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spmc

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  1. Hello- I'm figuring this thing is bricked but I'll put it out there in case someone else has encountered it and knows some trick to resolve. I scored a Canon EOS Rebel S as a package deal with an old Zeiss Ikon medium format folder at swap meet for $30 yesterday. I figured for the combined price, the EOS was at worst a decent brick on a strap for self defense. I got a battery for it and, hurray(!), it worked -- for about an hour... I was going through the users manual, fiddling with the various modes and settings and dry firing the shutter when the mirror hung up halfway through the return stroke. The dead battery symbol was blinking and I could hear the motor trying to move when I pushed the shutter button. With some gentle pressure on the mirror, I could feel it move a little every time the button was pushed until eventually the mirror swung all the way down. The LCD now shows the correct battery level and relevant shutter, aperture and exposure comp scale for the various mode selections. However, now when I engage the shutter button, the mirror flips up and stays there and the dead battery symbol blinks on the LCD. If I push the button again, the motor engages and re-cocks the mirror and the LCD shows the expected info again. I've confirmed that the shutter doesn't actuate during any of this. The the shutter, aperture and exposure comp stuff will appear in the viewfinder unless the flash is flipped up The autofocus no longer works It seems like this is some kind of software glitch. The Rebel only has one motor that drives all of the motor controlled functions sequentially through geared transmissions. It's like the command or signal to fire the shutter never happens so the rest (mirror, re-cock and film advance don't follow. I loaded some film to see if it actually would load, and if it did, maybe that would maybe reset things. The film loaded fine but no change the camera functionality. Anyway, like I said, this thing is probably a brick but I thought I'd ask.
  2. Point Vincente, Palos Verdes, CA -- ANSCO Shure Shot Jr. box
  3. Lots of great things to ponder, friends. Thank you again! I am learning a lot by digging into the manual settings on my TG-4. There is only so much I can do with it's lens but making a decent negative scanning rig with it has taught me a lot. I'm a tinkerer by inclination and education. Old motorcycles, home recording, old manual typewriters, homebrewing, and more recently 3D printing are among the hobbies/obsessions that I have played with over the last 15-20 years. I do enjoy chemistry, process, mechanisms and "obsolete" technology. 35mm SLRs seem to be a "standard" for enthusiasts with common lexicon for requesting advice and receiving feedback, so I figured that would be a logical progression. I am now somewhat thinking that maybe I should keep playing with medium format and look into something a little more aperture and focus options than my box camera as my next step, since I like the pictures I am am getting. Maybe something like the Agfa Isola (Agfa Isola)? Baby steps? This is my current scanning rig, using the Olympus TG-4, an LED light panel, and my custom 3D printed negative holder. I can fully resolve the film grain on HP5+ negatives so not that bad, I think. My aunt says she has an old German enlarger in storage. Now I'm thinking, darkroom?...
  4. Wow! I just got home from work. Firstly, thank you everyone for the many thoughtful (and sometimes quite detailed!) responses. I am so impressed by the expertise and enthusiasm in this community. This thread is a virtual encyclopedia on thoughts and recommendations for a prospective SLR newbie. My experience with photography? 1) Disposable 35mm cameras, 2) Inexpensive point-and-shoot digitals, 3) Cell phone cameras, 4) a very nice Olympus "Tough" TG-4, and 5) an old box... My interest in film, and photography in general, was accidentally awakened when an old (circa 1947) ANSCO Shur Shot Jr. found it's way to my house. It takes 120 medium format film and shoots a massive 6x9cm negative. I dusted everything off, cleaned up the optics, bought some Ilford HP4+ film, and shot a roll. Since I'm a DIYer kind of guy, I also bought a Patterson tank, changing bag, and developing chemicals. I was amazed that I could actually develop film at home and also scanned my negatives with a an improvised rig. With great advice from the digital darkroom forum I got better at scanning and post processing my next roll of film. Anyway, the above experience with the old box camera got me more interested in the technical aspects of photography. The ANSCO box camera has one simple meniscus lens, one aperture and one shutter speed, so very little control of the exposure other than choosing my shots. I had previously been intimidated by the apparent number of variables involved with "serious" cameras (i.e. so many numbers, dials, etc), but having gone down this rabbit hole, I am now interested in learning more. As in, learning more about how to control and compose photographs. My interest in film is somewhat atavistic. I like the history, chemistry, and process of turning light into images on a physical medium (even if I use a computer to process the final image). I think there is something special about the way film looks vs a digital image, but I admit that might just be a temporary fetish... Here are some of the ones I liked from my last roll on the box camera:
  5. I'm not sure whether this belongs in Classic Manual Cameras, Modern Film Cameras, or Beginner questions... I'm looking into purchasing my first SLR film camera. I've done lots of reading here and elsewhere about the many awesome recommended beginner classic manual cameras, e.g. Canon A-1/AE-1, Pentax K1000 or Spotmatic/SP500, Minolta SRT, Olympus OM-1, Vivitar 220/SL, etc. There are many for sale on ebay, KEH, and other places for ok prices, but are in ambiguous condition and untested. Then I see listings for Canon EOS models with a zoom lens (film-tested, with samples), for practically free. So I guess I'm wondering what will I be missing out on if I get an EOS 620, -650, -10S, etc. instead of one of the classic SLR recommendations? Thanks for your thoughts.
