cameracravings

Greetings. My 5-year-old Canon EF L USM 24-125mm f/4 II has loose front element -- it has has a lot of play. I am wondering if anybody repaired this lens before and can give me an advice. So I thought some screws must be loose inside, i thought if I opened the lens and tightened the screws the wobbliness of front element wod go away. So I did -- stripped the lens down to telwcsopic barrell and found all screws to be tight. I am thinking now that maybe the 3 guides for zoom barrel P/N - YF2-2027-000 are worn out causing front elelement loose? I am trying to figure out that this might be the case before buying these guides at $12 apiece on ebay. Any suggestions will be most welcomed!

My Pentax Spotmatic with Super-Multicoated Takumar 50 1.4 and 2 filters attached ND4 + Circular Polarizer produced this strange light leak 2 times in a single roll and I was wondering about the reason for this. Did anybody seen a leak like this? Maybe this is mirror doing something? Thanks!

Hi Dave, I completely tore down my Spotmatic, took out curtains, cleaned and re-lubed drum shafts, pinion shafts, cleaned all mechanisms, mirror cage and re-lubed everything that needs to be lubed. I agree with you, I have seen it, when there is grease on selector gears or on curtain pinions the same shutter speed would be all over the place.

Answering my own question it seems this is shutter capping the slit is closed or too narrow when the curtains start to travel and then widens.

Hi need some help. Has anybody seen on Spotmatic, SPII or SP F a straight or a diagonal underexposed band running by the edge of the negative that is on the side of speed selector (where curtains begin to travel)? This only happens at 1/1000. Please check my photos attached. Apart from that one underexposed band the rest of the negative exposed evenly. I am wondering what may this be? It is clear that one of the curtains does something at the beginning of its travel. I recently overhauled this Spotmatic and I deliberately overlapped curtains bymore than 1 bar (let's say 1 and a half bar) in an attempt to get fastest shutter speeds p erform closer to spec. Thanks for all suggestions! Alex

I just looked at K1000 on ebay. Pentax K1000 SLR Camera w/ Pentax-M 50mm f/2 Lens 27075045002 | eBay Rewind knob, shutter speed dial and the cover for frame counter look identical to Spotmatic. Even though advance crank looks different I bet it would mount just the same on Spotmatic

It looks like the leak comes from emulsion side, thus from the front. Check the foam light seal on the bottom edge of the front plate located below lens mount. Also check aroumd viewfinder. Maybe light leak is making its way from around viewfinder down through speed selection mechanism?

As far as meter concerned on k1000 2 things may go bad there. Ammeter -- moving needle in the viewfinder. I have seen these fail a lot and the only way to replace them is from a donor camera. I believe if you can get a Spotmatic F body with working ammeter cheap, you have the part to repair yours. Second part that could fail and I've seen this a lot, is one of the CdS photo resistors. These are much easier to harvest than the ammeter. So I am hoping you don't have to replace the ammeter. Also a wire may broke off somewhere.

Not sure 100% it will, but K1000 is basically Spotmatic F with K buonet. I saw service manual for k1000 once, so all mechanical repairs were described based on Spotmatic

Hi Rick_van_Nooij and @hunter_compton and John Seaman shot test roll today. I must say it produces rather flat images compared to Carl Zeiss optics on Hasselblad, but I am very happy I was able to turn a piece of junk into fully functional apparatus. And it does function pretty well including range finder! Thanks again for your input!

Thank you Rick, first roll of film is developing now. Looking at the pages I see I will have to open range finder again and re-adjust it because one of the halves is out of focus and also part of the split image is missing. Thanks again great help! Alecs

Thanks Hunter! I just calibrated the rangefinder. Everything checks up at 15ft, 10ft, 5ft and infinity. The screw you described actually has to do with adjusting the distance dial itself. It does not calibrate the split field (or maybe it does a little). Cam follower as seen in the photo below with adjustment screw in it calibrates the rangefinder itself. So thanks again! I am off to respooling 120 film!

Thanks John, I appreciate your input. Will leave my Metalist as is. I actually prefer yarn over foam because over time foam will become either sticky or dry stiff. Thanks again!

Greetings! I noticed that my Medalist II does not have any leftovers of lights seals around the rear door. Does the camera need light seals or should I leave it be? Thanks

I just bought Medalist II, and I am currently overhauling it. Shutter blades were sticky so I had to tear down the shutter to clean it up. Then lubed and re-assembled. 1/400 sec works as 1/250 and for some reason 1/100sec fires as 1/150 other than that shutter works well. The only problem left is rangefinder is off. I am trying to figure out how to adjust it. Looking forward to put a roll of film into my Medalist.