Edward Calvey's Photocontraptions

I was bored.

2010-03-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

I was bored. On top of that, this has very little to do with actual photography, but it is kind of comical. Forgive the episode of digression please.

I got this idea a while ago. Not very unique, but I didn't want it to disappear into the "wouldn't it be funny if we got around to..." files.

Making pictures you wind up with tons of frames. Some are leftovers from exhibits, and some are just items people abandon with you because you might have a use for them. I have this problem with rows and clusters of all sorts of things. I actually bought an enlarger once, and within weeks, it told all its friends that it was okay to have enlargers in my place. The news spread, and I have quite a collection now. They just seem to hop off the train and join the gaggle. On occasion, I even help the problem. Once in a while I cannot resist a crazy gilded frame at a yard sale. There are a few dozen really cool old picture frames piled up in the other room, and they have absolutely no business being there.

A digression from a digression.

I have an old MultiSync 15" display, and it isn't pretty enough. Not even widescreen. ... which is actually a good thing, but that's another story. Certainly not pretty. Actually, it isn't ugly enough either. It's just in between. Not much pisses me off more than half dones and in betweens, and so the mini-adventure begins.

None of the frames laying about were the right size, so for the last week I have been walking about with a specially sized sheet of paper in my back pocket. You should see the looks as I held the paper against all sorts of ugly crap at the Goodwill stores. Just the conversations have been totally worth it.

So, maybe poster putty would be able to stick a really disgustingly wacky frame to the display, and make it frikkin sweet.

Perhaps people don't use this stuff anymore, because it took forever for the convenience store folks to help me find it.

After many disappointments, I score a sweet gaudy gilded masterpiece at some crusty used crap shop. Didn't have the magic measuring paper, but it seemed right, and three bucks? ...hey.

Looks good!

It came with what was left of a black piece of matte board, and no glass. There were no golden cherubs or anything, but I'm not going to look all over the place to get cherubs. Yes, this is maximum stupid. Yes, I already realize this. No, I am not going to stop.

Pulling the points

The victim... I mean, decoratable item..

By the way, Alan Helton should know that his old pencil sharpener has been put to good use.
Alan Helton http://www.alanhelton.com/ A talented guy who appears to either has no use for a pencil sharpener, or secretly has a more glorious one hidden somewhere.

Amazingly, the frame fits exactly over the display! It just locks on perfectly. Weird. A bit tall though, and I sawed off a bit of the black mat board to cover the bottom. This will make the picture appropriately "high in the frame." Yeah, that's a stretch. The board was white edged, so in the spirit of archivability, I painted the edge black with a sharpie.

Strange freedom and shoddy workmanship.

It was kind of liberating to do horrible things like sharpie the edge, which you would never subject a real mat to. Kind of shows the monastic side of fine art framing that I never paid much attention to.

Safety lock mechanism.

Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHA! -cough- Yeah, back to work.

Replacing parts! Pentax A40 digicam screen.

2010-02-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

I decided at some point to give a shot at replacing the screen on this Pentax A40 pocket digicam. It turned out to be rather straightforward.

That sort of explains it.

This is the guy I got the screen from.
http://stores.ebay.com/dhcameras

Some of the screens are significantly more expensive than others, but it's certainly worth trying, just for the experience, and if your camera was broken in the first place, you don't have much to lose anyway!

home made tools.

2010-02-20T15:25:00.000-08:00

I made a temporary spanner wrench out of a crappy pair of pliers today.

Looks like this.

A long time ago, my dad was showing me how to tooth in a file, and let the little ledge hold the file in place as you file away material only where it needs to be removed ... or something like that. I had the pliers clamped in a vice, and was buzzing away at the material until the tips were exactly the correct thickness for the early Konica rangefinder lens I was working on recently. http://photocontraptions.blogspot.com/2010/01/first-of-can-film-konicas.html This camera is so cool, not having my wrenches was no excuse to delay. Well, it worked surprisingly nicely. Nice enough for me to think about not ordering another wildly expensive wrench.

It's so easy, I feel kinda stupid for not having done this last time.

Magic camera calibration in the ghetto.

2010-01-22T12:47:00.000-08:00

I want you to know about something.

There is a horrible feeling. The horrible feeling occurs about the time you get some pictures back from your new, (or new to you) old camera, and you notice that they just aren't sharp. As your friends tell you that you should have been using your digital, because you can preview and see right there on your little screen if the camera is right... blah blah.. Your heart sinks.

The truth is, almost every old camera has a super sharp lens, almost unbelievably so by today's standards, but it may be out of calibration. The mirror in your SLR might not be quite right, making the focus setting you see different from what the actual film will see. In a rangefinder, the little window might not be in the right place, making you set focus incorrectly in all your shots. The problems become really noticeable with fast lenses and close distances.

There is no excuse for all this mess because you can check the calibration to intense accuracy with just a few things, and cheap things at that. September of last year, I reposted my article about making a ghetto DIY autocollimator, a device for looking in the camera and seeing if it is focusing right.

http://photocontraptions.blogspot.com/2009/09/ghetto-auto-collimator-explanified.html

But that's a bit of work, and ridiculous work. So, for just checking focus, we can do nicely on the SUPER cheap with an easier method. It only takes minutes. If your camera is good you will know for sure. If not, you can find a technician, or in some cases calibrate the camera yourself. We'll get to resetting bad cameras soon, but for now, let's get started checking focus calibration on your camera.

