andrew_tefft

Actually these are my thoughts exactly. Going back a bit: I had shelved my long-loved Canon AL-1 several years ago, with digital being much more convenient for my needs at the time. My love of 35mm SLRs never died and I since have acquired a Yashica TL Electro-X, a replacement AL-1 (using the Yashica made me pick up the AL-1 again but it had exposure issues), and a Canon A-1 (needs some fresh lubrication - took it out in the winter and the shutter slowed way down!). I also have the chance to pick up some model of Iloca Rapid. At this point, with the A-1 being a major want for a long time (again for sentimental reasons) the ownership itch has been scratched and I do not really intend to purchase the camera of my youth; being able to identify it and read some blog posts from some Millenial who has recently discovered film and has used that model would be great though. Having had little luck getting my test roll from the A-1 processed locally I decided it would be fun to go back to Tri-X and start developing myself, since nowadays as you say the full darkroom is unnecessary. This is my intention and I've researched but haven't bought anything yet. As for the mystery camera - thanks everyone for your suggestions so far. Thank goodness for butkus.us since every camera manual has an illustration of the light meter, so I've been able to rule out everything so far. Only the Ricoh KR-5 has the right viewfinder view and metal shutter. The controls on top look familiar enough.Those details and the presence of a self-timer lever, are the ones I'm most certain of. So if no other contenders turn up, I'm willing to believe the KR-5, that it was actually new at the time and that I'm wrong about the discrepancies.

If I could remember the brand then it would be a much simpler exercise! Fujica seemed familar but the viewfinder views of every model I can find don't match up. The Ricoh KR-5 and CR-5 have the needles I remember - they're on the right, which could be correct. They have metal shutters. The KR-5 comes in the right color scheme, but I can't tell about the CR-5. I'm not sold though, since the KR-5 only came out in 1978 or 1979, so it would have been brand new. And in some way it seems that the battery was installed on the back near the viewfinder, not on the bottom. My other doubt is the lens mount. I seem to remember either a screw-down ring or screwing in the lens. When I got my Canon AL-1 a few years later I noticed how different the lens mounting was. But the mounting on the KR-5 seems to work the same way as the later Canon FD lenses, so it seems I shouldn't have felt it unfamiliar.

In all my searching, this is also the only one I've found with a circle and no numerical scale, which is why I was hoping it would be a somewhat identifiable feature that is just really hard to search for but someone who'se used one would know. I do know it wasn't a Canon.

This may be a weird question here, or it may be more common than I thought, but here goes... In 5th grade, my science teacher had a darkroom and for those of us interested, we could borrow a 35mm SLR camera overnight and get all the free Tri-X (rolled off a big reel) and paper we wanted, developed and printed ourselves.It was a great intro to photography for me and now in the days of ebay I have found myself interested in getting one of those cameras again to re-live that part of my childhood. The problem is, I don't remember what camera that was. Until recently I would have said it was a Pentax K1000, but too much of its details do not match what I seem to remember. I've googled and googled and not found anything that quite fits, so I'm hoping someone here recognizes some of the more significant details that seem likely to me to be accurately remembered. First of all this would have been somewhere between 1977 and 1979, in the US (though it could have been an overseas model the teacher brought back). I wouldn't expect to loan 5th graders a particularly expensive or new camera. It was the classic silver and black design. Manual only, with a match-needle exposure meter. I seem to remember the needles being on the left (though this is a point I could be mis-remembering) of the viewfinder, with one straight (reflecting the light meter, that would move as the light changed) and one with a circle on the end (that would move as you adjusted the aperture). There were no numeric labels or LEDs in the viewfinder. I remember it had a metal shutter (I was worried I'd messed it up at one point). And that's about it for details. If anyone has any recollection of those specific features I'd appreciate some pointers - I can go look up manuals and see how familiar things look.

<p>Aha - progress!</p> <p>Thanks to your confirmations about how the mechanism works, I had the idea to slide something under the carrier to see if I could feel anything in the way. I found a narrow, rigid, flat piece of plastic slightly thicker than a credit card (actually the handle of an Easter egg coloring dipper!) and slid it underneath This was apparently just thick enough to reduce the friction holding the carrier because I was able to pull it out further. I can see paint scraped off the hinge below so I guess that was rubbing - probably due to some incorrect folding in the past.</p> <p>At this point I have only pulled out about 3 folds of the bellows. So far they appear to be in good shape. There is now a good amount of force coming from the bellows and I don't want to damage them. I tried using the focusing screw to slowly ease the standard forward a little at a time but I wonder if I should be taking any specific precautions.</p>

<p>I don't know if this is the exact same model but it looks identical:</p> <p><a href="/classic-cameras-forum/link%20with%20pics">http://www.ken.lyndrup.dk/Engelsk/Kodak/No%201%20Pocket%20Kodak%20Camera%20E.htm</a></p> <p>I don't think it's the bellows itself - it really feels like the carrier is catching on the track on the left side. </p> <p>The only latch appears to be on the right side, and you can see in the second picture where it goes into a groove in the distance scale to hold the bellows open. But it does not engage with anything with the bellows closed. </p> <p>if I look underneath the carrier I can see two stops that prevent it from being pushed back too far but I can't see behind them. Maybe I need a dentist's mirror :-)</p>

<p>I inherited a pretty cool No. 1 Pocket Kodak, and while it's neat to look at, it would be fun to use. But I'm having some trouble and hopefully someone here has some hints.<br> <br />The first problem is that I can't pull out the bellows. The focus thumbscrew works to extend the bottom tray, but it seems that the little trolley thing is catching on the slide on the left side (as you look at it from the front) and while it will slide back and forth a little, it won't come forward past what seems like where the hinge meets the back of the slide. It's almost like something is misaligned but I can't see what. I've used as much WD-40 as I dared (don't want to get any on the bellows) - is there something spring-loaded in there that I need to get freed up?<br> I saw on this forum a hint about disengaging the side brackets so the front will open a little further, but my model does not allow for that. Any other hints? Pretty sure none of these models have a latch holding the bellows in a closed position, only to hold it fully extended. <br> Of course, this may all be pointless because I'm not sure the shutter mechanism is functional. I'm not sure how it's supposed to work but I'm not seeing the shutter open at all (I can see it shift slightly if I look from the back). Starting with the handle fully 'up' (the end at about the 10:00 position) if I push it down, it clicks at about the 9:00 position, but I don't see the shutter open - and then it doesn't spring all the way back up when I let go.</p>