Incongruent Phonon

Nice red! So i have a bulk roll of 8x11(believe it is portra 160 cut) and i’m trying to load some cassettes myself, do you know how should I roll it? I know the fresh film end doesn’t have a spool it just rolls, is there anything that I could use to roll the film on? How many turns should i make for 36 exposures?

Two shots in the club. With the 20 year old 200 speed film, im pretty grateful that i was able to get some shots that at least remotely resemble a club. I know some of us are crazy about sharpness and clarity, if these photos are to be rated for that purpose, they go straight to the trash bin. However I do feel like I have captured some what of a dense moment. The vibe is there. That’s all i got. Have a good one,

A bit blurry because of old film and poor scanning equipment. Still learning to use lightroom/properly mix chemistry as well.

Thank you foe the input. I did not force it at all. Seems like the take up spool just turns the other way. My FM also does that. The crunchy feeling when winding the advance lever almost feels like the spool slipping, just like how it would grind when i turn it the other way at first.

Good evening all. I got a FM2n in really good condition. Except the film advance lever feels a bit crunchy. when not loaded with film. The lever is butter smooth. When loaded with samsung brand 200 iso film, each full stroke has several little stops that I could perceive. it seems to be a bit smoother with kodak gold 200. camera works fine and film spacing is correct. The take up spool turns both ways, one way it clicks, other way it doesn’t, and has more resistance. Is this normal? initially I also noticed the take up spool feels gritty when I turn it opposite to the direction where it clicks. i spun it a bit more and the grittiness went away. However advance lever is still crunchy when using the samsung film. any ideas? i do have a FM body with a smooth take up spool. Are these two compatible between? What kind of screw driver I need? sorry for all the questions. Have a good night!

Absolutely dig this camera. Thanks for viewing.

An arch under an arch. What looms under?

Shot on nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens. Yes. The same one I dug into like a rampaging dog. Turned out it focuses just fine. i am running it without the front ring. So far it didnt explode..

AI taking over many jobs now is just like how combustion engines took over jobs of horses, and humans. Either be the one who drives or the one who gets drove over. AI is great. Frees up huge amount of time and presents concepts in a brink. Saves me hundreds of hours as a painter. Creativity revolution.

”Not even a professional repairer takes a helicoid apart for the fun of it” this is pretty much why i took it apart. Was waiting for my FM2n to complete the set. And i got awfully bored. Normally I have a couple things to do when im bored. But the lens gave me a good reason to mess with it : )

They are honestly not super complicated, from a mechanical standpoint. It’d be great if the manufacturer could simply mark it when the lens was made, would make servicing so much easier.

Thank you for your kind words : D i did see a yellow line painted on the other side of the front element. Figured it must have been trying to tell me something. But i am way too obtuse for the vintage orient riddles!

Popped the lens on a FM body and tested the functions. Seems like everything works and focuses correctly. for the most part. It gets a bit stiff at the very end towards the infinity marker. It seems to pinch the aperture ring as the latter becomes harder to turn when the focus ring is fully to the end. Which is just the minor timing between the threads. I am not fussing about it. Aperture blades move smoothly regardless of position of focus ring. Believe im in the clear here.

I am aware od the JIS drivers. I am also too cheap to invest in a proper set 😞 having done this, im seriously thinking about it. i stopped at the three screws on the rear mount because they wont budge. I did not want to force it. Thats why I had to go through all the trouble and put it back the way it came out, Lucky for me, that actually helped narrow down the range of possible positions. Thanks foe reading and responding!

Replacing the rest of the pieces was a breeze. Although I probably didnt put the front element back the way it originally was. There are nothing mechanical there so I think i should be fine. Right?…. Right?? I kinda want to run the lens just like this, without the cover. Anyone care to tell me if its a bad idea? Other than dust getting in?

This have becomes a rubiks cube! Turn the brass ring, position of the helicoid changes. Turn the helicoid, position of the brass ring changes. There is little space between the helicoid assembly and the base mount. More over, the ‘receptacle’ and the upward tab on the base mount are positioned in an angle that there needs to be spring tension between the downward tab and the window on the aperture blades for the helicoid assembly to properly engage. A rubiks cube. A rubiks cube up in my face, laughing in Japanese. Fortunately i was able to use a little trick to unjam myself. The part that keeps hanging up is the downward tab from the helicoid assembly. It travels with the aperture blades one way but not the other. The aperture setting ring needs both tabs combined to function properly. I simply have no way of controlling where that piece ends up as I retract the helicoid into the lens mount. fortunately! I realized that I could turn the aperture ring to march the position of the receptacle, located on the aperture ring, instead of just hoping that the free floating downward tab would magically mesh. So I thread the helicoid assembly onto the brass ring threaded onto the base mount, turn it so it engages the guide rails, make sure the upward tab from the lens mount goes through the little window, and I turned the aperture ring just a little to match up the position of the downward tab. wallah! It went back in! Took me three tries to finally have the focus ring line up with infinity as the rear element reaches the end. But at last. It worked. I think.