First, you need your camera in question, of course. I am going to demonstrate this procedure with a crusty Argus Brick rangefinder, and a 35mm SLR camera as well. You'll see that the process is pretty much the same with anything.

Meet the test candidates.

So you need a few things: First off, some frosty tape.

Tape. Frosty goodness.

Gotta have it. Then a marker that can mark on... tape.

...a decent pen. Sharpie or something...

Then, a locking cable release. We have to hold the camera open so we can see what is going on in there. It should have a way to lock open, so you don't have to get your little brother to stand there all day.

locking cable release that fits your camera

Shame on you if you don't have one. Anyway, you need some sort of light source. A flashlight will do nicely, or any bare lightbulb you can position behind the camera. You'll see what I mean in a second.

flashlight... or something

Now the final ingredient. This is the tough one. You need a "viewing device," which can be any old SLR camera with a lens that is magnitudes longer than the one you are testing. Lens quality is of literally NO concern, but the camera should probably have a real glass prism, not the pentamirror/brightscreen nonsense on most modern plastic SLRs and DSLRs. All older SLRs have a real prism and a real viewing groundglass, but only the more expensive new cameras do now. This explains why it is so easy to manually focus an older camera than say, a Nikon D50 or Canon EOS Rebel. For our test, we shall use this trusty Minolta SRT from the 60s.

SRT and off brand 300mm.

If you don't have something like this goofy example, find somebody with a lens at least two or three times as long as the lens you are testing and borrow that.

For example: The cameras we are testing are both using 50mm lenses, (Argus Cintar 50mm f/3.5, and SMC Pentax-A 1:1.7 50mm.) So a 200mm lens would suffice. The miserable 300mm f/5.5 here is fabulous for the task.

The "viewing" camera will be like an eyepiece for us, so we have to have things right with that viewfinder first. We just have to make sure it looks focused to infinity, or really, really far away. Go outside with this contraption and focus on an object as far away as you can. Use something like a lamp post way down the street, or some small detail hundreds or thousands of feet away. If the lens turns out to be set to infinity, great. If not, whatever. Just keep it where it is from now on. Ready to go!

Now let's get the cameras ready for the test.

Open up your camera and take a look inside. The film passes over a pair of rails, and is held tight against them by the pressure plate on the back door. Here you can see the rails at the top and bottom of the frame.

Exhibit A: On the Argus... There they are!

These rails are at the focal plane of the camera. That means that a correctly working camera will focus an infinitely far thing there, when the camera is focused to infinity. I really hope this makes sense. ... not that you need to get it. Well, all I am saying is that this is a known place we can calibrate the camera with. Anyway, we need to make a focusing screen there, so that is where the frosty tape goes. I warned you that this was ghetto.

Tape

Attach a chunk of tape to the top rail, and bring it down...

To the other one. I know. pretty obvious.

You might have to press on the edges like shown to get a nice flat tension on our new focusing screen. It has to be stretched totally flat.

Then the marker...

Make a nice target, just to make it totally clear what we are looking at. Probably not necessary, but It does help.

Ready!

Should wind up looking like this. This one is ready to go.

With the SLR, the shutter is way at the back of the camera, so we have to be extremely careful. It is never a good idea to touch a shutter of any type. If you don't manage to break the shutter, the oils from your finger can interfere with the blades. Try to keep this in mind, or set the camera to "B" (long exposure) and use the cable release to lock the shutter open. If you do it that way, make sure the release is secure. You certainly don't want your mits up in there and have the shutter try to slam on your finger. I'll just show you with the shutter closed, just to be macho.

A little more treacherous with the SLR.

As you can see, somebody already got their crummy fingers on this shutter anyway. Oh well.

Applied to top rail.

Now, the bottom.

installed.

... and the X. Be careful!

Whew.

Now set the camera to "B" and lock the camera open with the cable release, and figure out a way to get it sitting on a table, facing forward.

...cable release added to the Argus and set to "B."

Now, grab the flashlight, and get it aimed at our calibration tape as shown.

Lamp positioned with magical blue found object.

Make sure to focus the test camera lens to what the camera says is infinity, and set the lens wide open. Hopefully it will be correct.

Looks good. Rather bright in there.

I'll show you with the SLR too.

Wow. Dirty.

Now we just look in there with the "viewing lens." It's that simple. Position the viewing camera to be facing straight into the test one, and look inside. Since both lenses are focused to infinity, it doesn't matter how far they are away from each other, so get them nice and close.

Here is how it should look when you are testing.

The image (the tape with X,) will come out of the test camera as if from infinitely far away, and be refocused to the viewing camera ground glass that you calibrated to the really far away things. If everything is good, you will see a sharp image of the "X" and the tape in the viewfinder of the other camera. Being that the viewing lens is magnitudes longer, the crop will show you only a small part of the tape. This is vaguely like looking really closely to a picture with a magnifying glass. With this much magnification, it will be TOTALLY OBVIOUS to you if the camera is out of calibration. It should snap into sharp focus just as the test camera focus reaches the infinity setting, and go really blurry as you change focus of the test camera.

Trying it out.

Here is how it looks:

Hopefully like this.

...Not like this.

See? Easy. This has been a lifesaver with old folding cameras, with their complicated bellows systems, weird lens mount adapters, helicals, cheap stuff like Holgas, Impreials, beat up rangefinders and especially setting the infinity stops on field and press cameras that don't have their own ground glass. Try it! Feels good knowing that blurry pictures are totally your own fault.

