General Information

Serial #

124750

Part Number

1

Total Parts

4

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Synthetic and metal camera with a glass lens.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

13.1 cm

Width

5.4 cm

Height

7.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Photography

Category

Still cameras

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Argus

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

Unknown

Canada

This camera belonged to The Right Honorable Herbert (Herb) Eser Gray. Gray was a prominent political figure that served the liberal party from the early 1960’s to the early 2000’s. He held a variety of positions during his parliamentary career such as deputy Prime Minister, committee chairmanships, and cabinet ministries during the liberal governments of Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau, and Lester Pearson. Gray is recognized as being Canada’s first Jewish cabinet minister.

Function

A device used to record still images on film.

Technical

Introduced in 1939, the A2B was nearly identical to the Argus A. There were small obscure differences between the two, but the most apparent modification was the addition of an extinction meter. Argus incorporated an extinction meter and an exposure calculator into its design in the hopes of making amateur photography easier and therefore more appealing to the average consumer. Any inexperienced photographer could now take a decent photograph without having to calculate f-stops and shutter speeds. Selling for $12.50 U.S. in the early 1940’s, the A2B was an affordable camera that amazingly stayed on the market until 1950. With the advent of post-war times came the introduction of newer and more exciting cameras to the market. Since it only had 2-position focus, and didn’t have a range finder or flash capability, Argus had to drop the A2B in order to take advantage of, and profit from, newer advances in photo-technologies.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

On the proper front of lens: "T B 150 100 50 25/ 18 12.7 9 6.3 4.5/ argus/ ANASTIGMAT/ MADE IN U.S.A. 50 MM f/4.5 COATED"/ Plate on proper top with a chart containing groups of numbers, reads in part: "BRIGHT/ AVERAGE/ CLOUDY/ LIGHT INT."

Missing

Appears complete.

Finish

Predominantly silver-coloured and black camera with clear glass lens.

Decoration

N/A