  6. Thanks kmac! That was super helpful. Here's my latest of the boats.
  7. Alright. I have spent a good part of my day of messing around with GIMP. I think I'm getting better.
  8. Thank you very much for the encouragement and advice, guys! So much to learn.
  9. Sorry about the upside down post. When I tried to edit to move the pictures to bottom of the post, the spam filter intervened.
  10. Hello- I am pretty much new to to film, and photography in general. My interest was awakened by an old (1947) ANSCO box camera that found it's way into my house. It's pretty much a box with a simple meniscus lens, fixed aperture, mechanical shutter (1 speed), and manual film transport. It shoots 120 film with a massive 6x9cm frame. I've shot a couple roles of Ilford HP-5 Plus and developed the negatives at home. I've spent some time noodling on methods for scanning the negatives. I thought I was doing pretty good with an older but pretty well-spec'd multifunction Epson machine, but kept getting a parallel light-dark banding pattern in the scan direction. I tried all kinds of masking and back lighting variations but couldn't consistently eliminate the pattern. So I changed it up, entirely, to photographing the negatives with an Olympus TG-4 digital camera in the "microscope" mode using an LED tracing pad as a light box and a 3D printed negative holder. I shot the set below with the light box at max brightness and the camera set to it's lowest ISO (100), letting the camera decide the aperture and shutter speed for each shot. I used the stock Windows tools (Paint and Photo) to manipulate the scanned negatives into what looked pretty balanced on my computer screen, however, when I put the put the pictures up on my 50" TV, they look overly bright and a little washed out. Anyway, more experimentation to come, but this is where I am at with my only new gear purchased so far being the light pad
  11. Here's the whole roll with a slightly more sophisticated improvised scanning rig. I double exposed the last frame like a big dumb-dumb, doh... To capture the negatives, I used an iphone as a lightbox, cut out cardboard negative holders, the the cone/film holder from the ANSCO and a 16 MP point and shoot Olympus in close-up mode. These are as developed and photographed the only editing was inverting the negatives, straightening and cropping. Overall I am pretty happy with my first foray into shooting with a 72 year old box and producing real images, all DIY. I've learned a lot and it's awakened a new interest. Thanks again for all of the great advice!
  12. Ok! Yesterday and today I shot my first roll of the HP5 400. I had forgotten to hit "go" on a changing bag order, so I transferred the film to a Patterson reel/tank gizmo in a darkish room after sunset (not a darkroom) with a jury rigged binder-clipped sweatshirt as my dark bag. With some deep breathing and swallowed curses, I managed to get the reel loaded in a reasonable amount of time... I developed the film with the Cinestill DF96 monobath developer/fixer according to the directions and got negatives! Here are some ghetto "prints" that I made while the film was drying . I used one iphone as a backlight and the another to photograph the negative, then used photoshop express on the phone to invert the negative and do basic rotation and cropping -- not other corrections. I am pretty excited about how these are going to look after a proper scan.
  13. Awesome. Thanks all! I ordered a cheap kit of 2, 4, and 8 ND filters to play with.
  14. Thanks so much for the thoughtful replies! Any thoughts towards pulling in development?
  15. Hello- I recently acquired an ANSCO Shur-Shot Jr box camera that my girlfriend brought home from a neighbor. It is really in amazing condition -- no corrosion anywhere and smooth shutter operation. With a little general dusting and polishing the view finder lenses and mirrors, it seems to be in near perfect condition. I've never been into film photography of any kind, other than the once ubiquitous disposable cameras that I would buy for vacations and such. Anyway, this old thing (date stamped Sept '47) awakened an interest in me and I have since gone down the rabbit hole of internet research. After the initial cleaning and basic research about the film format (120 6x9), I ordered a 5-pack of Ilford HP5 plus ISO 400 film. However, after further research, I'm concerned that this film is too fast for this camera in bright daylight. I haven't found consistent values for the (fixed) aperture and shutter speed of the camera in my searches. I'm finding aperture values between f/8 - f/16 (usually f/13) and shutter speeds between 1/40 - 1/60 sec. More reading suggested that the camera was intended to shoot ~100 ISO equivalent. Just looking for some thoughts from more experienced folks. Is the HP5 plus 400 going to get overexposed in sunny conditions? I suppose there will be little lost to try...
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