Next episode we can learn how easy it is to recalibrate a rangefinder, or make a high performance groundglass of our own. ... or make a whole camera from scratch... or not. Who knows. Let me know.

Oh, and the test cameras? Turns out the Argus is working perfectly and the SLR is not right at all!

Goodwill discoveries are still possible today.

2010-01-14T15:53:00.000-08:00

Rather odd birds, but hey.

Odd equipments

I like to fix stuff, and Andy likes to buy stuff. Heh. We both like to use stuff to make some pictures. He does take the cake for finding diamonds in the rough though, and I thought you should see his latest catch as we begin to unfold the story it tells.

Andy was at a Goodwill, http://locator.goodwill.org/ and somehow got a hold of what appears to be a Yashica LYNX IC for a steal. Everything works perfectly, and there was a roll of film inside. These cameras appear once in a while if you keep your eyes open, although I have never spotted one at a Goodwill. The "LYNX" tag usually falls off, leading to a bit of confusion. This one had the original cap and case. The metering battery was corroded and nasty, but other than metering, everything appears good to go. I might make a demonstration on how to clean corroded battery compartments with this camera if he is okay with that.

Massive nature of the 45mm f/1.4 lens might be more evident next to a Retina.

The LYNX appears to be something of a top of the line model.

Photoethnography article on the LYNX

I have seen a lot of these big Yashica rangefinders, but none have had the quality of build that this one has. It almost looks as if the other ones were all fake props. The controls on the lens are really smooth, on solid metal. The lens is also rather big... er.. huge. It fits 58mm hoods and filters, but Andy has no interest in either. He certainly makes fine enough photographs without them.

Andy

Andy is a master at finding deals on old cameras, and in a minute I am going to try to get him to share some of his magical camera procurement secrets.

The combination of f/1.4 speed, and a rangefinder become really fun in low light even more than daylight. If you can see anything in the viewfinder, you can see the focusing patch as well, and you are good to go. This Yashica might be really good for 1600 speed handheld party nonsense!

I found Andy. Here goes:

Andy

We can start. At least try to.

Edward

I type the questions buddy. Hahaha! What do I ask?

Andy
I dont know.

Edward

Oh yeah. I was writing about our recent rangefinder adventure and wanted to talk to you about how you find all these wacky cameras.

Andy

So how do I find camera?

Edward

Yes. How do you find camera? You certainly know how.

Andy

Well, I search Ebay just by typing in Camera or Medium Format Camera or Film Camera, and I just look at everything thats metal, or old, or just cool looking.. Or I just go to thrift stores. Thats really it. Nothing special. When looking at images on flickr, if I come across one that I like alot and has a neat look, I will look for that camera by name via Ebay. Only other way is via KEH. I just check their Miscellaneous stuff.

Edward

I see, your kung fu is good. So, what percentage of these finds are from places like Goodwill?

Andy

Probably only about 5%

Edward

That's not too spectacular. Does that include the antique malls?

Andy

Yeah. 5-10%

Edward

But you still go regularly anyways?

Andy

Maybe more. A lot can be found at them but there's a lot of crap that I don't buy. I love to Go! not just looking for cameras! I think I like looking at old shit. Just random old shit! I love it.

Edward

Nice. So the cameras are more of a byproduct of wandering through these stores? You don't show up on a mission to find, say... a Yashica LYNX IC?

Andy

Well, I would love to find a camera more than anything for sure.. I would say that the main hope is for a cool camera! But if I find nothing its usually not a waste or anything. Still neat to look at old stuff in the process but camera is number one goal right now.

Edward

So maybe your good attitude gives you the magicsuperpowers.

Andy

Or that I go twice a week. Speaking of, we need to hit up that Antique Mall out on Tesson Ferry Rd.

Edward

Well that explains it right there.

Andy

Im not that good at the schedule but I go usually every weekend, and then I hit up some of the more local ones after work.

Edward

Now might be a good time to mention the book.

Andy

But I'm also looking for vintage ties, suits, coats, shoes (need some good brown dress shoes.) I like the book,

and anything for croquet I might add.

Edward

I have a camera with a moustache. Does that count?

Ed's Moustachecam

Andy

Sure. I get alittle quiet when talking about the book.

Edward

So you want to talk about the book at another time is what you are saying? Top secret eh?

Andy

Guess I kinda worry about the idea being stolen or someone else doing it or maybe some one else already did it and if so, I don't want someone to tell me about it, cause then I might not do it. But it really wouldn't matter too much.

Edward

I'm trying to think of anyone else that has the resources to do such a book.

Andy

Basically, the book is just going to be a coffee table picture book containing a lot of images all of which have been taken by different cameras, or different glass I should probably say. Lots of little additional info in the book as well.

Edward

I'm pretty excited about it.

Andy

I am too, but its going to be along time till it's done.

Edward

When should I start looking about in the bookstores?

Andy

Two years.

Edward

hahaha! You funny.

Andy

Seriously. I only have images from about 30-40 cameras right now.

Edward

That's not funny.

Andy

I need at least 60 more. But I might have to squash the 100 idea, though I think thats best. If I count differnt glass, I might be up to 50 finished pices.

Edward

How much of that is machinery from Goodwill stores and antique malls?

