Aug 13, 2025
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Snapshot
Leica 90mm f/2.8
90mm on a Leica rangefinder camera is kind of a strange lens. I love the compression and over all look of the focal length, but the box in the rangefinder of most Leica bodies makes using the lens a little more difficult then shorter lenses. The box in the rangefinder for 90mm is kind of small on the M3 and even smaller on any other Leica. I love the lens, but using is a strange experience…
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Rose Seidler House by Darren Davis Via Flickr: Polaroid 103 Fuji FP100-C
More time on my hands, and another vintage camera cleaning.
This time my Argus C-44
Found this one last summer on vacation at an antique shop in Salado, Texas.
Best I can tell, this 1956 model camera is in good working order, just a little dust in the rangefinder.
Like the Ciro 35 I just cleaned, the entire back is removed to put film in it. Unlike most rangefinder cameras, this one has interchangeable lenses.
Had to remove the winding knobs and frame counter in order to remove the top to get to the rangefinder and viewfinder optics.
With the top open, it was fairly straightforward to clean the lenses and mirrors. A little more complicated under the hood than the Ciro 35, but everything still works the same. Speaking of which...
Bonus pic and boring technical stuff...
The arrows show the light paths through the rangefinder. The yellow path is straight through the viewfinder. The red path is through the rangefinder.
The light in the rangefinder is focused through a lens in this model that shifts through a lever coupled to the main lens. The light from the rangefinder lens is bounced off a partially silvered mirror in the viewfinder. If the main lens is out of focus, the image in the viewfinder from the rangefinder will be out of alignment with the rest of the viewfinder. If the main lens is in focus, the rangefinder image will line up with the rest of the viewfinder. Something like this...
Main lens not in focus. Note the double image in the middle of the viewfinder.
...and in focus.
Gerda Taro with her black lacquer Leica II (Model D) crédit: International Center of Photography