Old video showing how an Argus camera was made

[MEPER]

Anybody experienced the Argus camera and lenses (I never experienced them)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24MUcU_9Gro

Seems they made an effort to get the best out of a 3-element 50mm lens?

In the beginning of the video a technician is using a slide rule for calculation.
I never learned using these but have afterwards been quite fascinated by them :-)

Not a surprise that there can be some lens sample variations when you see how they are made.......

[pluton]

I wasn't able to see the video due to erroneous Youtube ad-block warnings. May be able to fix in near future.
Based on evidence from Kodak transparency films shot on my older brother's Argus C-3 (EDIT:  The C3 is the black, boxy one in the collection pictured in the film) in the 1960's, the lens was useable, but lacked the resolution to take full advantage of such slow, fine-grain films like Kodachrome X.  Resolution was also not quite up to possibilities of the grainier High Speed Ekatchrome (160 speed) but as a competitor to simple box cameras, it had the advantage of adjustable settings for focus, aperture, and shutter speed. Widely promoted in the USA as a good camera to "learn the basics" until the Japanese innovators (Canon, Minolta, Olympus, etc) offered their smaller, nicer-looking fixed-lens handy cameras in the mid-1960's, as I recall.

[MEPER]

I got surprised that the lens was made at an American factory but I did not know the Argus brand until now.
Kodak cameras and lenses was made in Germany like the Retina cameras. Those were probably a bit higher quality.
But interesting to watch all the steps involved in making a lens. Maybe a good example for a 3-element lens.
The only 3-element lenses I have experienced are the entry-level Voigtländer lenses like Vaskar. It was ok but still had it limitations compared to the Skopar design.   

[Matthew Currie]

Somewhere I think I still have one of those Argus C-4's.  I never got on with the Brick, but the C-4 worked pretty nicely. Mine cost a buck from a junk shop back in the early 2000's.  Despite looking awful and abused, it was robust and the viewfinder worked OK.  The lens was not bad for what it was, F 2.8 was pretty fast in its day. and the hot shoe even worked. Compared to most German made cameras of the day, it's big, coarse and cheaply made, but the same qualities make it durable and reliable. Not as much fun to carry around as a Mercury II, but surprisingly serviceable.