Andy

Of the 50 finished pieces, probably only about 3%. I need to get out with the older wierd stuff more often. I would say the majority is KEH buys and Ebay buys. The cooler cameras, more user friendly... I get out with those more and those cameras you just don't find at thrifts. Maybe sometimes but not that often.

Edward

What's the favorite today, and why is it so fresh?

Andy

Thats really hard to say but I've gotten the best resluts recently from my Bronica SQ-AI. It has a meter, it's SLR, and it's Square format! I just love that combo, and the lenses are CHEAP! But others, I like a lot just cause they're weird. I'm enjoying the Horizon 202 a whole lot, but I don't get many great shots from it. I love TLRs but I'm not that great shooting with them. Anyway, the SQ is probably the best right now.

Edward

You didn't mention the LYNX IC.

Andy

Well, I haven't even got pics back from that yet.

Edward

so?

Andy

I like it but I'm not sure yet. It's pretty badass, but still so new. Speaking of... 59mins left on that auction. $25. Yummy.

Edward

Heh. You're saying I should be using one is what you are saying, right?

Andy

You seemed to be interested, and its only $25.

Edward

Not answering that.

To see how some of these cameras do, as per his suggestion, you could check out his own flickr, Andy's flickr. The pictures are actually organized by camera, so you can kind of compare the imaging styles of different lenses. He is not much for digitally screwing with photos either, so you can really get an idea of the experience. Many other images on flickr and other picture sites have camera and lens information as well. Interesting way to see what might be helping you to get the look you are after. I am really hoping to see how the Yashica LYNX fared in our outing. It should only be a few days.

Other mentioned things:
http://www.ebay.com/
http://www.keh.com/

Andy called back and said he forgot to mention craigslist. Most of the prices are dumb, but he says things appear if you know your stuff. I can agree with that. He sometimes points things out on there that he knows I need.
http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites

Since I don't have one of those cool Yashicas, I used a Xenon Retina with, (shocker,) COLOR film for our outing. Just seeing what happens. For a meter, I used the CHDK modified Canon point and shoot. It feels weird to look at the histogram and know that on the film camera there is so much range that none of that even matters.

I'll be printing impossible nonsense like this.

Stay tuned for whatever is next.

The first of the can film Konicas

2010-01-08T22:45:00.000-08:00

Working on something really fun today.

Taking some time to get this Gorgeous Konica Rangefinder together.

1951 synchro Konica with 2.8 Hexanon.

Quite some time ago, I was perusing a bizarre camera swap meet South of Market. It's a small show, twice a year, and probably the most impressive photoartillery laden camera swap you'll see. Even though it is basically a ring of tables in a two bay room, every table is loaded edge to edge with all the coolest lenses, cameras and weirdamabobs that you could ever want. Much fun. I picked up some lenses, a vintage hood for a friend, and a spare Olympis XA for my old man. It was a third the going rate, and looked better than the one he used at the time. Most of these vendors have an area with their coveted stuff, and a sort of "as-is" pile. In the unloveds and halfworkings, was a gorgeous rangefinder that looked like an easy fix. I had seen this machine before, and the one from memory said, "Made in occupied Japan" on the bottom. Very cool. I picked it up for cheap, but it has been on the shelf until now.

Here is the site of the store that hosts the meet in case you want to check it out: Photographers Supply They are more into studio supplies than actual cameras, but are a really cool place worth checking out.

Now on the table. At last, a bit of time to get the shutter back in the game on this magnificent little thing. I love the solid feel of the older cameras, and this has as much of that as anything out there. Often referred to as the Konica I, this is a block-of-steel monster, with a collapsible lens, and a bright, clear rangefinder. From the optical bench, the lens looks pretty sharp too. Really sharp. All the controls have smooth motion and no play whatsoever. There were a hundred thousand of these things and they are really solid. No idea why they seem to be so uncommon today.

I would blabber on about the history and all that nonsense, but that is well covered by this article if you are interested: Camerapedia article on the Konica I, II and III.

This one is in decent shape, but the shutter is not, so I decided to get to work.

The Konirapid-S without its nose.

Kind of weird working with this camera because it has a collapsible lens. When in the collapsed position, it can turn around a bit. Tricky little thing. Otherwise it is pretty straightforward.

speed ring removed, and now we can see the guts! There are a few interesting bits in there. The winding lever spring (not really visible) is attached to a little post on top of the screw that holds down one side of the escapement. This is just to the right of that flash post on the bottom. Even when not wound, there is tension on the spring, making things pretty interesting, if not a bit treacherous. Looks like the escapement is working fine though, so the problem has to do with dirt, cigarette smoke, and maybe the weirdly filthy aperture leaves.

Escapement on the right. Shutter release on left.

Ran out of time for today, but this is a challenge I am pretty excited about. I'll keep you posted.

-edward

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009-12-31T04:51:00.000-08:00

So you can stay on top of who is in the lead! heh. http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

Be safe and all that!

Score! Retina II and III Accessory viewfinder 35 / 80!

2009-12-31T02:38:00.000-08:00

Yes.

I'm actually a bit excited about this wackiness!

Andy, http://www.flickr.com/photos/andychrome/ tipped me off to a pile of vintage Kodak camera parts at an antique mall that we both visit on occasion. Turns out they had a bunch of hilarious, and mostly useless items. My eyebrow raised at a Kodak Retina Reflex, which was broken up pretty badly, and there were a bunch of plastic Pony cameras that were of no interest.

