This is a little brute of a camera but if you ever have a chance to pick one up you should. For a while this was one of the most popular cameras of it’s time. How I don’t know, the outside gears are like something out of a Jules Vern story. Maybe that’s why I like it so much. If you want a camera that isn’t going to cost you much that you want to tear down and hack on it this could be the one. It’s so simple that you can add different lenses to it, make it into a pinhole camera, convert it to half frames, etc… It’s also the perfect camera for a beginning student. Sure, its not and SLR but a rangefinder is perfectly acceptable for most everyone. Being fully manual it also makes the kids learn a thing or two about exposure.
I bought mine on eBay for around $15US and I’m quite happy with it. I do need to fix the close focus on it but there is enough info on the ‘Net that it should be easy.
Argus Collectors Group
The Argus C3