What to do with a Polaroid/Tektronix scope camera?

Hey everybody,

 

I just picked up a surplus Tektronix C-53 Oscilloscope camera (like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/TEKTRONIX-C-53-OSCILLOSCOPE-CAMERA-FILM-BACK-FINECOND_W0QQitemZ330034591960QQcmdZViewItem)

and wondered if anyone had done any mods on such a beast.

 

I got it for about the price of a pack of 667 film, so I am open to modifying it.

 

Any fun ideas?

 

Thanks.

 

Nemo

The focus range is limited. The film is inordinately expensive and of little use compared to today's ordinary cameras (film or digital). So, break it down into little tiny pieces for later consideration. Keep the shutter (it has a very limited range), and put it all into a big box to consider later.

I would rip that lens out, mount it inside an empty roll of toilet paper, and shoot macro with

it.

Scopes rock! You hardly see them anymore.

 

I ripped the back out, shimmed it to match the top edge to film distance of a 4x5 back and jammed it in my wife's calumet. Some iteration and tooling may give you a decent polo back.

 

If you make cutouts in the hood to admit light, you could shoot macro or repro with it.

Here I use my Polaroid/Tektronix scope camera to shoot images off my O'scopes or spectrum analyzer. I bought the camera with fill flash in the early 1980's brand new. One is shooting a bluish image at macro distances, where the lenses are corrected for. The aperture of some scope camera is adjustable, often the diaphram has a truncated range compared to a regular camera. The rollers are often gummed up on a used/surplus camera.

Schmutz can be cleaned off of the rollers with a q-tip and rubbing alcohol.

Please do not junk the camera particularly the adapter that fits the oscilloscope bezel. It is the hinged piece at the front of the camera. Yours is likely a 016-0249-XX to fit a 7000 series Tektronix. We, oscilloscope users, buy low priced cameras at amateur radio swap meets but finding an adapter to fit a particular oscilloscope is hard. They get lost.

In my case, I want adapters for either of 2 different cameras. I could make a substitute but prefer restoration.

 

Camera type C30 series (my 30A, 30B)

Adapter 016 ? 0243 - xx fits 500 series scopes ie old 5 inch round face Tektronix scopes with a bolt in each corner of square bezel

 

or

 

Camera C27, C50 series (my C59)

Adapter 016 - 0225 - xx fits 500 series.

Last 2 digits of part numbers vary.

 

Part Nos are from Tektronix Catalogs on BAMA site "bama.edebris.com/manuals". The 1985 catalog pages 418 to 428 may be the most interesting to a camera enthusiast, or the student you give your camera to.

Hey guys or gals, I got a good deal on a c-30 tektronix scope camera last year on ebay. I bought it with the intention to try a pinhole hack/conversion like another fellow did. I can't remember what film he adapted to. Darn. The pinhole part is easy if you follow his plans. The challange is finding or converting the back to take polaroid that is on the market today. Should be fun. Any thoughts from you Analog fans would be welcome.

Cheers,

Joe

<p>I also just bought a C-53 off ebay for $25 (and +$25 for shipping unfortunately), mostly just to make a pinhole out of it for use with the fortunately still ubiquitous Fuji FP-100C film, but it occurred to me that maybe I could mangle it into doing some fancier things such as increasing the focus distance at least enough to get head shots, or something.</p>

<p>I find practically NO information on this camera on the net anywhere, so I'm not totally sure what can be done with it and I haven't received it yet to be able to look at it. (For the price though if the box has no light leaks and the film back works then it's worth the price to me just for those things.)</p>

<p>I'm probably several times more likely to get hit by lighting than ever hook this thing to an o-scope, so if anyone needs some sort of mounting bracket off of it then let me know and I'll see what sort it is.</p>

<p>Anyway, if anyone has any ideas on what I might be able to do to make it more general-purpose or anything (aside from just pinhole converting it) please let me know.</p>