One of my First "Real" Cameras

 

Meet the Argus C3 (well over two million units of this model were sold)

 

 When I first got into photography in the mid 1960's, my father owned some really nice cameras, but didn't let me use them. He had a 6x9 Zeiss Super Ikonta, Kodak Retina IIIc, & a Voigtlander Vito. I purchased a used bakelite plastic camera called the "Brownie" that shot 620 film at a garage sale for about 25 cents, and 100 rolls of expired Agfa 120 film for one dollar from a camera store.

 

I would then transfer the 120 film to the 620 reels in the dark, shoot in the brownie and soup them in a stainless steel daylight tank in the bathroom. Initially all I could do was contact prints between a big piece of window glass and some tempered Masonite. (I think they were about 6 x 4.5cm prints).

 

I financed my photography and optical hobbies through multiple lawn jobs. After a few years, at about age ten, my father bought me my first "real" camera as a birthday or Christmas present.

It was made in Ann Arbor Michigan, and affectionately called "the brick" by it's literally millions of owners. It featured a die-cast metal body with heavily chromed accents and edges.

It seemed that it's primary purpose was to survive a fall, but the optics were actually pretty good. I was more determined than ever to get a more elegant, better quality camera after his gift.

All photos are shot with the Canon 5DS-R and Nikkor-P.C 55mm f3.5 ai'd lens