neil_grant

Is it possible to get to the helicoid by removing various parts from the rear of the lens? Namely, the helicoid key and the circlip it's screwed to and also the focusing cam cover? If i can see even a small part of the helicoid i think i can oil it or add a little grease. Anyone tried this or can advise? I don't think i have the skills to take the entire lens apart. Thanks,

My exprience of vintage 'Press' lenses is similar to that of D_S. I also recently bought and Mamiya Press lens from Japan - a gorgeous 100mm f/ 2.8 c/w Universal 6x9 camera body. From the start, focusing was rather rough and unplesant to use and then the lens almost seized completely. I encouaged/forced it back to infinity - and then left it like that to contemplate the situation, and check the web for ideas about sorting it out. In the end I was able to re-grease the, almost completely dried out, helicoid 'in situ' - without totally dismantling the lens. I removed the lens's rear baffle plate, revealing the tail end of the helicoid, and then dabbed tiny amounts of 'thin' helicoid grease into it with a fine brush. I left the lens face down for a period of days and then started to gently exercise it - focusing it a little closer and then back to infinity. Now and then i gave it a bit more grease. Eventually, over a period of weeks i was able to get the lens to focus smoothly all the way through it's range from infinity to 1m. I also have a 'Press' 50mm f 6.3 with stiff focusing needing attention - but that should be the subject of another post.

..quicky remove staff from dome+warm it up a bit

30mm

another one with 30mm.

taken with XPAN + 135mm Nikkor f/3.5

I believe there were plans for a 135mm XPAN lens, but unfortunately it never materialised. I've used a Nikon lens instead via a dumb adaptor. Doesn't quite cover the full frame. Useful in some situations though.

..i think you need to pick your compositions quite carefully to make the most of the 30mm lens's superwide fov. The centre filter can cause lens flares and also absorbs 1 1/2 stops of light.

"studio flash with lens stopped down" Older studio flashes had a limited range of power outputs. Getting low power output from from otherwise powerful units could be a problem. That's not really an issue with modern types. Just turn the power down.

I know waist level finders have a magnifying loupe to view the image on Mamiya TLRs but I was wondering if anyone knows if the eye level viewer would also magnify the image. Thanks. ... ...the image from the pentaprism is slightly smaller than when using the WLF and flip-up magnifier. The pentaprism is very heavy and impairs the camera's balance. For hand-held work you will appreciate using a side-grip. The porrofinder is much lighter than the prism. The image is smaller and dimmer. The camera's balance is less disturbed than when using a prism, though a side-grip will still be useful.

the focus lock on the most recent C 330 TLR's does have a use - but perhaps not in the way you have imagined. The lens pairs tend not to 'rack out' under the influence of gravity (even with big lenses attached), but they can do just the opposite! They can 'rack-in' from a highly extended bellows. You need to remember that there is in fact an inner bellows with the C TLR, and both 'inner' and 'outer' bellows have a preferred resting dimension. In practice, when you have two bellows very extended - 'they just want to go in a bit'.

...happy ending. The kipon mount has an 'internal', bright-chromed, release tab, not an external one like you might find on an extension tube. It's close to the lens's electrical contacts. The tab needs to depressed towards the front of the lens until a neighbouring chrome pin 'pops' up. Then the mount can be twisted off. Never seen a mechanism like it before.

..I cannot release the adaptor from the lens. The adaptor is fitted correctly to a G-series lens and the aperture control links up correctly with the iris mechanism in the lens. Has anyone tried one of these and can suggest where I'm going wrong? thanks if you can help.

...this very thing happened with one of my C 330 lenses today (65mm). I noticed when the bulb setting allowed the shutter to close prematurely. Testing with the lens off- body, showed a 'delayed action' effect at all speeds with the shutter only firing a few seconds after triggering. I swapped the lens for a functional 80mm to take the photo, then started to contemplate my options with the 'faulty' 65mm. It seemed fine a few months before. Careful inspection revealed that the x/m synchro had indeed slipped off x. Returning it fully to x, and the shutter was working again! Quite a relief. These cameras really do have bits sticking out all over the place. The flash synch must have been disturbed by accident, and the x/m lever is small and almost unnoticeable, tucked away on the side of the lens.