I was bored.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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