Argus C44R – The American Rangefinder

The Argus C44R is a challenge to work with. It is a stark contrast to my Rollei XF-35 which feels incredibly simple and straightforward in comparison. The C44R feels like a child that wants to fight any authority it encounters. The C44R feels as if it is surprised you want to take photos and it’s not particularly excited about this prospect. Every design decision on the C44R feels as if it was made out of necessity rather than choice. This sounds frustrating at best, and in some ways it is, but I’ve begun to see it more as a unique challenge.

I was initially given the camera by a friend that did not shoot film. It was not in great visual condition but most things seemed to work just fine. This was until I got to looking at the lens. Apart from looking like it had sat outside in a hurricane, peering in more deeply showed the aperture blades were stuck in a very strange position that I’d describe as broken. The aperture ring also nearly spun completely freely which helped me conclude the 50mm Cintagon was fried.

After some quick research I found that Argus had offered a 35mm f/4.5 lens for the C44R system which was available on EBay for $20-$30. Despite the low price, the camera sat for months. Eventually I pulled the trigger though, along with an Argus turret finder to give me 35mm framelines. All in, with the going rate of a C44R being around $20, you could get the entire kit for easily well under $100. Upon receiving the 35mm lens noticed the aperture ring was pretty loose and the whole thing had a light rattle to it. It was, needless to say, not confidence inspiring, but I shot two test rolls anyway. Initially thought the 4.5 max aperture would be hindrance, but with the 1/300 second max shutter speed this doesn’t really matter for most shooting. All this meant was the camera sat at f/16 or f/11 most of the time. The turret finder is fairly cool on the other hand. I’m not sure how accurate everything is and there aren’t framelines, but it includes the 35, 50, and 100mm focal lengths, as well as parallax correction for close focusing.

Now that everything’s in order, I’ll describe the experience of actually using the Argus C44R in more depth.

If I had to pick one word I found myself returning to often when writing this, it would be idiosyncratic. Many things feel needlessly confusing with the C44R. Opening the camera up is standard and loading film is, well, robust, but that’s about where the normalcy with the camera ends. It’s a fight to close the camera back up and the camera continues to fight you throughout the rest of the experience.

Apart from the fairly comfortable grip, little else is comfortable. The shutter speed dial on the front for example is a massive pain to use with the CM2 lightmeter, (not shown since I ended up removing it very quickly.) Even without the bulky, odd looking meter, the shutter speed dial is, at best, fine. There is some resemblance of vague clicks in between speeds but I always found myself checking just in case anyways. Another important note about selecting shutter speeds is that the flash sync mode is accessible through a separate switch which is placed on the back of the camera. I’m still unsure why this decision was made. Focusing the Argus C44R is also a bit of a chore, being very stiff. I thought it was just my copy at first, but it seems that this is a consistent issue with all of them from what others have said online. In the end I guess that’s a bit of a whatever since it is still better than the confusingly loose aperture ring.

If you’ve managed to make it through a roll, have fun rewinding. I have never had to look up how to rewind a camera till I picked up the C44R. The advance lever has to be pressed in and up over the frame counter to rewind. Even once I had done it correctly it still felt wrong and as if it should not do that. The rewind lever also must be fought with to rewind the film, it is not the smooth, consistent tension I’ve been used to, but rather an ever changing, somewhat sticky spin to get the film to rewind.

This is all without mentioning what most people complain about most on the Argus C44R, that being the confusingly bad lens mount. The C44/C44R was Argus’s interchangeable version of the C4, which had already had a third party interchangeable version created (C4 Geiss.) Despite the framework for an interchangeable mount already existing, Argus still managed to create the mount they did. In all honesty it’s not as bad as some would have you believe. My main issue with it is how a design already existed and Argus still managed to arrive at the solution they did.

The focusing mechanism, shutter-speed dial, loose aperture ring, rewinding system, it feels as if everything wants to get in the way of creating. It normally doesn’t take me long to pick up the different motions of a camera, but the Argus managed to get in the way through almost every step. Despite this, after being used to smooth, comfortable cameras, (I was trying to come up with examples but I realized it could be almost any other camera I’ve ever used,) it’s a definite change of pace. However, more and more, I appreciate the seemingly backwards design decisions that permeate the camera.

I know I may have spent the entire article complaining about the needlessly strange experience the Argus C44R can have, but I do enjoy the camera. It’s a complicated relationship, but one day I do want to feel completely comfortable with a camera that’s been so different from the typical, highly engineered, Japanese or German design. Also, apart from looking different to most other rangefinders, some parts of the camera have a nice charm to it. It feels like a much less serious approach to photography and I have learned to like it for a slower, more laid back, shooting experience. Everything gives off “functional enough,” and there is a definite comfort in not worrying about anything working perfectly and just going off to shoot with the C44R. It’s a strange relationship but I keep coming back to this camera that felt unprepared for its own existence.

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