Argus Model A

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Sticking with easy to use cameras, but pivoting away from the 126 film cameras, this post will be looking at Argus’ first camera, the Argus Model A.

I did go over the history of the Argus camera company in my Argus C2 camera. With that let’s jump into the history of this camera. The camera was released in 1936 at a price of $12.50, which was an “…unheard-of price for a 35mm camera. Its immediate success, and subsequent popularity of an expanded line of photographic products, led the company to sell its radio patents, change its name to International Research Corporation, and make cameras their primary business…” (Argus Museum).

According to Gandy (2016), the Argus A was an important camera that got a lot of people into 35mm photography and establishing 35 film as the “…the serious Amateur's film format of choice in the largest photography market in the world…” and “…found a market and made the most of it: the inexpensive relatively dependable relatively OK performing mass produced 35.”

The Model A is referred to as the “poor man’s Leica” by Ollinger, but with its inexpensive price (of $12.50 vs. Leica’s $300) it was more successful. As Gandy (2016) puts it: “…Argus sold more cameras in their first twenty years than Leica has sold in their first 70 years!”

The A series went on to make “six derivative models until 1951” (Gandy 2016). But the original Model A came in 2 different versions (Argus Collectors Group). And the camera in this post seems to be the second version. The only difference between the two is the look of the lens. The cameras also came in four different colours: “…white, gold, olive, and gray…” (Gandy 2016). Although according to Argus Collectors Group: “…there is no evidence that a white model was ever produced.”

Argus A (possibly) the first version. Image Source:
https://www.arguscg.org/reference/a-lg.jpg

After that they released the Argus AF, which looks like the second Model A “…but with Focusing Lens to provide Full Focusing abilities…” (Argus Collectors Group).

Argus AF. Image Source:
https://www.arguscg.org/reference/af-lg.jpg

Then came the Argus B, which came with a Prontor II shutter (Argus Collectors Group).

Argus B. Image Source:
https://a4.pbase.com/g6/17/553917/3/73583606.j1CqNv8d.jpg

After that was the A2B, which came with an exposure calculator and an extinction meter. It also came in three different versions (Argus Collectors Group).

Argus A2B. Image Source:
https://www.arguscg.org/reference/a2b-2-lg.jpg

Then we got the AA and was the first Flash Argus, with the flash sync on the left side. This camera also came with a fixed focus lens (Argus Collectors Group).

Argus AA. Image Source:
https://www.arguscg.org/reference/aa-lg.jpg

The second last was the A2F. It was similar to the A2B, except this camera came with a helical focusing lens (Argus Collectors Group).

Argus A2F. Image Source:
https://www.arguscg.org/reference/a2f-lg.jpg

Then finally came the FA, the last of the A series and had the “…Familiar Collapsible Lens, with Flash Synch on left end…” (Argus Collectors Group).

Argus FA. Image Source:
https://www.arguscg.org/reference/fa-lg.jpg

After that came the also successful C series (read about it in my Argus C2 post). But these two series were Argus’ curse just as much as it was their blessing. Because “…Argus was less successful outside its amateur 35mm niche. It tried to widen the middle-class market with TLRs like its Argoflexes, but couldn't compete against Kodak's junk Duoflexes or quality Rolleiflexes…” and “…While it had the 35mm market well staked out, Argus had no answer to the modern 35mm cameras that were coming out of Europe and especially Japan…” (Ollinger). The rest of their history can be found in the C2 post.

Anyway… Let’s have a closer look at the Argus Model A. The camera has a similar design as the Falcon Model F, except this camera isn’t as front heavy. The body is made from a plastic mould (Argus Museum), most likely Bakelite (Argus Collectors Group). It came out in 1936-1941 (Gandy 2016) and has a weight of approximately 382g (Denton 2025) and its size is 2.9 x 5 x 1.1 inches.

Now time to examine the camera. Starting with the front-

The lens-

The Lens is an Anastigmat 50mm with a 4.5 f/stop. To learn more about the Anastigmat please check out my Billy Record and Argus C2 posts.

The Model A has a collapsible lens. 

This is also the indicator that distinguishes the Model A from the AF. The AF, as mentioned, has a focusing lens that allows more control on focusing.

Argus AF focusing lens closeup. Image Source:
https://mikeeckman.com/photovintage/vintagecameras/argusaf/9366.jpg

The lens (with a twist) pops out to help focus on subjects that are 6-18 feet away. This setting sets the focus to 18 feet to infinity. This setting is used for close-ups and not distance.

But the manual also mentions that putting on f/stop 6.3 with the lens out can increase the focus up to 20 feet. To increase the focus further one must use a portrait attachment.

