Argus Instant Load 284
|
| Period advertising for the 284 image by Matt's Crazy Lens Adventures (Image rights) |
As the Argus brand struggled to regain relevance in the late 1960s, the company launched a series of Instant Load cameras for 126 film, the format made hugely popular by Kodak's line of Instamatics.
The Instant Load 284 from 1967 was intended as a prestige model in this series, said to be made in Japan by Sedic.[1] This is a rather stylish camera offering scale focusing and programmed exposure controlled by a CdS cell. The autoexposure is a bit rudimentary, with just two notched blades serving as both shutter and aperture opening; their range of movement is regulated by a trapped-needle mechanism (which also displays shutter/aperture pairs at the bottom of the viewfinder). The meter is able to adjust to cartridges notched for ASA speeds from 64 to 160.
The manual says the shutter reverts to a constant 1/30th second when switching from Auto to a manual aperture setting (as for flash exposures). At intermediate apertures the two blades open to an odd elongated diamond shape.
A selling point of this model was its 40mm f/2.8 Cintagon designed by Argus's "optical research and development affiliate" the Te Company (this may also be the lens used in the Instant Load 270).
Notes
- ↑ Page 131, Gambino, Henry J. Argomania: A Look At Argus Cameras and the Company That Made Them. Doylestown, PA: Aeone Communications 2005. ISBN 0-9770507-0-X
Links
- Argus Instant Load 284 user manual at Archive.org
- Object record for an Instant Load 284, from the Argus Museum collection database
- Instant Load 284 profiled by Tom Hoglund
- eBay auction #284075490668 from Blue Moon Camera (archived via the Wayback Machine) shows several views of the 284.
|
| A new Japanese import for an old American brand image by Voxphoto (Image rights) |
