Argus C4 Geiss Modified

The Geiss Modified Argus C4
Best American Made Argus Ever.

The C-4 was the Argus follow up to the wildly popular C-3. They were produced from 1951 through 1958 and featured several improvements over the brick. These included:

Integrated rangefinder & viewfinder. No need to use one window to focus and another to compose your photograph. The C-4 viewfinder was also much larger than the C-3s and this made for easier composition.
X/M selectable flash synchronization.
Narrower camera body with rounded edges, a better fit for most photographers hands than the squared off edges of the brick. Argus used the same metal body platform as the A3, CC and 21 that preceded the C-4, and it was used again for the C-44 which followed.
Removable back for film loading.

Drawbacks to the C-4 design included:

Very loud shutter release
Limited shutter speed range (1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/300 + B)
Non-interchangeable 50mm Cintar lens.

The lack of interchangeable lenses was no doubt the biggest drawback to serious amateur photographers selecting the C-4 for their work. However, the Chicago based firm, Geiss-America (GA) came to the rescue.

Geiss America manufactured a custom lens mount for the C-4 that would allow it to accept a variety of different lenses. For a modest fee the C-4 owner could send his camera back to Argus to have the mount installed on his camera.

In addition to the standard 3 element 50mm f/2.8 Cintar lens, the C-4 photogrphaer with the Geiss America modification could choose from the following Enna lenses:

35mm f/4.5 Lithagon
45mm f/1.9 Lithagon (very fast, and very rare to find today)
100mm f/4.5 Lithagon
135mm f/2.8 Lithagon

Each of the Lithagon lenses also had a depth of field scale on the lens barrel and unlike the C-3 lenses, all of the C-4 lenses could be focused by turning the focus ring on the lens barrel or the rangefinder dial.

The Geiss America mount was, in my opinion, the best and easiest of all interchangeable lens mounts Argus employed during those years. I have found that changing the lenses on the modified C-4 to be easier and faster than on the C-3, C-33 or C-44.

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Canal Street - New Orleans, Louisiana

james m. surprenant