Hi Rinoa, I watched your video and it gave me shivers. LOL. I've been restoring these C, C2 and C3's for many years. That poor lens! You've put it back together backwards, did you notice how far out the lens bezel is now sticking out? Also the lens has to be adjusted so the infinity markings on the lens actually match the lenses actual focal length. Another thing is getting the slot to line up properly so everything from the RF dial to the idler wheel with cover plate all line up. It take me at least 1/2 hour to get everything aligned then of course adjusting the rangefinder so it matches the lens. All in all for a camera designed in 1938 and sold through 1966 then design held up well. The ACG has members all over the world. Never use oil! A tiny drop on the inside of the RF dial is the exception to loosen up a sticky dial, there you did well! ... The Helicoid needs either helicoid grease or a very heavy lithium white grease. After taking out the Rangefinder it should always be aligned properly. BUT HEY, learning by doing is the best way. The front panel has 5 screws that hold the front panel onto the camera. You have to remove the leatherette first and the shutter setting lever. Some unscrew counterclockwise, be careful. There may be a setscrew of a tiny locking nut.Here are a few websites that will help you a lot, also check out the Argus Collectors Group homepage. The annual gathering was this past week which I missed to do illness. Have FUN, as always I applaud any younger person who wants to learn to fix old cameras and shoot film with them. If I can help let me know. Tom, Try these.. rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-120.html AND/OR rick_oleson.tripod.com/index-86.html THE ARGUS GROUP www.arguscg.org/ AND FINALLY a great RU-vid Friend SEARCH FOR fix old cameras. Have fun the ACG also has parts for old Argus Cameras.
Hi Tom, do you know what size allen wrench you would use for the set screws on the lens rings? I bought a small metric (.7,.9,1.3) and a small standard set (.028,.035 and .050) and none of them fit. Thanks in advance for any help you could send my way. Steve
Hi Tom, Could you help me identify where to resolder the thin metal tension strip that activates the shutter? Mine has come off off the core of the cocking lever system and I don’t have any reference as to how far around the diameter it needs to be connected to in order to create the right tension.
When there are 2 holes across a diameter and a lens is present inside, the ideal tool you use to unscrew the lens would be a "lens wrench" or "lens spanner" as I believe they are called, fairly inexpensive and available on Ebay. One end has 2 slots, the other end has 2 pointed ends. We use them on eyepieces etc. for telescopes and other optics. The idea is that you can get twice the torque on the assembly compared to just jamming a screwdriver into one of the holes. Loving your channel, you are a cool and interesting person. Best Regards from NW England.
I've had my 1956 Argus C3 for probably 10 years now. I took the counter ring off in 2014 and wasn't able to get it back on. Last week, I bought an Ikoflex which now has a frozen shutter thanks to my stupidity. I dug out my Argus to practice on before starting on my Ikoflex. Your Argus had the same issue mine does. So now I can fix it and then work my new-to-me camera. Thank you!
I as watching with much apprehension. Bravo - you did it and I learned from your endeavor. I once took part a reflex-korelle and everything went sour. but I am undeterred and need to do something with this super sticky Argus C3 thank you.... Bo
You know that yellow haze that was on the rotating view finder lens? That was your split image coating. You just removed it! This will make it very hard to focus now as you won't have the yellow and blue split image to focus with. I'm looking for a way to clean mine but without removing the coatings as I want to use the camera at some point! I did learn a couple things about how to open the camera to try and clean my view finder as it is really dirty inside. At least there are plenty of these cameras and they are pretty worthless still, I don't want to ruin mine!
@@RinoaL, fair enough. The viewfinders and rangefinders on these are terrible. Others of that vintage are worse though. On a happy note, this video is hilarious. The reason you "have such bad luck with American-made cameras" is obvious. You "CLA" them with techniques that would make even Soviet technicians cringe.
I have two of these c3's. I took the yellow plastic "film" out of the viewfinder of my matchmatic, and it actually made it much easier for me to see through the tiny rangefinder. Now I just need to re-align the mirrors...
I've always passed up these Argus C3s because they all have some sort of issue, sticky shutter, frozen aperture, crusty focus action, though oddly no rangefinder issues. Maybe I should get one as my first rangefinder camera.
I successfully remove the front element after heating the crease between the silver and black metal of the front elements using torch lighter. Its really easy. No damage done
This was so good. For me, Rinoa Super-Genius is to exploratory disassembly/reassembly what Bob Ross is to instructional painting. Relaxing and informative.
