Why Cameras Break!

In their February 1968 issue Modern Photography talks to some expert repair persons about this subject.

 

 

Break 1 sm 2

Some interesting techniques and results from the photographer Kunie.

 

 

Cko 1 sm 2

Can you live without tilts and swings?

 

 

T&S 1 sm 2

Arthur Kramer writes about buying a larger enlarger.

 

 

KK 1 sm 2

Does Keppler have a grudge against zoom lenses?

 

 

Keppler 1 sm 2

Using lasers in lens testing is discussed in this month's Techniques Tomorrow column.

 

 

 

TT 1 sm 2

Here is this month's Too Hot to Handle column.

 

 

THTH 1 sm 2

Here are this month's Modern Tests.

 

 

MT 1 sm 2

US Camera magazine tests Type B tungsten color slide film.

 

 

Type B Film 1 sm 2

Here is an approach for making color prints from slides.

 

 

Positive Approach 1 sm 2

Ever wonder how they tell a winner at Olympic events? Here is the camera.

 

 

Olympic Camera 1 sm 2

Camera 35 magazine looks at the super duper slide duplicators.

 

 

Super Dupers 1 sm 2

Here they test the Tamron Adapt-A-Matics lenses.

 

 

Tamron Adapt 1 sm 2

Here they show the Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL camera which had both a spot and an average metering system.

 

 

Mamiya 1000 DTL 1 sm 2

Here are this month's camera equipment ads.

 

 

Beseler 1 sm 2

Here are this month's dealer ads.

 

 

Cambridge 1 sm 2

Wow, this one really takes me back. Thanks for doing this.

 

Rick H.

Good article on swings and tilts. I always enjoyed playing around with them on my view cameras. (Can you say Scheimpflug principle?) Today it is a lot easier and perhaps better to correct parallel convergence in Photoshop.

Re Keppler: I have accumulated a lot of old zoom lenses in one way or another, and those that are from 1968 or earlier really required some serious compromises in return for their flexibility.

 

Thanks very much for presenting this series of posts...

Rick - Sometimes these magazines take me back to that time period. It is a strange feeling.

 

James - I have been looking lately at the Canon 24mm T/S lens. Too many other wide angle lenses have excess distortion and vignetting.

 

JDM - I wasn't too impressed with the zooms from this early period. They are too large and have substandard performance. I don't think I bought a zoom lens I was happy with until around 1980.

Marc, this series is my favorite highlight in the forum. Thanks and please keep them coming!

 

The article on why cameras break down is quite interesting for those of us interested in the classics. The Tilt and Swing piece got me dizzy!

 

Keppler and zooms - he was probably right at the time. New zooms came into my affordability range when they were already good enough. But my older zoom, a Nikon 43-86, is the same that Keppler mentions, and I have to agree with him.

 

In the ads and in THTH, fire sale of Exaktas VX IIb. End of an era.

I like that the first part in the camera failure article is the notorious cocking rack from the Kodak/Nagel Retina cameras.

 

Those Tamron Adapt-A-Matic lenses didn't get many lines/mm!

Great look back. Tamron lenses improved over the years and by the time the Adaptamatic mount was replaced by Adaptall, their primes were pretty decent. I actually have one of the later Adaptamatics: the 105mm f2.5.

Thanks for sharing.

Yes, I miss view cameras with all the movements, but there are only so many hours in a day, or a lifetime, it comes to that! Great edition, thanks Marc; Tamron lenses have certainly progressed beyond the old Adaptamatics (of which I have several); I was also intrigued to read that another camera I used to enjoy using, the Mamiya 1000DTL, was considered groundbreaking with its dual spot/averaging meter system. One lives and learns...