ian_gordon_bilson

Dark brown (50+ years ,in my case) Rodinal works just fine. As does the Parodinal I mixed some years ago. And it's dark brown too.

Most expert commentary I have seen involving enlarging lenses favors reversing the lens for 1:1 use.

Faststone is surprisingly capable given the price.

The first two inches/ 50 mm of 120 film are mainly image free. Use two fingers to firmly seat the film end, and then gently curve the film as you begin loading. GENTLY, because if you crease the film when loading you will get crease marks on your images.

But, avoid most Weston meters,they are old and tired. The principle remains sound.

The only reading is the correct one. I was trained on 16mm motion picture cameras. We were issued a Weston meter, and told to use the incident method almost exclusively. The point here is : you don't get to bracket exposures. Find a Weston meter instruction book, from, say, series 5 on, online, and absorb it.

If you really have the time "Sekonic versus Gossen meter calibration" is a way to waste half a day. Sorry, but "The man with two watches never knows the correct time" could not be resisted.

Cleaned. The camera lost all shutter speeds before repair.

Feel free to update us if this works. It was itemised in a repair invoice for my FE2 some years ago. Camera still functions as new.

There is a solenoid,or maybe two, hiding under the baseplate which can get gummy . Worth checking.

An excellent summation. If you don't mind , I'll print a few copies to hand out to young hopefuls. Popular cameras in this country seem to be :Olympus XA, Minolta Hi-matic,Canon AE-1,Spotmatics..

The effect of sample variation aside, I was surprised to find a copy of the first AF Nikkor 50/1.8 beat the pants off my 50/2 Ai,at all apertures. But the AF has a slow (sticky diaphragm). Moral : check your lenses for this problem, it could explain exposure anomalies. My 105/2.5 Ai is simply stellar.

unless side contact is required, a rubber O-ring , 7mm internal x 2mm thick works well.