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%2c_535_West_William_Street%2c_Ann_Arbor%2c_Michigan_-_panoramio.jpg) Argus Building | |
| Industry | Cameras |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1936; 90 years ago (1936) |
| Defunct | 1969; 57 years ago (1969) |
| Headquarters | Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. |
Argus was an American maker of cameras and photographic products, founded in 1936 inAnn Arbor, Michigan. Argus originated as a subsidiary of theInternational Radio Corporation (IRC), founded by Charles Verschoor.
The International Radio Corporation was founded in 1931 by local businessman William E. Brown Jr.,George J. Burke (who was a judge at theNuremberg trials),[1] and Charles Albert Vershoor.[2] IRC started out selling a line of radios, developed by Verschoor, that had a body made out of molded plastic instead of wood. The Model A, the company's first camera, was introduced in May 1936.[2]
In August 1942, the company stopped all domestic production and focused on producing military optics and radio equipment for the armed forces duringWorld War II.[2]
The company changed its name to Argus, Inc. in 1944. Argus introduced the Argus Model 21 in 1947, a metal-bodied camera and the company’s first model with an automatic shutter cocking to prevent double exposure and a hot shoe for flash.[3]
By the end of World War II, Argus had won the Army-Navy “E” award five times for “excellence in design and manufacture of war-related material".[4][5] Argus Inc. changed its name to Argus Cameras, Inc. in 1949.[6]
Its best-known product was theC3 rangefinder camera, which enjoyed a 27-year production run and became one of the top-selling cameras in history. The company's Model A was the first low-cost35 mm camera in the United States.
In 1956, the Argus 50mm f/2.8 Cintagon lens, designed for the C44 camera, was one of the first commercial lenses designed with the aid of a computer.[3]
In 1957,Sylvania Electric Products acquired the company but continued to operate as Argus. In 1962, Sylvania sold the company to Mansfield Industries, an importer of photography products.[3] By 1969 it had ceased camera production (some rebadged cameras continued to be sold under the Argus name through the 1970s).[citation needed]
More recently, the Argus brand has been reestablished, and is used on a variety of inexpensivedigital cameras made by Argus Camera Company, LLC., located inInverness, Illinois.
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Argus had two cameras for children developed in partnership with TEAMS Design. The cameras, the Bean and Sprout, won a Bronze 2009 IDEA award[7] fromBloomberg BusinessWeek and theIndustrial Designers Society of America in addition to an Appliance Design 2009 EID award.[8]