On this picture, you can see a groove that interrupts the threads of the helicoid assembly. There are two of them on each side of the assembly. They are supposed to engage two metal rails on the lens mount. The relationship is as follows: -Helicoid assembly meshes vertically with two fixed guide rails and two moveable tabs on the base mount. -Helicoid assembly also threads into the brass ring that advances it. -The brass ring threads into the base mount. You could probably already see the pickle I got myself into. Once the helicoid assembly meshes with the rails it wont be able to turn at all, only travel vertically as you turn the brass ring, Before it engages the rails the position of the two tabs also need to be perfect. On top of that, the timing of threads on the brass ring, base mount and helicoid assembly has to be just right for me to be able to send the assembly vertically back where it came from, properly engaging all the tabs,

Picture showing the little window where the tab from the base mount is supposed to poke through. The good news is since there are two tabs(that i am supposed to take off before i even screw out the helicoid) to help me locate the position of the threads, the combinations between the thread timing of the helicoid assembly, the brass ring and base mount becomes finite. With a rough idea of where the rear element of the lens should be at furthest focus, there is a small chance that I could get lucky and find that right combo, thus get an useable lens out of this mess. The bad news is the entire ordeal turned out to be extremely difficult.

Now I have two problems. problem A: I have no idea where the threads should start or end. problem B: I can not even take the lens mount apart and try to at least ‘correctly’ assemble it. The three screws on the mount end absolutely will not budge, and I dont wanna force them and risk stripping them, So i budged and I left the lens mount alone. At this point, i could either admit the defeat and send the lens to a repairer, pay about the cost of the lens and hope I will see it again in my lifetime. Or I could try to put it back together the way it came out. upon close inspection, there are two tabs where the helicoid engages the base of the lens. One tab that goes up through a little window on the helicoid assembly, and a clamp that accepts a tab that comes down from the helicoid assembly. they are marked on the picture with red circles.

Following the tutorial, I removed the focus ring which is also held by three screws, onto the brass ring responsible for advancing/retracting the helicoid. As soon as I pulled the thing off thinking huh this is easy, the man in the screen said: you need to mark the position of the focus ring. here comes my downfall. I obviously did not mark the position of the threads, and i was not even sure if I turned the thing all the way to one end. So in a panic I started turning the brass ring, hoping it will reach a stop so I could figure out how the focus ring aligns. jokes on me. If I had turned it towards the infinity end, it would retract and reach the infinity end and stop. BUT I DIDNT. I TURNED IT TOWARDS THE CLOSE END AND THE F******* ENTIRE HELICOID ASSEMBLY POPPED OUT. So i was sitting here, looking at all these peculiar components, pondering how on Gods green earth should I put it back.

Under the front element is the aperture blades and the focus ‘helicoid’. The original plan is to stop right here because i have done limited research before I took the lens apart, and was aware that it is a very delicate piece that needs to be aligned precisely foe the focus to work. At this point i already had access to the other end of the rear element and already have blew the dust off. But i got too confident! Until now it was all very easy, a total of six screws got me to this point and i figured: what could be so hard.

Under the cap with the specs and ‘nikkor’, there is a ring holding the front element down. Three screws and it comes off. No headache. The front element also comes off with three screws. There are some markings around the front element, presumably indicating which way it shall be put back in. I….. i didnt pay attention to them at all.

The reason i took it apart is there are dust under the rear element, and the barrel of the lens seem loose. got the lens from online site. Could have chose to return. Didnt want to abuse the policy because im 80% sure im just being picky about an otherwise mint good condition lens. so how about i take it apart, without even the proper tools, as a complete noob to photo gear servicing and void the return policy completely, risking damage and further cost? sounds like a good plan. I vouch for it. Armed with a disassembly video, a rubber band and a micro Phillips screw driver, I went to town on this thing. first step is the outer ring. Man in the video used a very professional looking rubber ball. I put the rubber band around and it came off nice and easy.