DIY Cable Release Adapter for the Argus Super 75

I’ve been a regular user of my Argoflex 40 pseudo-TLR for a couple of years now and thoroughly enjoy it, even with its shortcomings. However, recently I became smitten with desire for its baby brother, the Argus Super 75, for nothing more than its unique 65mm semi-wide, 3-element, anastigmat, scale-focusing taking lens. Other than the unique lens, the Super 75 is a real step-down from the Argoflex 40: a max aperture of f8, only two shutter speeds (1/60s “INST” & TIME/bulb), a mismatched 75mm viewing lens, and, worst of all, no cable release socket!

For the style of photography I enjoy, the lack of support for a remote release was the primary reason I held off buying the Super 75 for so long. But every time I came across one for sale on my favorite auction site, I kept thinking there had to be a way to solve this problem. Then one day it hit me - I had a ready-made solution already sitting in my closet! It turns out that the cell-phone clamp supplied with cheap selfie-sticks is just the right size to grip the Argus body front-to-back and allow a cable release to squeeze the shutter button without vibrating the camera. Here's my solution:

Here are the instructions for making your own:

1. Buy a cheap selfie stick that has a spring-loaded, removable cell-phone clamp attached.
   
2. Remove the clamp and cut a stiff piece of plastic or some other rigid material to insert into the clamp to hold it open such that it barely hugs the Super 75 between the back and the shutter button. I used electrical tape to hold this piece in place. You don’t want it too tight or it will interfere with the shutter cocking when you wind the film.
   
3. Drill a hole slightly larger than the cable release plunger tip in the small end of the clamp through the hard rubber grip.
   
4. Screw your cable release into the rubber hole (it should hold firmly) and attach it to your camera such that the plunger is above the circular indent in the shutter button.
   

Voila, you’ve now got a way to take nice, vibration-free, long exposures on the TIME setting with your Super 75 (or the simper Argus 75). I would also recommend using this adapter even for the instantaneous (INST) shutter speed setting because, in my experience, the shutter speed is too slow and the shutter release is too clunky for hand-held photos to show what the Super 75's lens can do..

Gary

They named it after the focal length of the viewing lens???? It’s looks pretty robust though?

The Super 75 seems indeed a paradox. I can only guess the marketing department chose the name to stress it as an upscale version of the popular Argus 75 to compete with the Kodak Duaflex with focusing Kodar lens and that name recognition took precedence over the uniqueness of the lens. It seems the lesser of the two evils. That is, it would seem worse to emphasize the 65mm taking lens in the name of the camera while not providing an adequate viewing lens.

I think the robustness of these cameras is due to their simplicity. I have performed CLAs on three of them (two Argoflex Forty cameras and a Super 75) and, IMHO, there is very little to go wrong or break on these cameras outside of abusive treatment.

I can only guess the marketing department chose the name to stress it as an upscale version of the popular Argus 75 to compete with the Kodak Duaflex with focusing Kodar lens and that name recognition took precedence over the uniqueness of the lens.

A good big’un always beats a good little’un as they say. I suppose there are advantages of having an ascending number scale for your cameras – we assume that the next model will be improved (sometimes not a good assumption) and that ‘bigger is better’. In this case that the ‘Super’ version was an improvement. Nikons choice of having the Pro spec models as the single digit bodies, when the consumer ones had 3 or 4 digits always puzzled me slightly (D3 vs. D3000 etc.), but I guess those more discerning photographers looking for a Pro spec body would know what they were looking for, whereas the consumer might be swayed by the assumption that bigger is better. It’s the same with lenses. I spent some time trying to convince a friend, new to digital photography, that, yes, the cheap 28-300 lens had more reach than the 28-70, but that he might not be able to keep the thing still at the long end, it would be optically inferior and it let in a quarter the light than the longer zoom. Convinced I had swayed him to the shorter range lens, he ignored that and bought the 28-300. ‘But it’s 300 isn’t it’!

Here's a graphic to show the discrepancy between the coverage of the Super 75's viewfinder and taking lenses.

I certainbly "Get it" . I often find in my advanced age; poor eyes and poor handling, that using a tripod is better and this release is probably a god-send. Equally I am bowled over on the lens coverage... love WA.

If you remember, I busted the clip on my Argus 40 fixing the tight clip by bending..ie breaking the closing clip. My thought at the time was to buy a cheap 75 and use the back to replace mine . It looked liked the three? screws would allow an easy swap. .. now I will want to do it, but use the lens now too!! A "selfie stick " was not on my wish list...but maybe now ??