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ruining a classic?


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These posts from page 323 deserve resurrection.

 

The somewat"timeless" question is whether a collector or user should modify venerable equipment in order to keep it operational.

 

If a user, it is absolutely necessary (although in the case referred to above, a Japanese shop (kanto?) provides a ready- made insertion solving the voltage problem ) and camras like the Alpas and the earlier Praktica meters have a bridge circuit that is not fussy about voltages. But for any camera, nin use, issues with gears , springs, expired light sensors and lubrication can easily require repairs.

 

A collector merely interested in monetary gain will have to pander to current fashions, but I doubt that a triotar with stuck aperture and helix will fetch more than one serviced by Adrea Schønfelder in Görlitz.

 

Collectors motivated by interest in technology history and aesthetics will realize that users of are part of the history of cameras. this is why documented provenance sometimes lifts prices in auctions. Ordinary maintenance and necessary modifications to maintain usability documents both the history of the device as well as its contemporary use and both are absolutely worthy of preservation-

 

An example from classical cars; valve seats tended to get destroyed when Lead in petrol was replaced by less damaging substances. Many engines were modified with hardened valve seats- Besides being invisible i doubt that this subtracts from the vehicles collectability.

 

A current parallell to the need for battery replacement; One is avoiding GL5 spec. gear oil which will destroy some gearbox parts another is the ethanol additions to petrol which in the longer term tends to destroy some fuel system tubing and membranes, so using GL4 and filling up with alkylate or non-mixed "super" can be used as an alternative.These substitutions although they form part of car history. do not make an indelible mark that can be detected in the future, but still deserve to be noted. in the log of the collector-.

 

p.

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  • 2 weeks later...

No cameras that I have, I consider valuable enough to worry about this.

 

In most I put alkaline cells, and find the results close enough.

If not (and I have reversal film) I will use an external meter.

 

As well as I know, some put a Schottky diode in series, which drops about 0.2V

at the low current for most meters. (More at higher current.)

 

In others, a calibration resistor is reset to the new value.

 

I sometimes watch Antiques Roadshow where the question of restoration

(rarely of cameras) on the potential auction price comes up. As well as I

remember, the results go both ways. In some cases, the additional usability

more than makes up for the lack of historical accuracy.

 

A more common question is restoring of old paintings. It is possible to restore

to the look that they would have had originally. It is also possible to restore

to a likely appropriately aged but not otherwise damaged look.

 

As long as no parts were removed or destroyed, I think I wouldn't worry about it.

Someone can reverse the changes later.

-- glen

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Theseus ship, and all that?

 

It eventually boils down to how uniquely preservable a camera is. Would it be bad if it were no more?

And if so, why and for whom?

 

Classic does not equal unique and irreplaceable. Most people would agree that it is not a good idea to alter something that is valued and appreciated for what it is, and unique.

Is your camera that?

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I suppose the typical "improvement" of a classic camera would be fitting a flash terminal. It's not so bad on, say, a larger thing like a Rolleiflex, I would guess that the improved functionality of a still very usable camera would probably cancel out any loss of collectable value. Not so on the Leica, I've seen plenty of these with often very awkwardly placed and conspicuous flash sockets.

 

I've improved a couple of TLR's. My very early Yashicamat, which has a 75mm Lumaxar lens, used to flare very badly until I added light baffles to the body. It's collectable value was already reduced however, as a previous owner had, for some reason, replaced the original viewing hood with one from a Rolleicord. And I gave an MPP Microcord a much brighter focusing screen, taken from a scrap Chinese TLR, making it much nicer to use.

Edited by John Seaman
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Theseus ship, and all that?

 

It eventually boils down to how uniquely preservable a camera is. Would it be bad if it were no more?

And if so, why and for whom?

 

Classic does not equal unique and irreplaceable. Most people would agree that it is not a good idea to alter something that is valued and appreciated for what it is, and unique.

Is your camera that?

 

Yes.

 

That mostly applies to art and similar collectibles.

 

So many cameras are not rare, though.

 

If you replace the cloth shutters in an old Leica, do you have to use old cloth?

(With oxidized rubber coating?)

  • Like 1

-- glen

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And i think it is also about need.

When, say, in need of a, let us call it, fountain, you might happen to remember that Marcel Duchamp put one in a museum, and want to use that. But with so many others available that do the job just as well, or even better, why would you go for the museum piece?

 

Adding flash terminals to cameras from before the flash era raises the question why, if you need to use flash, you do not just use one of the millions of cameras that already have such a thing.

 

The joy of using classic cameras is not in taking pictures. You could do that better and easier using one the very many other cameras. It is using a thing for what it is: something not just like those milions of other cameras.

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  • 4 weeks later...
<p>I am eagerly awaiting the completion of a CLA on a LN Canon F-1n that I bought from my trusted camera repairman. I have held it on the day I bought it but it went directly into the CLA process. He called me today to say it would be ready next week, but he wanted me to verify that I really wanted it to be modified to take the silver 1.5v battery. He explained that to some collectors, it would de-value the camera, a fact I was aware of thanks to being a devotee of this forum.</p>

<p>I told him to proceed with the mod. He had previously done so on my Canon Ftb and Nikon FTn, both black and beautiful. And I wil have my Canon F-1 (original) so modded when it is ready for a CLA. I have never sold a camera. I have given many away.</p>

<p>I would be interested in surveying your opinions on this. I know one can use zinc air batteries as a substitute for mercury, and I have several of the ridiculously overpriced C.R.I.S. adaptors that work very well, but being able to use silver cells is so convenient. I am an ardent environmentalist, having been born and raised in the city that was the home of the Love Canal. Niagara Falls was the birthplace of the electro chemical industry and during WW2 and for several decades after, over a dozen huge chemical plants were belching dirty smoke into the air. My father came from the coal mines of WV to spend 30 years producing cyanide at Dupont. All that remains are ugly rusted abandoned factories and a city where more than half of the population is on welfare. Niagara Falls Ontario is doing very well thanks to Casinos. But even as an environmentalist, wasn't the ban on mercury batteries for cameras a bit of a stretch?</p>

<p> </p>

 

How much of a modification is this on your camera; what is involved?

 

On some cameras, the Leicaflexes for example, recalibration for silver oxide batteries is just a matter of adjusting two potentiometers in the measuring circuit; nothing is removed or added.

 

A fussy future owner could easily return the potentiometer screws to their original positions were that important to him.

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