The
camera is an Argus Cintar. The story was that my dad won it in a card
game while on the boat home from WWII. I have no way to confirm that
for sure but it's what my mom told me, so... It was the camera that
recorded the big events of our lives. It captured pictures of our births, our holiday outfits, meals and gifts. It went along on vacations and captured the posed family group pictures. This camera took the photos
you see there plus a few albums full that I didn't have room for here
and a pile of slides that we would view projected onto a bare wall in
the living room.
Exposure was determined by following a chart that came with every roll of film. The flash required Sylvania Blue Dot bulbs that came mounted to a strip of cardboard. While I truthfully can't remember any of these photos being taken I do remember Dad pulling a bulb off that strip and touching the contact to his tongue in order to insure a good connection. Sometimes the flash wouldn't fire and he would have to waste a frame to try another exposure. He was never adverse to demonstrate annoyance with that.
In 1973, while I was stationed on Okinawa, I got a letter from him asking me to pick out and buy him a decent camera. I got him a price on a Canon Ftb with a 50mm f1.4, he sent me the money and I bought the camera and sent it home. The match needle meter and the through the lens viewfinder really did it for him and he packed the Argus away in a box and put it in the attic.
Over the course of time and circumstance the Argus and the Canon and a stack of photo albums came into my possession. The Argus sets on a shelf full of nick-nacks as an old curio and the Canon Ftb is in a camera case in my closet along with with all my other Canon film cameras that I no longer use. I've moved on to digital cameras and never even feel the need to go through the effort of taking a picture on film. Still once in a while I pick up this Argus, pop the back open, close it, look through the viewfinder focus on something, and remember my Dad touching a flash bulb on his tongue.
Exposure was determined by following a chart that came with every roll of film. The flash required Sylvania Blue Dot bulbs that came mounted to a strip of cardboard. While I truthfully can't remember any of these photos being taken I do remember Dad pulling a bulb off that strip and touching the contact to his tongue in order to insure a good connection. Sometimes the flash wouldn't fire and he would have to waste a frame to try another exposure. He was never adverse to demonstrate annoyance with that.
In 1973, while I was stationed on Okinawa, I got a letter from him asking me to pick out and buy him a decent camera. I got him a price on a Canon Ftb with a 50mm f1.4, he sent me the money and I bought the camera and sent it home. The match needle meter and the through the lens viewfinder really did it for him and he packed the Argus away in a box and put it in the attic.
Over the course of time and circumstance the Argus and the Canon and a stack of photo albums came into my possession. The Argus sets on a shelf full of nick-nacks as an old curio and the Canon Ftb is in a camera case in my closet along with with all my other Canon film cameras that I no longer use. I've moved on to digital cameras and never even feel the need to go through the effort of taking a picture on film. Still once in a while I pick up this Argus, pop the back open, close it, look through the viewfinder focus on something, and remember my Dad touching a flash bulb on his tongue.
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