Then, underneath, in a large tin box... I began digging through some of those old yellow boxes. Hoods, series IV filters... A really crazy Medalist macro back with pack film window and ground glass focuser. That was weird. I happened upon a perfect 135mm for reflex. It was in the original bubble, and in the original yellow box. It even had the instructions. I started wishing I got into Retina reflex. They only wanted $25 for it. No, really! There were original manuals for Retina IIIc, and others. Just got better and better. Then I unearthed a little brown case with something really odd inside...

The Answerrrr.

The question, of course is, "How do you frame a shot with one of those horribly inconvenient alternative lenses that you attach to the Retina rangefinder?" (Yah. probably not that common a question.)

There are two mysterious lenses that come as accessories to the Retina. One is an 80mm telephoto, and one is a wide angle 35mm. The really weird part is that they aren't even entire lens systems. The Retina II or III cameras allow you to unhook the front lens group with the turn of a small bayonet mount, and replace the front HALF of the lens with one of these specially designed alternative groups. It might be pretty wacky, but it works a lot better than some horrible thing you screw on the front of a complete lens. Weirder, you have to have adapter lenses of the correct manufacture. A Schneider equipped Retina has a particular mount that will not allow a Rodenstock front group of any kind, and vice versa Just that they were bizarre enough to design three front groups is pretty interesting. That there is a set for each lens manufacturer, and that they are actually different... I think these guys had a lot of spare time. Of course, the alternative lenses probably don't perform as well as the native 50mm lens, but they do pretty amazingly well. It is kinda wrong, really.

Problem is, if you install one of these weird lens fronts on a "small c" Retina, there is no way to know where the edge of the picture is! The only frameline in the viewfinder is that of the regular 50mm lens.

Aside from looking gadgety, this accessory viewer gets the situation under control. It has masks for 80 and 35mm that flip by a lever on top, and a knob at the back tilts the viewer downward for accurate framing at closer distances. It also turns both ways with markings for feet in one direction and meters in the other. Very cool!

Here it is with the 80mm Retina-Longar (goofy name!)

Just like the cameras, this viewer is made in Germany, and sports the same solid feel. The vintage fabulous look doesn't hurt either. Weird that I have never seen one before.

Wrong lens, idiot! Now function follows form.

Would I look like too much of a moron if I left this thing on the camera permanently?

Kodak REALIST 3D camera from 1951

2009-11-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

I don't have one of these anymore, but a friend, Tim Maupin, somehow gets a hold of this exceedingly odd Kodak camera, and we took a minute to figure it out. It's actually a lot of fun.

1951 Kodak Realist 3D camera

Tim is a bit of a 3D enthusiast, or you could see him as just ahead of his time. 3D is moving in on society, and as there is increasing possibility of it becoming totally accepted as normal, he stands to be quite a bit ahead of us in figuring it all out.

Fascinating how he finds all the weird 3D related stuff that we might have overlooked. Usually it has to do with futuristic technologies, like screens that allow you to watch 3D video with no glasses from anywhere in a room. This time it happens to be something from the last time 3D attempted to take hold of our imaginations.

The Realist was designed for stereoviews. If you don't have any, a stereoview is a standardized seven inch wide card that you load into a viewer, and observe as if you were watching the opera from the cheap seats..

Here's the wiki on all that nonsense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoscopy

I do collect stereoviews, but don't hold it against me.

This sweet camera is horizontally rather symmetrical, and has five front lens openings, only two of which actually expose film. The central lens gets mirrored down, and under the film area to a viewing port, and you frame your totally square picture through a tiny hole at the bottom of the back. It takes significant getting used to.

I think it is looking at you

Weirder yet, you focus through a secondary port, which splits BOTH ways to a wide pair of square rangefinder ports at the lower far corners of the camera front. Ususally in practice, at least one finger covers one or both ports, making focus impossible. Once you figure out a way to view without covering the rangefinder ports, focusing is extremely bright and easy, using a single focus dial at the upper corner of the camera. Works like a tiny Koni-Omega. Just as fast and easy

.. a what?

The koni (konica) omega was a press camera that is rather known for the huge focusing knob at the side of the camera.
http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Koni-Omega
I digress...

I was kind of blown away at the block-of-steel feeling of the Realist, and the fact that all speeds, even the one second shutter speed worked perfectly. This one is an earlier model than the one I had, and it looks like earlier is clearly better when it comes to quality. Feels like a Nikkormat, or a block of aluminum stock at the metal yard. Very impressive. It even has a flash shoe, cable release, bulb and T setting.

That the actual shutter speed dial is wrapped around the framing lens (the one in the middle,) now that's just bizarre. Why? No idea.

I know you just saw this, but there's the shutter speed dial,

meaninglessly placed around the viewing lens.

Where does he find this stuff?!

Anyway, aside from their weirdo positions of things, and the weird brass clip the holds the film to the winder/counter sprocket wheel (more on this in a sec,) the camera is totally straightforward.

Yeah, Badassery firing button, and a real flash shoe.

Look! Square pictures! The shutters are linked as one, and the aperture and focus are synched, so one control does the same thing to both lenses.

You can see the viewing and framing ports at the bottom,

and the winder sprocket with the weird tab thing at the top.