An example of an Argus 22.5mm portrait attachment for the Argus V-series.
Image Source:
https://www.pacificrimcamera.com/images/178214.jpg

Speaking of the f/stop.

This setting can be found on top of the lens. Unfortunately, this camera is missing the plate that indicates the f/stop indicators. The f/stop settings are between 4.5-16 (Oliver).

Argus A f/stop indicator. Image Source:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/KHUAAeSwh0Fn-Vn3/s-l1600.webp

The settings are changed with a lever under the lens which moves the needle on top to the desired setting. The aperture petals are located behind the shutter.

Now time for the shutter-

The shutter release/lever is on the side of the lens.

The shutter speed and setting are on the outer ring around the lens. The settings are 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200 second and has a B and T settings, just like the Falcon F.

The shutter seems to be an Ilex shutter (Gandy 2016). Ilex was “…one of America's three main suppliers of lenses for view cameras. It was founded in 1910 by the former Bausch & Lomb shutter designers Rudolph Klein and Theodor Brueck. They invented a delay mechanism that made shutters working independently from climate conditions. Their lens brand was Paragon…” (Camera-wiki).

More specifically it is a Pre-war Ilex Precise (Camera-Wiki). They were made to work without lubrication (Knoppow) and seems to be a leaf shutter with what seems to be three blades, like the A2B (Mitchell 2008).

Argus A2B shutter 1. Image Source:
https://pheugo.com/cameras/ilexprecise/shut01.jpg

Argus A2B Shutter 10. Image Source:
https://pheugo.com/cameras/ilexprecise/shut10.jpg

Underneath the shutter lever is the remote shutter cable socket.

On top-

From left to right:

Is the film advance knob, meaning that this camera is film fed from right to left instead of the other way like most cameras.

Then it is the viewfinder, which like the Falcon F is an “eye level optical viewfinder.”

After that it is the film spacing and release button. It is pressed in when rewinding and advancing film.

Accompanying this button is the exposure counter dial.

On the sides are the “hooks” that hold the film compartment cover in place.

Left is just a normal “hook” and on the other side is the pressure plate, like the one on the C2.

Underneath-

Is the screw-in socket, which can be used to attach a wrist strap or to attach it to a leather carrier case or it can be used on a tripod.

Argus A with leather carrying case. Image Source:
https://u-mercari-images.mercdn.net/photos/m80900101342_1.jpg

Then on the other end is the film rewind knob.

Lastly the back-

Here is the film compartment cover. On both ends are the hooks that keep it in place. On the side of the pressure plate is the pull-out tab.

Then by pressing in the plate the cover comes off completely. On the cover the user will notice a rubber strip. This is to help keep the film cartage in place (Gandy 2016).

 

Inside is the film compartment, which as mentioned is fed right to left.

This camera also only has one “…film frame sprocket for frame counting…” (Gandy 2016).

This camera takes 35mm film (see my 200 Colorplus post for more information) and has a negative format of 24 x 36mm (Oliver 2006).

This is a simple but amazing camera and I can see why the company went exclusively into camera manufacturing after this camera. I would recommend this camera over the C2 because it is lighter, but the C2 has the advantage of interchangeable lenses.

But either way this camera is a brilliant addition to any camera collector’s ensemble and arsenal. I like the steampunk/art deco look. But I actually think that the Falcon F did it better.

What do you think? Do you prefer the C2? Do you think that the Argus A looks better than the Falcon? Let me know in the comments.

And as always thank you for making it to the end and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did researching it.

If you want to help this site out, please consider joining my Patreon: patreon.com/OnlineCurator

Please see the Please help this site post on this blog, for more information.

Or if you want to help in another way, please visit my Displate Store. Thank you for the support.

List of sources:

Argus Collectors Group. Argus "A" Series Cameras. https://www.arguscg.org/reference/a.shtml

Argus Museum. History of Argus. https://www.argusmuseum.org/history-of-argus 

Camera-wiki. Argus A. https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Argus_A

Camera-wiki. Ilex. https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Ilex

Danton, M. 2025. Argus A. https://mattsclassiccameras.com/rangefinders-compacts/argus-a/

Gandy, S. 2016. The 2nd Most Important 35 of All Time:  The Made in the USA Argus A. https://cameraquest.com/arg2.htm

Knoppow, R. More on classic lenses. https://www.largeformatphotography.info/classic-experts.html

Mitchell, D. 2008. Ilex Precise Shutter. https://pheugo.com/cameras/index.php?page=ilexprecise

Mike. Argus Model A/A2 manuals. https://butkus.org/chinon/argus/argus_a_a2/argus_a_a2.htm

Oliver, T. 2006. Argus A. https://camerashiz.wordpress.com/argus-a/

Ollinger, J. A Brief History of Argus Cameras. http://jollinger.com/photo/cam-coll/histories/history-argus.html 

Haking’s Halina X101 Fighter

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Thank you for the support. Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Sticking with 126 film cameras, this post will be looking at another simple yet effective camera. This is Haking’s Halina X101 Fighter 126 film camera.

