after discovering it was the camera used in the second Harry Potter movie. Another eBay bargain, this one cost me $13.50 including P&P and included it's original case and meter. Unfortunately the meter is not working but I've yet to see an example that is. All other functions seem to be in perfect working order although the viewfinder and rangefinder are both badly in need of cleaning to the point of being barely usable. Once I've done this I'd like to put some film though it just for fun.

Links

• Junk Store Cameras C3
• Junk Store Cameras MatchMatic
• Argus Collector's Group