Argus V-100

I've had my Argus V-100 since late summer, but I've just recently put a roll of

film through it. I was stunned by the results! The pictures are incredibly

sharp with excellent color and contrast. Mine has the Cintar II f/2.8 52mm lens

on it, although I would love to have the f/2.0 as well. While I know that the

camera is an Argus in name only and was made by Iloca, where can I find more

info on it? It seems to be a hard camera to find and find out about. Were there

any other cameras made through this partnership? The V-100 handles quite nicely

and feels a lot like using my Kodak Automatics, but the lens on my copy seems

to be sharper. If anyone can tell me more about their experiences using this

camera, I'd certainly love to hear them. Thanks.

 

Andy

I have an Argus V100 with the 48F2 lens. It's a good looking camera but the viewfinder is tiny. It's difficult to press the jerky front-mounted shutter release without significant camera shake. I did not find the lens anything special. I have not used it much and the last time I checked the shutter was not working consistently.<div></div>

Well, if David M doesn't like it, it must be no good.

I've never seen one, but it is really beautiful. Noted, however, is that it is a "left eye/rignt hand" camera. How strange.

I would imagine that there's a lot of variation in the condition and performance of these 40+ year old cameras. I hadn't expected the lens on mine to perform as well as it did, and fortunately the shutter release on mine is very smooth. The shutter makes so little noise it sounds almost like a toy. I've experienced the same variation in performance with Retinas as well. I have two Retina IIa's, one of which the rewind lever feels as smooth as butter and has an amazingly sharp lens, while the other has a slightly softer lens with stiffer, jerkier moving parts. Of course that's an even older camera with more gears and parts that could go bad, but hopefully you get my point. I most certainly agree with you, David, about the rediculously small viewfinder; it's a pain to try looking through, especially with my glasses, but it was worth the effort. I also wonder if there's any performance difference between the f/2 and f/2.8, or if it's simply a matter of individual camera performance. That's a nice picture of your's, by the way.

Hey you guy's!

I also have one of these Argus cameras too.

Can't add any useful information but I will be interested to see if anyone comes up with

anything.

Good luck!<div></div>

I have a V-100 with the Cintar II 52MM f2.8 lens. It was given to me by an elderly friend of mine shortly before he died This was about 20 years ago. He bought it new. Best gues is 1956. Camera works very well given it's age. The shutter hangs up a little below 1/60. Light meter also doesn't work. So you need a hand held one. I found that a generic (say Quantaray) hot shoe elctronic flash produces VERY good flash pictures. Regular picture are also very good. I wouldn't part with this camera. I got the latest and greatest digital stuff, but on Christmas morning the venerable V-100 will also be in service.<div></div>