Argus Day, 2024

Every year, in August, the Argus Collectors Group celebrates “Argus Day,” a celebration of the (now largely defunct) American brand of Argus cameras, most famous for the Argus C3, affectionately dubbed by many as “the Brick.”

This year, we took our C3, an heirloom from Emily’s grandmother Nancy, to Coney Island to try our hand at street photography in one of the most interesting locales. If you are ever visiting the city and looking for some novel sights, check out the Coney Island boardwalk - its a sight like no other.

We went through two rolls of film, using a lens that we had not had a chance to use before - the Soligor 35mm, a somewhat unusual lens that Emily had picked up on a whim a few months ago. We shot a roll of the classic Ilford HP5 and a roll of the new Harman Phoenix film, famous for supremely crunchy grain and interesting color shifting.

The results were very interesting. The Soligor gave everything a very strong vinette that we were not expecting, and the Harman was even grainier than anticipated - many of the details we hoped to get were largely lost, and the contrast-heavy nature of the film meant many details (especially faces) were lost to completely dark shadows.

in all, an excellent day, but one we might prepare for better in the future with a different lens and a film stock we were more experienced with.

Happy Argus Day, everyone!