Rinoa Super-Genius Recently had to tear my camera down to replace some parts. I think I'll have to do some lens work soon, so this is a good watch. Thank you
You are very mechanically inclined, and excellent at tearing things down. I’ve worked on several of these, including the famous (infamous?) MatchMatic. The best way to free up sticky apertures is to flood the blades with Ronsonol lighter fluid, and keep working the shutter. Has worked for me every time. These are fun, imprecise cameras.
Rinoa Super-Genius It was made by Argus, almost identical to your C3, only with a coupled Light meter, that used a rather odd exposure scale. It’s as good, or bad, as any Argus. It’s gold colored, and made an appearance in one of the Harry Potter films, which drove eBay prices up.
They make fine precision tools to work on camera equipment you might as well be using a sledge hammer .also you should wear gloves your getting more contaminates on the parts from your fingers then the cleaning you done. For someone who loves to save history you probably damaged it more .
It's not all about the tools, it's just about how much care is taken. I found it really upsetting to see that poor lens just get waisted because of a lack of patience. It may indeed be cheap on eBay but waisting a 1956 camera lens is quite stupid regardless its value.
I have to side with the guys here - even throwing the lens elements in with the metal parts into the degreaser and tossing them all on a towel introduced scratches to the lenses. If you ever intend to take photos with this camera with reasonably fine grained film (think tmax100) and scan them above 1200dpi you'll see a very noticeable loss of contrast/sharpness - you mechanically ungunked the lens but destroyed its already meager (argus, american, barebones triplet lens scheme) optical qualities. Kinda redundant unless you like lofi "lomography" vibes.
You shouldnt put a threaded fitting/device in a vice like that because it compresses the threads and makes it harder to turn. Its probably why you had so much trouble turning it. I know this because I've been there 😅
She's taken the lens apart and left some bits still on the camera - because the one screw which keeps the two parts together has been removed, the screw with a plain end which sits in the slot of the mount to allow the focus's section to change focus on the helicoid thread when the rangefinder gear is turned. That is NOT the way to remove the lens.
On eBay they sell replacement leather for the camera so you can get some if you want it's really good and you can you can get black on black or black and tan
I so appreciate this video! I stumbled upon you channel and then happened to stumble further upon these camera tear down videos! I have been learning how to repair my old camera collection and there are practically no good camera repair videos on youtube. Thank you!
ill gladly take it if you still want to get rid of it. especially if its an older one. Fuji has stopped making 35mm film so Walmart has a rack of 35mm film with a huge discount, i might end up buying like 40 rolles of 35mmand so itd be nice to have another camera
Great job! How did you calibrate the focus when putting it back together? Did you make a witness mark, or did you disassemble all the way over to close focus? I love the C3, it's not the sharpest camera, but it gets the job done. Thanks for the vid! :)
well theres only like 4 positions it can do when putting it back together, so i just set it to where its as close to the bottom as possible when zoomed down.
Great vid! I have a number of old cameras that I got from my dad when he passed, and I know some of them need some tlc. I did learned about some of the machanics from watching your vid, and I thank you! I am not sure what to do with my cameras yet. Maybe if you have some time and you don't mind, I can email you some pics of them, and possibly get some insight from you about them? I enjoy your vids, keep them coming! aaaand...ignore the non diplomatic comments....
thats cool, i wish you good luck with fixing them. i recommend filming the whole way through so you can go back and check, even i had to do this for this camera a couple times. as for the pictures you can send me pictures via Twitter if you have that, or like to google drive images of your cameras here or in private message.
Awesome! I did forget to mention, I like to tinker like you do.Just a heads up when using degreaser on aluminumium. Every time I used degreaser on aluminium in the past, the surface of the aluminium degreated heavily. Almost to the point of having to sand the surface and polish to come as close to riginal as possible. I learned that the hard way. In addition, Spray Nine Degreaser has to be the best degreaser in the galaxy lol (in my opinion) Thank you!!!
To be fair, this camera isnt a proper tool either. We cant all afford the right tools, especially somebody working with a crappy Argus. One of the crappiest cameras ever
@@RinoaL In my case it was not the case. Yesterday I gave my Argus C3 full CLA. This camera is not so bad. I saw worse. One just needs to understand well how it works. Now all works perfect.
Oh the Argus is literally a cheaply made camera, That's why it was so popular, because it was cheap. It is on a similar build quality to Kodak cameras, which have always been of very poor but just-good-enough quality.
honestly i dont see why it would it be upsetting. i was kinda joking back a bit. honestly i dont think i would ever want kids, but if i ever married somebody who already had kids that would be cool. i take your comment as a really nice compliment, so dont be so worried. plus if somebody is ever that easilly offended then you shouldnt waste your time with them. lol