The thing we totally spaced was that the film is supposed to go UNDER the little brass tab you can see at the top. I guesss this is so there is an absolute positive frame counting to make sure noting shoots over anything else. It actually spaces the first two pics alternating, and the third is a long wind to get out of the way of the used film.... if that makes any sense. Without that correct, the camera just wound until you felt like stopping, reducing a full roll to about four wildly placed pics. In focus? not sure about that either as there is only one pressure plate for both pictures. We shall see.

This camera is fifty eight years old and works absolutely perfectly. I wonder how many more of my point and shoot cameras will be long gone before this needs it's first service. how many more digitals will I have long tossed in the garbage before one makes a picture this good. A stereo picture this good...

I hope Tim gets some good use out of this. Very cool.

Wordling instead of the task at hand

2009-10-01T04:38:00.000-07:00

Not the most exciting day, but...

Somehow, I wound up at Wordle, and did one of thos blog:

Looks like it says camera, light, and lens a lot. Not that I have a new magic photocontraption today. Well, I do, but the post is not ready, so you'll just have to wait.

It's too early for this stuff anyway.

Here's a link to Wordle.net, just in case you are as uninspired as I am this morning. Hey, it's kind of interesting!

People just don't get it all over again.

2009-09-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

I must preface that I have nothing against lomography, or the amazing job they have done bringing creative and fun materials to milions of photographers.

So, with that said, I don't think people are getting it.

The other day, the web went ablaze with the latest Lomography antic: adapter lenses that allow you to attach a Holga or Diana lens to the front of a Canon or Nikon SLR or DSLR camera.

People are understandingly going bonkers over this, but they really aren't getting that this is going to be the pancake of photography.

Once again, allow me to explain...

The pancake (mmmmmm, the pancake) sounds glorious BEFORE you indulge in it. During the munching procedure, It still seems like the greatest idea, it is the honeymoon after all... but there is something sinister going on. Little do you now that one tiny pancake is the correct quantity and as you gulp down pounds of delicious pancake, you head towards the inevitable.

An hour later you are miserable and let down.

I feel this is the exact thing that will happen to all of these uninformed people that buy these holga/diana lens adapters.

Parting you with your money is great, but let's talk for a minute in YOUR favor.

There is a plastic mask in the holga camera. you know all about this. the mask makes the image smaller, so you can shoot 16 frames at 645 instead of 12 square pictures at a full 6x6. In the new Diana cameras, there is a superslide sized plastic mask that allows you to shoot 16 smaler frames at say, 44x44 or so. Most of you may not know what the hell superslide is in the first place, but who cares about that.

The point is that to get a mysterious, dreamy, gorgeous Holga/diana image, the first thing you do is TEAR THAT DAMN THING OUT, and use the entire frame. This makes use of the entire image area, including the horribly vignetted corners and the radially blurred magic that people associate with the term LOMO, DIANA, ad HOLGA.

A 35mm camera has a tiny frame, not even close to including the glorious edges that darket to direct your attention into the image as the great painters did. Most DSLRs, including the delicious new Canon 7d have even smaller sensors, the size of the APS cameras you throw in the trash today because they suck. These cameras don't suck like those APScameras did, but the image area is so small, you will only get the center of the frame. No cool vignetting. No dreamy image corners. All you will get is a high flare, and plainly unsharp picture.

Pretty lame.

It would be better to use ACTUAL creativity ad make up a weird bokeh filter with sharpie, cardboard, and vaseline the way they did in the 1930s. Come on people. Get a grip.

The again, I have noting against rampant consumerism. Carry on in full ignorance.

ghetto auto collimator explanified better

2009-09-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd elaborate on this ghetto auto collimator thing from the other day, but then I could just repost some old material on it here. Hope this works, and I hope you get a laugh out of it all.

Here goes...

Ghettocollimator?

I was sitting here, with a couple of cameras, dreaming of my autocollimator, when I got this crazy Macgyver idea.

I figured, a collimator just shines an infinitely far away image into a camera, and if the camera is correctly focused to infinity, the picture would look good on the film. The secret is that the film image would then be visible if you could look in there with another camera focused to infinity. With a half silvered mirror, you can have the camera and the light source on the same axis. Sounds weird, but it works.

Well, I didn't have any of that crap, but there were a few slide projectors, and a magically appearing half silvered mirror floating about. Here is the completed contraption. I must say, it works very well!

This nonsense is obviously unnecessarily complicated as the mirror is in front of the viewer lens, thus making two optical sysyems necessary, (one for the projector, and another one for viewing) but hey. I only had a half hour to spare, and wanted to know exactly how well calibrated several cameras were. To reduce flare, A piece of black foam core with a hole punched in it keeps the light going only where it makes an image on the film. It hepled out quite a bit.

Should be pretty obvious from here. the projected image (on left) passes through the mirror, and goes into the bessa in question (on right.) Since the lens on the projector is set to make an image at infinity, the bessa lens, set to infinity, should bring the image into sharp focus on the film. The viewing camera (on the bottom) uses the half silvered mirror to look into the camera and see the film. Since that lens is also focused to infinity, you can see right in there and know exactly how good your camera really is.

Turns out, this old Voigtlander Bessa 6x9 is really sharp! ... and horribly out of line. Since you are viewing an actual image on a real live piece of film, this takes into account all sorts of things like film flatness. you can even wind the film live to make sure it all stays lined up. The longer the viewing lens, the greater the magnification obviously. with a 400mm on the viewing camera, you can on ly see the a very small part of the original slide for extreme pickiness!

