martinjones

I remember buying 2 or 3 of these pre-cut films around '74-'75. Can't remember what brands - Agfa or Ilford probably. Would have loaded them into Ilford or Agfa cassettes. They came wrapped in thick paper/foil and packed into regular boxes per normal 35mm film. It was a budget option but I can't recall how much the savings were. Probably more trouble that it was worth. It was another 5-6 years before I bought a proper bulk loader and my first 100 feet of Tri-X for around $NZ15.00.

Hi Niels, at the beginning of this year I had a big clearout and sell off of my remaining darkroom gear used for wet printing. (I still keep plenty of tanks etc for film developing and then I scan my negs.) Anyway, I had 2 Patterson Micro Focus Finders. The earliest one which I bought new while in high school in 1974 was the brownish/grey and yellow version. The grey and white version I think I was given in the late '80s.

@NHSN, thanks for the tips on resealing the 500G. I'm away from home at the moment, (Sydney Aust based but 950km away in the Scenic Rim area of SE Queensland). From memory I was able to wind on the shutter and at that point the shutter wouldn't fire and, of course, I couldn't wind on again. The wind on mechanism would appear to be ready to fire the shutter but unless the shutter is fired the wind on remains locked up. I'll go further into it when I return home. Most of my camera repair experiences to date have just involved disassembly of lenses to clean and replacing light seals, with a lot of success. I haven't yet delved into the mechanical components of any camera. Would like to get it going again as it's had very little use. Will report back in a couple of weeks.

I bought a 500G as a birthday present for my brother in 1979. I think he shot a maximum of 3 rolls of film over the next 10-15 years. He gave the camera back to me about 15 years ago when he discovered digital PS cameras which suited his use case much better. I dug out the 500G during a Covid lockdown to discover that the foam seals had degraded and the shutter wouldn't fire. (The battery had been removed many years ago thus no issues with leaking battery). Time to dig it out again and attempt a resuscitation. From what I have read, 1mm foam is required. The unresponsive shutter could be a bit of a worry. If I get it sealed up and firing again I'll initially try zinc-air hearing aid batteries for the meter.

Whilst the FD, (breechlock), mount was introduced in 1971 the Canon AE-1 was released in 1976. The Canon AE-1 'ate the lunch' of the Canon EF, produced from 1973 to approx 1977. I have both the EF and AE-1, (in addition not to mention A-1, F1-N and T90). All working well so far. When I purchased an AE-1 as Christmas present to self in1978 it was supplied with FD 50mm f1.8, not the later FDn bayonet mount. I think that the FDn mount was available when the A-1 was released in 1978. Maybe the dealer that sold me my AE-1 thought he was getting rid of old stock when he supplied me with a breechlock mount lens. I have a collection of breechlock and bayonet style lenses for my Canons and have no difficulty using any of them.

I think that it is actually a schottky diode. I have instructions somewhere on how to build one of these adapters using a dead mercury cell as a starting point. Lots of steps including deconstructing the original cell and then fitting the diode inside the perimeter of the empty cell casing etc etc. The $40 for a commercially made adapter would be money well spent.

I have a Sekonic L8 Director, tiny selenium meter from around 1960 which is accurate enough in brighter conditions. Also a Euromaster which is much more sensitive and agrees with my Gossen Profisix to within a half stop over a wide range. Which one is correct? At the end of the day my Profisix is not getting any younger so I may as well use it when a separate meter is called for. I also have the 7.5 / 15 degree Tele attachment and the very bulky Profispot 1 degree attachment for the Gossen so this gear gets the nod if required.

What a cracking performance from an off brand lens of that period. A real sleeper of a lens that was probably under appreciated. During that period I couldn't afford manufacturers lenses, (Canon in my case), and I could only aspire to the likes of Tamron, Vivitar and Tokina. I would probably have turned my nose up at Sun, Soligor, Hanimex and a raft of the more pedestrian brands. A great performance in the hands of a careful and expert user like yourself. The Fujica ST605N is also a nice user with it's silicon photocell metering and being able to use current 1.5V cells. I've gone cheap and power mine with alkaline A76 cells. The meter switch / stop down button on the front of the camera is also quick to use and much nicer than the sliding switch used on the Spotmatic. Then again the ST605N definitely sounds a bit agricultural compared the the Spotmatic and I think the build quality of the Pentax is higher. I like using them both for different reasons but as it is time to cull the herd they will both be going down the road once I have shot a final test roll through them both.

Yaaay! Success!! I went out and managed to buy two silver oxide 357 batteries, not bad considering it's Boxing Day. Some of the slow speeds were a bit baulky and I fixed this by rotating the shutter speed dial back and forth a few times. All slow speeds good now. At its last service, about 10 years ago the technician noted that he had applied an anti-corrosive compound to all of the contacts in the camera. Perhaps this needed to be 'wiped' off a little from the contacts for the slow shutter speeds. At this point I don't really know if the new batteries or the exercising of the shutter speed dial corrected the problem. Not going to swap out the 357's for the alkaline A76 cells - if it's not broke, don't fix it.

