The Argus C3 was a low priced rangefinder camera produced from 1939 to 1966 in Michigan. The camera holds the record for units sold of a 35mm rangefinder camera. Due to it's shape, size and weight, it is commonly reffered to as "The Brick" by photographers (and In Japan it is known by the nickname "The Lunch-Box"). A rangefinder is an optical device that allows distance to be estimated or measured using triangulation, laser, radar, or other method. ... State nickname: The Wolverine State, The Great Lakes State Other U.S. States Capital Lansing Largest city Detroit Governor Jennifer Granholm (D) Senators Carl Levin (D) Debbie Stabenow (D) Official language(s) English de-facto Area 96,889 mi² / 250,941 km² (11th)  - Land 56,855 mi² / 147,255 km...

The C3 was constructed primarily of bakelite plastic and metal castings. The design featured an unusual and simplistic diaphram shutter built into the camera body, so that the camera could make use of interchangeable lenses without the need for a complex focal plane shutter. The rangefinder utilized a seperate viewfinder from that of the regular veiwfinder and was coupled to the lens through a series of gears located on the outside of the camera body. The profusion of knobs, gears, buttons, levers, and dials on the camera lent it a very "scientific" look that was found to be one of the things buyers most liked about the camera in customer surveys. Bakelite is a brand named material based on the thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, developed in 1907-1909 by Dr. Leo Baekeland. ... A shutter is a movable cover or screen that alternately prevents and permits the passage of some desirable (or undesirable) element. ...

By virtue of it's low price and reputation for rugged durability the Argus C3 managed to outlast most of it's American competition and fend off precision German built cameras and the cheap high quality Japanese cameras that began to invade the American market in the 1950s. But eventually the design simply became too outdated and clumsy and production ended in 1966 after had sales slumped (interestingly, sales of the C3 had slumped many times during it's production life, and everytime Argus announced that they were going to discontinue the camera, camera dealers and photographers would rush to buy what they believed to be the last of the cameras leading Argus to reverse their decision of ending production several times).

It has been argued the Argus C3 is responsible for popularising the use of 35mm film, and considering the long production run and the huge number of Argus C3 cameras made, this may very well be true especially in it's native United States. Simulated 35 mm film with soundtracks _ The outermost strips (on either side) contain the SDDS soundtrack as an image of a digital signal. ...