It's really fun to watch the image distort as you bend around the camera rails, and turn sharp when the lens says something other than infinity. You can reset focus dials with perfect precision, recollimate lenses, see all sorts of stuff, and find out the real effect, or lack thereof, that features and filters have on the final image.

Turns out that of all cameras tested, this Bessa 6x9 is the only one that really needs mechanical help. I had no idea the lens was so sharp. Perhaps it might be worth a little work.

Here is looking into the viewfinder of the "viewing" camera, which is some sort of screwmount Vivitar thing that was laying about. That is the actual image projected on the film inside the Bessa, as looked at right in there through the bessa's lens. The magnification is rather high, so you are looking closely at a tiny piece of the image in the middle of the film. Simply rotating the camera, you can view the corners of the image to see how the camera performs at different apertures.

Yea, it's stupid, but it just takes too long to build a real autocollimator. Perhaps that will be the topic when there is a full hour or two for this insanity.

Nutty. I was really bored though. Hey.

and then there was the footcandle meter.

2009-09-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

and so the footcandle meter and it's mysterious footcandles...

Yeah... I dunno.

This very cool old foot-candle meter was in Andy's stuff. He got it in a trade or something... maybe a pile of stuff from a relative. It has two ranges, actuated with a side mounted switch, and runs on solar power, like it should. No need for batteries.. ever.

Anyway, it works, and works well! There's something satisfying about an old needle meter that is accurate, especially if it is encased in stale gray bakelite, or brittle plastics of the past.

Oh yeah, about these mysterious foot-candles:

First off, to make sure we are all totally confused here: 1 footcandle = 10.76391 lux, and none of this has much to do with the brightness of a lightbulb.

Allow me to explain.

A foot candle is a measure of "illuminance." Notice I didn't say "Luminance." It's a measure of the light that is hitting something. Namely, your subject. It doesn't measure how powerful a lightbulb is, because as you get the subjet farther away from the light source, less light is hitting the subject. the "illuminance" decreases. The subject is less "illuminated." Not that they are getting any dumber or anything. It's all about the destination, and not anything about whatever source of light. Get it? You can't possibly say that this new flashlight puts out ten foot candles right?

That makes this meter useful for photography, lighting design... all sorts of things becasue we are all taking pictures of stuff, not the lights that light it.

So, how much light is a "foot candle" and how can that be converted to something useful that has nothing to do with people's feet?

The original idea was that one foot-candle was the amount of light that would hit the inside of a one foot radius sphere if, yes, there was a one candela source of light (basically a candle,) in the middle. No, really. a two foot diameter beach ball with a candle in the middle? Anywhere on the inside of the beach ball would be one foot-candle of light. Pretty simple.

Whatever.

So it's the amount of light that hits a surface. So you could get one "foot candle" of light with one candle a foot away from you, or, say four candles two feet away. or sixteen candles four feet away. Sixteen candles. heh. Remember two things:

ONE, we are measuring the light hitting the subject, not the amount that a candle can make in total or anything weird like that.

TWO, as with anything, inverse square law applies. Maybe I'll further digress with a quick diagram.

See? It's all about the "density" of the light.
Twice as far is the same light covering twice the height and twice the width, so you get a quarter candle per foot at twice the distance. Inverse square law!

Sorry about being redundant, off the subject and and referring to ridiculous movies, but this is MY blog so I can cry if I want to.

There's a metric equivalent to all this that's in meters and all that. It's called LUX. Much sexier name, and being metric, pretty much obsoletes foot-candles, although people still use foot-candles on things here in the US.

They are measuring the same thing, so one footcandle is simply 10.764 lux. When I worked in lighting, we just multiplied by ten and that was close enough.

Oh, and blasting sunshine is about 10,000 foot-candles anywhere here on earth.

What about camera settings?

Assuming 100 speed film or setting on your digicam nonsense:

10,000 FC(foot-candles) should be almost f/16 at a 250th of a second.

100 FC would be what? 250th at f/1.4 or so.

1 foot candle is about f/2.0 at a one second exposure.

maybe a chart later.

You can figure it out. Either that or get a hold of me and I'll scorn you for not having it figured out.

This is nuts. I'm going to bed.

Argus C4 Brick.

2009-07-16T22:02:00.000-07:00

Argus brick.

Ah, the much maligned Argus C3 "Brick."

This is a camera nobody cares about. But they should. It is totaly fascinating. Kind of like an ice cream sandwich except the ice cream filling is a block of bakelite, and the chocolate part is nickel plated cast metal. You will never have a better opportunity to shoot with a pair of Buick bumpers smashed into an old telephone.

On top of that, most come in some sort of stale leather case like this:

These cases seem to be random in design I have personally endured at least four of these nonsensical contraptions, and seen quite a few more. Weird.

About half of the cases round out the edges to make a sort of leica III facade.

The lens, Argus Cintar 50mm, is disappointingly excellent. I mean, really. The pictures look great. The pictures are sharp, and the only thing "cool" that happens is some nice vignetting wide open. Focusing, however, is I guess what you would call pretty exciting, and not really in a good way.

Then there is the inside story.

Leaf Shutter behind the lens.

The Leaf shutter is weirdly BEHIND the lens, allowing you to exchange the lens with a telephoto called the "Sandmar." The only thing I have figured out about this "Sandmar"lens is that it is probably even more inconvenient than the telephoto "Longar" adapter lens for the Kodak Retinas.