I did go through the Haking company’s history in the Halina Roy post. So with that, I will jump straight into the camera. 

Now similar to the last post, the Instamatic 33, there isn’t much information on this camera. Could be that the Halina X101 is rare. According to outta_date (2020), this camera is “Mostly a shelf piece due to scarcity.” But at the same time the Haking company has (and still does) made many cameras, so it is possible that this one, like the Instamatics, got lost in the sea of other cameras released at the same time.

The lack of info could also be due to the fact that Haking was trying to be a cheaper alternative to Kodak and thus made their own 126 film cameras. To avoid drawing attention of Kodak, they made a limited set or just advertised it as little as possible.

The name is also interesting. Because the X suggests that like the Instamatic cameras, there should be two other cameras before this one. But so far I can’t find any proof of this. Which makes me think that this X101 is the only variation. There is no 101 or 01. The only thing I can think of for the name being X101 is due to another 126-film camera, the Halina X100. The X is a universal indication that the camera uses Magicubes.

Halina 100X camera advertisement. Image Source:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRDqgxT9FnbeiqlNwLIaq-e1NXFBy9bFwL0GWh4x7Tug_zunHbk

The only other Halina camera I can find with 101 in its name is the Minimatic 101, a 110-film camera.

Halina Minimatic 101. Image Source:
https://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/z/BVEAAOSw25pmoq~b/$_57.JPG?set_id=880000500F

Another reason for the lack of information and rarity of the camera is the time it came out. Outta_date (2020) writes that it could be between 1930-1950, but this is immediately debunked because we know from the Instamatic 104 post, 126 film was released in 1963 and from the Instamatic Pocket 10 Magicubes came out in 1970. So, we will go with Cano Ameralo’s estimate, which is somewhere in the early to mid-1970s. But it could be possible that it was made in the 1980s.

This was around the time when Kodak was making their last camera’s in the Instamatic range. As mentioned in the Instamatic 50 and X-15F, the last few cameras were the cameras based off of the design of the Instamatic x-15 (1970-1976). All these cameras had a X in their name, just like the Halina cameras. We can also see in the Halina X101’s design is that it mimics the X-15F’s look.

So, it is possible that Halina released this camera a bit late. Because as we learned from the Kodak Disk 8000 post, that in the 1980s (when the Instamatic cameras stopped), that they stepped away from film cameras to focus on disk film cameras. And it seems that Halina, had no choice and joined them because the Halina 102 (or Halina Zippy-F Disk 102) camera was a disk camera, meaning that it is possible that they abandoned the 126 film cameras, when Kodak did. Leading to a limited number of units for this camera.

Halina Zippy F Disc 102. Image Source:
https://farm3.static.flickr.com/2110/2247184346_96f3940d25.jpg

Or it could be that this camera didn’t sell well or most people just threw theirs away, leading to it being quite rare and unknown. Or as mentioned earlier it could just be a part of a wave of cameras and the X101 went unnoticed amongst the other mass produced 126 film cameras. Similar to the New Taiwan Photographic Corp. cameras (see the Sounex Y9000 and Solar DX-3 posts). But there is also the possibility that all records of this camera was lost due to “…wars, civil unrest, and strict government control has led to a lack of, or unwillingness to share information…” (Eckman 2023), as mentioned in the Halina Roy post.

Other than that there isn’t much else about this camera. Other information I could find is that Halina has made several other 126 film cameras such as the Halina Simplette series (Camera-wiki), the Halina Dux and the Halina Stylematic (Cameras Downunder 2008).

Halina Simplette Electric. Image Source:
https://farm7.static.flickr.com/6028/5997165507_e4f1c88c85_m.jpg

Halina Dux. Image Source:
https://camerasdownunder.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_hp3180.jpg

Halina Stylematic. Image Source:
https://camerasdownunder.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10001/normal_hp3638.jpg

So with that let us have a closer look at the Halina X101 Fighter camera. Possibly manufactured in the 1970s, this camera is made from Bakelite and has a straightforward design. It has a similar weight to the X-15F and has the size measurements of 2.5 x 4.2 x 1.6 inches.

 This specific camera came with the original manual.