I received my EF with the battery compartments modified by fitting a coiled spring around the internal circumference per picture below. This centres the SR44 / AG13 / 357 sized batteries in the chamber. My camera tech, (now sadly retired), thought this a very good mod. I currently have alkaline A76 batteries fitted which may be on their last legs as the metering is still fine but the slow shutter speeds which are electronically controlled are not working. If I try to shoot below 1/2 second the first curtain opens but the shutter does not close until I move the shutter speed dial to a faster speed than 1/2 second. Hopefully new silver oxide cells will fix this otherwise I'll have to find a repairer in Oz that can handle this and they appear to be disappearing fast.

Hi Rick, a quick question about 'deep cleaning' in an ultrasonic cleaner. I have a few camera pieces which could probably do with a few minutes in the cleaner but what what solution / solvent to use. I am wary of using water as the pieces may be hard to dry off with subsequent risk of corrosion. Or perhaps a water based cleaning solution and then rinse off in alcohol / methylated spirits to allow for quicker air drying? Any recommendations? Thanks, Martin

Bamboo skewers make good 'chisels' when trimmed down. A tip for softening the old seals before scraping them out is to get strips of facial tissue and twist them into thin ropes which can then be pressed down into the door channels and then drip your solvent of choice onto the tissue. This prevents solvent from flowing all over the place and the tissue wicks the solvent onto the rotted seals. May have to apply solvent several times to the tissue rope and tamp the rope down with your bamboo chisel. When the tissue is removed the old seal should scrape out easily. Finish off with cotton buds or bits of tissue on cocktail sticks. I have used both isopropyl alcohol and naptha successfully. Think I prefer Isopropyl.

Thanks for the advice, John and Dennis. I haven't had a really close look at it yet as it's sitting in a locker in my garage. A cleanup and minimal lubrication is the way to go then. I was hoping that it may be practicable to disassemble the ball for thorough cleanup but I'll take John's advice on cleaning this. Just have to clear a bit of space now as this is a seriously large tripod.

Most dangerous of all is the multi-strand 'stainless' cable sold cheaply in the big box hardware stores. A friend bought some and after cutting to length and swaging eyelets onto it left it outside for a couple of months. Corrosion was obvious and he returned it and managed to get a refund as it was not fit for purpose. Just as well he didn't use it on his boat in a salt water environment. We reckon that this steel cable is only plated but with what we don't know.

Hi Rick, I bought my T90 / 300TL combo from Hutt Camera Services in Lambton Quay, Wellington in March 1987. A few months later they had the new EOS 620 and 650 in stock. I was miffed at the time but I got over it. Never did get around to buying an EOS film camera. Coming from other A series Canon bodies I still mainly shoot in shutter priority mode when using auto exposure. As long as I can see both shutter speed and aperture in the viewfinder I'm happy. I have never used the multi spot facility on the T90. If I'm spot metering I try to meter from a part of the subject that represents a mid tone such as grass or worn tarmac etc. If I can't find a suitable mid tone for spot metering I'll find another tone and adjust the metered results with the Highlight / Shadow buttons. At this point I then move the metering spot over the brightest and darkest areas of the scene to judge the range of tones in the scene. I've never been one to meter from the darkest part of the scene and then close down 2.5 stops or whatever to preserve shadow detail. (Should probably do this sometimes as a 'sanity check' on the exposure. My original thoughts about the multi spot facility is that the averaged results would probably give the same result as a careful single measurement from a mid-tone. Now I'll have to go out and see if this is true or not. The T90 also has a partial, 12%, metering patter which I don't think that I have ever used. (Curiously my F1-N has the non auto metering prism and the 12% partial area screen fitted. I get along fine with it.) That Tamron 35-135 lens looks interesting although at f4.5 it's a bit slow at the long end for my liking. I have the nFD 35-105 f3.5 and it's a good performer and also quite heavy at around 680g. My go to FD lens is the nFD 35-70 f2.8 - 3.5 at about 100g lighter that the FD 35-105. My example is a cracker for sharpness and I haven't noticed any distortion. After nearly 40 years the zoom ring is starting to feel a bit dry and raspy. Suspect that the plastic nubs that track the zoom helical are worn out. Cross fingers for the future as we are running out of repair techs in Australia. FP4(+) has been my preferred medium speed film for ages, (cf Plus-X), but my preferred high speed film was Tri-X rather than Ilford's HPn films. Tabular grain films are a different matter again. For the last few year I've been a bit lazy and everything gets developed in HC-110. I started with HC-110 a few years ago because of it's reputation for long shelf life and supposed reduction of fogging with outdated films, very debatable. I'm just about over it and about to switch to replenished XTOL which is easily available in Oz. I'm also interested in Pyro developers both from the long shelf life and staining properties. They seem to be hard to source in Australia. Do you import yours and if so who ships them internationally?