Top surface control area, where you can't see the horrible viewfinding experience. Around the shutter reease, you can turn a small collar to "B" for bulb operation, or "I" for "instant" exposure. The actual shutter speed control is on the front, and goes from about a 10th of a second to what they say is a 300th.

To wind, you twist the knob, hear the counter sprocket tearing through the film holes, scream, and press the release knob. Then repeat... minus the screaming and tearing part. You only repeat that part the next time you need to wind.

The other problem is that you have to remember if you wound the shutter first, or wound the film. ... or if you remembered to do any of these things at all.

Another weird problem is that your finger may be next to the shutter winding mechanism... yes, from winding it. Yes, and if it is still there, the lever will keep the shutter open indefinitely until you get your butterfingers out of the way. Really weird, and it happens more than people think. You finger just lands in the way naturally. After all, you are holding a brick.

There is a good part to the experience though. The best part is that you can get some nail polish remover and do this:

(chrome brick)

The argus brick. Going price... about fifteen bucks.

Busch Pressman Model "D" 4x5 Camera

2009-07-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

So, suitably horrible pictures of a magnificent photographic piece of machinery.

This is the 4x5 Busch Pressman Model "D"

Busch Pressman Model "D"

I'd guess the most familiar contemporary to this camera is the Graflex 4x5 press camera. The first thing you might notice that is different with this thing is the raw density. The camera is made of aluminum, and closes into a tough clamshell that is significantly smaller and heavier than a Graflex. It is significantly lighter than any 4x5 linhof Technika, and lacks some of the insane flexibility, but it does feel good and tough.

I am under the impression that it comes with the same fabulously underrated Wollensak Optar 135mm f/4.5 lens as standard. could be wrong though. Mine came with a 150mm Dagor. No complaints there, except that at f/6.3 wide open with some vignetting, the viewing was almost unusably dim.

The camera has mostly machined aluminum parts istead of the stamped sheet steel components of the Graflex. It seems this was a bit of a luxury alternative to the standard. Also, the front standard has rise, fall, a bit of shift, and swings forward as well as backward, which is a glaring omission from the Speed Graphics. Not that they were ever intended for landscape.

This is not a perfect competitior though. The front standard is centered by threading a pointed post upward, holding it vertical. This isn't a precision operation, and I have had more than a few "uncertain of parallelism" moments with wide lenses that ended in the top and bottom of the picture out of focus. Sometimes in the real world there just isn't time to coddle the camera.

It does have a front drop bed for super wide lenses though, and the rails are connected to the chunks of focusing rain in the body, so there is no way you can have the front standard fly off the camera is some mysterious and horrible way.

The bellows can certainly reach a 210mm lens, and maybe a 240, but long lenses are not the speciality, and there is no extension available. Even on a 240, a telephoto is a worthwhile consideration. From my experience, 300mm is pretty much out of the story, as are anything wider than 90mm or so. I'll bet 75mm is okay with the bed lowered, but there are far better cameras for the wild lenses. I think this camera, being foldable into a nuke-proof lunch box, is best used with a normal lens, a meter, and a couple of holders anyway.

The star of the show has to do with the film side though. Although the Busch Pressman D doesn't have any rear movements, it does have a fabulous, machined aliuminum rotating back.

Rotating back locks in position

In all, it's a pretty awesome little presscamera, and I have used mine on a few continents with mostly satisfactory results. The balance between surprising ruggedness, and some minimal viewcamera flexibility are not optimal for me, but might be just the thing for you.

Now there's the question of finding one. The Busch pressman is not uncommon, but doesn't usually show up just when you need one.

Majestic "Bencher" Tripod gear head. Why not go all out?

2009-07-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

So,

Struggling for support... and there it was:

The Majestic "Bencher" Tripod studio head. Crank it! Crank it!

I just think the world should know about an inappropriate stigma attached to these giant tripod heads. I bought this one to support an 8x10 camera that made regular tripods feel like they were made of jello. With the "Bencher," things became instantly rock solid. Compared with more fashionable alternatives, the price is good too.

The one thing that people don't seem to know is that these heads are quite reasonable in weight, and only have a mild possibility of maiming a helpless bystander. This is all relative, mind you.

I used this thing outside of the safety of the studio for years, and it was great with the 8x10, various 4x5s, and especially the Pentax 6x7s. The crank adjustment is particularly fun. Makes you feel like a machinist, and makes fine vertical adjustments weirdly satisfying. There is always a supply of them, so you can sell yours if you need the space, and not worry about being able to get another one.

Only thing to watch out for, apparently, is when the gears get worn, and some play appears, like the steering box of a 1970s Camaro. I can't imagine what camera could do that though, and being that this thing appears to be bigger AND more rugged than a detroit steering box... Hard to imagine in any case. Maybe that's just a rumor.

Worth a try.

Next week blatherings about a lesser known, but surprisingly magnificent 4x5 press camera. Oh, joy!

Ghetto autocollimator. Say that ten times fast.

2009-07-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

Ghetto autocollimator. Say that ten times fast.

I had some projetors and junk laying about and couldn't get a hold of my autocollimator. This works great!

The image comes out of the projector carefully focused to infinity. if the lens is correct, it focuses the infinity image to the film. Being illuminated, you can look in the camera, and see the image on the film using the viewing camera and half silvered mirror in the middle.

Yes. That really is a piece of toilet paper tube.

Yes. that is supposed to be funny.