Let us examine it more closely. Starting with the front-

The lens-

Is fixed and appears to be a meniscus lens. The f/stop is also fixed and since it takes 126 film and is made to emulate the Kodak Instamatic cameras, we can assume it also has an f/stop of 11 with a focal length of 43mm.

Then on the far-right top corner-

Is the viewfinder.

Then on the other side it where the sticker with “X101” would appear.

Halina X101 name. Image Source:
https://canoamarelo.com/pub/media/catalog/product/cache/9cad9510968e089c8906a4713618ae97/_/m/_mg_9420.jpg

And on some X101 models the Haking/Halina symbol would appear, but this wasn’t on all the cameras because according to the manual all cameras’: “... appearances subject to minor changes…” which could be due to location/manufacturer/ This would appear on the bottom right corner.

Halina X101 with Halina/Haking symbol.
Image Source:
https://canoamarelo.com/pub/media/catalog/product/cache/9cad9510968e089c8906a4713618ae97/_/m/_mg_9420.jpg

On top-

Is the shutter button. It has a leaf shutter or focal-plane shutter, just like the Instamatic 104, 50 and X-15f. We can also assume that the shutter speed could be the same as the Instamatic X-15F of 1/90 sec and possibly if a Magicube is mounted, it could switch to 1/40 sec, but the shutter is directly connected to the flash mount, so I have some doubt about this.

Speaking of the Magicube, the flash mount for it is next to the shutter release. Because it uses a Magicube the camera doesn’t need batteries and turns automatically after every shot. Which is why I think that the shutter speed could just be 1/90 sec. Please see the Instamatic Pocket 10 for more information on the Magicube.

But it appears that this camera is missing a metal ring that goes around the socket. This ring indicates that it only uses Magicubes (or X cubes).

Halina X101 with Magicube/X cube indicator.
Image Source:
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/ahwAAOSwBX9mr3Ah/s-l1200.png

Right side-

Is where the strap goes.

Left side-

Just like the Instamatic X-15F and 33, the film compartment release button is on the bottom corner.

Underneath-

But it should be fairer to say that the film compartment release button is on the bottom of the camera.

Then on the back-

Is the film compartment cover, which is unlocked by pressing in the release button.

On this cover is the film counter window and what the best focus range for colour film (4-10 feet) and Black and white film (4-12 feet) when using a Magicube is.

Then above the cover is the viewfinder.

And on the other side of that is the film advance wheel, like the Instamatic 33. As mentioned, when talking about the other Instamatics, the film advance mechanism and cocking mechanism are either connected and cocks the shutter when advancing or not connected and is cocked by the film’s sprocket that pulls on the lever and cocks it.

What is interesting about the Halina X101, is that it is a combination of both. By this I mean that when advancing the film, the wheel readies the cocking lever and hooks it into a sprocket. The film then finishes the cocking cycle by moving the lever with it as it fully advance to the next frame and cocks it.

Then the film compartment-

Nothing different here than any other Instamatic. According to Cano Amarelo, it is a 4x4 format camera. And as we know it takes 126 film (see the Instamatic 104 post for more information).

There it is. Not much on the camera except speculation and theories, but it is still a cool camera. It is reminiscent of the Instamatic X-15F, which I like. The colour is also attractive and has a similar colour to the Pucky 1.

But what makes this camera special is that it came with a bag (that is not made by Halina) that has a name in it. Which just adds value to it, like the X-15F and the 104. So, even though there is very little history of the camera’s creation, its use gives it more history than one can imagine. The stories this camera can tell if only it could talk…

Now out of the 126 film cameras, I would list the Halina X101, fourth, with the Instamatic 104 and 50 taking the first two places and the X-15F third and the 33 in fifth place.

What do you think? Do you know anything interesting about the Halina X101? Do you agree with the ranking? Leave a comment.

And as always thank you for making it to the end and I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did researching it.

If you want to help this site out, please consider joining my Patreon: patreon.com/OnlineCurator

Please see the Please help this site post on this blog, for more information.

Or if you want to help in another way, please visit my Displate Store. Thank you for the support.

List of sources:

Cameras Downunder. 2008. 126 Film Cameras. http://camerasdownunder.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=36&page=3

Camera-Wiki. Halina Disc 102. https://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Halina_Disc_102

Cano amrelo. Halina X101 Fighter Camera (1970). https://canoamarelo.com/maquina-fotografica-halina-x101-fighter-1970.html

Eckman, M. 2023. Haking Halina 35X Super (1963). https://mikeeckman.com/2023/04/haking-halina-35x-super-1963/

Outta-date. 2020. HALINA X101. https://www.depop.com/products/outta_date-introducing-this-little-halina-x101/