Vintage film cameras

[johnnyrod]

Yep i guess. I made a holder for an SLR screen from some really stiff cardboard. You need a main piece for the body of it (with a hole a little larger than the SLR focus screen), then a smaller piece that is stuck to the front (lens side) that will fit between the frame rails etc. You then need a hole in this to see through. Tape the screen in as follows: it sits in the big hole of the main piece, prisms side towards the lens, and pressed against the second piece. That way the prisms sit on the film plane.

The shutter is working now but the follower pin on the escapement is bent inwards a long way and is solid. In the end I got 1 second right and checked them all, the upper range is fine but 2, 5 and 10 are way too fast - more like 3, 15 and 100. I've gathered some info on how much to remove, and I'll have to file down the ring for those speeds. It's a Compur Rapid so has the fat booster spring for 500, it would't fire half the time if you tried that without the front plate back on. Nearly there!

[Kenzie]

I ordered a split focus screen meant for a Yashica 124G in the end, it's a 6x6 camera so should sit on the film rails nicely. The EM shutter is back together and firing well, nice and snappy. Oddly enough the shutter blades are fitted with shims but the PO lost one, doesn't seem to affect it though. The shutter is back on the lens board and the coc.king and release mechanism is all lined up and working. I may just be able to pull this off! Not sure whether to paint the body of leave it bare metal.

[johnnyrod]

Bare could be nice if you polish it up a bit. What do you mean by shims? Also where did you get the focus screen from?

[Kenzie]

They were like a little cut down version of the blade where it contacts the pivot point. I ordered it from ebay, coming from Shanghai. Maybe I could get Yoko to bring it back for me.

[johnnyrod]

Ah, think they are there to stiffen the blades. Like these?
Shutter leaf reassembly by John Rodriguez, on Flickr

[Kenzie]

Yeah, thats them. Was missing one but the shutter runs fine. I put one of the blades in the wrong order, it's in the correct orientation but should be under not over. Now got to figure out how to get the lens board back on the body. The focus has moved and one of the focus came has come loose.

[johnnyrod]

Getting there! Couldn't remove enough of the speed ring of the Bessa to adjust the 2, 5 and 10 as there's a hole in it for some reason around there, so it will have to do. It's all finished now. The flash sync of the Contessamat is fine, the flash needed new batteries, just need to clean the lenses and collimate it. Durst also finished. Time to take some pictures and advertise them! Found a box Brownie as well, not sure what else I've got that's ready to go.

[Kenzie]

I popped into the charity shop that I donated a load of old gear to. They only seem to have the cheaper Soviet stuff left. The two Continas and the Chinon lool to have been sold already. Did you ever get your mitts on the OM1?

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[yokohama]

I finally finished a roll of Fujicolor. 36 shots in 9 weeks, which is probably about average for me. I'm planning on visiting an old town next weekend so might drop a roll of black and white in. The vivitar rangefinder is easy enough to use. I was looking at hyperfocal distances but infinity is 15ft and beyond so basically, it's point and shoot.
There's a new museum opened since last year, the Chengdu Contemporary Image Museum so I went and had a look yesterday. Lovely old buildings with 7 different exhibitions including by Marc Riboud, Sebastiao Salgado and Henri Cartier Bresson. I t was pretty good. I really like Riboud's stuff. He took a lot of pics in China in the 70s and 80s (the ones shown here) and also some of Leeds in the 50s.
The museum is set in a photography park but i didn't get chance to explore that. Next time.

[yokohama]

Went out today and bought some Ilford Pan 400 as a change from HP5. Never tried it before.
Had a long and involved silent conversation in the photo shop as we swopped dialogue on mobile phone translation apps. The guy managed to direct me to another place down the road where they process film and there I had another difficult translation app conversation. I'm not exactly sure how much it will cost -the lady wrote 35 rmb down but whether this is process only, I'm not sure. Anyway, I'll give it a go and see what it's like. It saves me worrying about airport x-ray machines.
If I take the film on Tuesday morning, it'll be ready in the evening.