John Farrell

As far as I know, Arista films are repackaged Fomapan. The Massive dev chart has times for Fomapan 100 and Ilfotech DDX.

My first camera was an Isomat Rapid, more than 50 years ago. The receiver cassette does have a stub of film protruding after the roll is finished. I used to load my own cassettes, from 36 exposure standard cassettes.

Hi there Adrian - can't help with Foca, unfortunately...I've never seen one. They may not have made it to this part of the world.

The problem with oil is that it will migrate into the diaphragm blades. These should be dry - oil will stick them. Diaphragm rings can be lightly greased - but over time the oil component of the grease can migrate onto the blades...

If you go to the bottom of the site page, and select "Theme", you can turn off the side bar.

Words/No words.

As long as the 35mm lens is rangefinder coupled, the rangefinder will show correct focus. What you may need is an accessory viewfinder (which fits on the accessory shoe) to show the field of view of the 35mm lens.

Some sort of pub quiz, is it?

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It's good to see a thread about Prakticas resurrected...my only camera for many years was a Praktica LLC, which I bought new in 1973. The meter died after a few years, but I just used a handheld meter. I haven't used the LLC in the last few years, but it still works fine. I have, though, aquired another dozen or so L series Prakticas, of different models. Some, I have repaired. Two of the cameras had shutter cocking problems - one caused by battery leakage, and the other being worn out. Another had a shutter problem caused by grease on the mechanism; I cleaned the parts, and fixed it. There are some odd ideas about Praktica L cameras out there. One "critic" was complaining about plastic gears...I don't know where he found them, the only plastic gears I've found in these cameras are in the meter mechanism.

Zenit 3m - I traded it for a Praktica LLC in 1973. There is nothing wrong with the Praktica, and I have since bought another 3m, but it's not quite the same...

I currently have a monochrome film in a Contaflex 1 - I'd be interested to see what AI could do with that...

It looks like guests are posting spam as pictures.

I report them, too...but the tool is too slow for the blitz spammers. We need either a moderator on duty, or an expansion of the tools we can use.

It looks like the spammers don't work on Sunday.

Years ago, Photo-net had a spam problem like the current one. One evening, I opened a spammer's profile, to report them, and found I had a tab with moderator's tools - I could delete the spam and ban the spammer. I live in hope that something like this will appear here...

Is it possible to turn off the ability for new accounts to be made for a time period? The vulnerable time appears to be from around 0500 GMT for 6 or 7 hours.

You will need two special screwdrivers if you choose to work on your camera - to fit the wind lever and shutter speed dial screws. I modified two bits from a screwdriver set, when I replaced a shutter curtain on a IIb (I followed Rick Oleson's instructions).

The pin you can see by the yellow wire in your picture has to travel to the top of the groove, push the "scrap of metal", which is a hook, out of the way, and get past it so that the hook can engage the pin. I have included two pictures to show this. Any Praktica L series shutter will fit your camera - it may be better to transplant a working shutter into it.

KW made a number of coloured models in the early years of WWII, but none appear to be "gold" or snakeskin covered. The model can be identified from variations in the text of the name, leatherette colour, style of knobs...you can check the models here http://www.praktica-collector.de/Praktiflex_1.Gen.htm There are 3 basic types of Praktiflex - the first, with release button on the top, the second, with release button on the front, and the third, which is a renamed Praktica FX. The link is for the first type. The same website also covers the other two types.

Before lubricating, clean out the old lubrication. The proper way is to dismantle the shutter, so that the shafts and their bearings can be cleaned. I have cleaned the pivots by brushing them with an artists brush dipped in solvent, while the shutter is still in the camera. I use butane (lighter fluid or camp stove fuel) for this.

I've just had a 100 foot roll of Arista Edu Ultra 100 posted to me in New Zealand by B&H. I bulk load film, process it myself and scan the negatives (on a Canoscan 8800f). This is the most economical way to use film.

It depends on the circumstances - for stopping action, you need a fast shutter speed, which usually needs a wider aperture. Modern cameras have selectable modes, suited to different circumstances, which your manual will explain. Only if you use a manual setting, or a basic film camera, will you have to set shutter speeds and apertures yourself.

Thanks for the help - I can now get onto the new site. One small thing - the "home" location in the attached picture takes you to the "browse" tab.