dana pionek

<p>I doubt it would affect the value of the cameras at all (unless the camera is scratched/marred during the modification). <br>

As far as the value of a LHSA m6 ttl is concerned - I have seen them SELLING for between $1400 to $1900 for used models in excellent condition (notice the emphasis on "selling" - you often see them for sale for $2000+ but those rarely sell). As an example, I sold an excellent condition LHSA M6ttl w/ a .58x viewfinder several months ago for $1700 and I was thrilled to get that much (and the .58x is pretty rare). The problem from a collectible standpoint is: 1) they seem to have made a LOT of them, 2)The M6ttl is not a popular model amongst collectors, 3) As far as I know Leica never kept track of serial numbers for this model. So...if you are looking for a big return I wouldn't trip over myself trying to stock up on LHSA M6ttl leicas. On the other hand they are great bargains in the sense that for under $2000 you can buy a factory black paint leica.</p>

<p>I tried to track down that same type of hood several years ago. They are available in Japan only and unless you know somebody living there that would send you one you are pretty much out of luck. If somebody could find a way to reliably import them they could probably make some extra spending cash acting as a "distributor"</p>

In general you can't go wrong with Rikenon lenses - just like any lens company some of their products are great and others are average (haven't heard of any "dogs" though). I have a Rikenon P 50/1.4 that outperformed my Pentax A 50/1.4 (since sold) - I was quite suprised considering that the Pentax is touted as one of the best 50s ever. I have since picked up a Rikenon XR 50/1.4 (the model just prior to the ricoh program lens) - this one is just average....they must have done some tweaking/improvements to the design when the "program" lenses were introduced.

Phil,

 

Here is a dumb question - but please bear with me. What metal tongues/clips did you bend? The two pronged one on the back door? The little semi-circular metal clips with the rollers that run horizontally in the film chamber? Or the little straight metal clips that run vertically in a downward direction in the film chamber(s)? Just want to clear up any confusion before I start bending parts.

 

Thanks

Howdy,

 

I am new to medium format photography - just purchased my first MF camera a

couple of months ago. I ended up going with a Bronica RF645 (overall I love

it). There is only one question/concern I have with it - the film advance

seems to drag/have excess friction midway through the advance stroke. When I

initially load the film and advance it to frame "1" there is no resistance in

the winding mechanism at all. From frame #1 till the end of the roll each

winding stroke has more resistance/friction than I would expect at the end of

the stroke(the first half of each winding stroke is very smooth). If I open

the back of the camera mid roll (and the counter resets) the advance is once

again very smooth until I hit the new "frame #1"). This happens to be the

only RF645 that I have ever used so I don't know if this is how they normally

feel when advancing film (my previous cameras have been exclusively 35mm - all

of them have had smooth advances through the entire winding stroke). I have

heard that the advance mechanism is a weak point in the design of the Bronica

RF645 - so this has me a bit worried. Are there any RF645 owners that can

tell me if this is normal (am I concerned over nothing or do I need to send it

in for a CLA)?

 

Thanks!

I would have to agree with Peter on this one. As much as I would like to see Pentax concentrate on some of the more specialized primes, it makes a lot more sense for them to release a "super" zoom lens. Right now the average first time dslr buyer is looking for a lens similar to this one (I would be willing to bet that for every single 300mm or 200mm prime that is sold a couple of dozen or more of these will be sold). I can understand why a lot of people are frustrated by this move, but without the profit that is generated by selling common-place bread and butter lenses (ie. super-zooms) there wouldn't be money available to develop and produce the more specialized lenses that the advanced users are asking for.

I have a 31/1.8 ltd lens - it has the best manual focus feel of any of the limiteds. It is pretty well damped for an autofocus lens and has a bit of a "gritty" feel when the focus ring is turned - definately not as smooth as a real manual focus lens. Optically the 31mm is a GREAT lens and I suspect that it would outperform any of the older Pentax 28/2 lenses (don't know about the zeiss though). BTW - I will email you the email address of a UK dealer that has a used Pentax K28/2 listed for sale (I am not affilitated with them in any way - just passing on a lead).

Howdy,

 

I have a chance to pick up a used Hexanon 35/2 UC ltm lens for a good price.

Only thing that worries me is that I have heard all the horror stories about

how the konica lenses don't focus correctly on leica cameras (actually I'm

using a canon RF). Is this only an issue with the Konica "M" lenses? I'm

assuming that the Konica 35/2 UC lens was specifically made for use on leica

cameras since the Konica never made a screwmount camera - so focusing accuracy

shouldn't be an issue. Anybody have any 1st hand advice on this lens/issue?

 

Thanks,

Dana

One of the cheapest/best quality lenses below 35 that you are going to find is the Pentax 28/3.5 (supposedly the K version is better than the M version but I couldn't tell any difference between the two when I owned them - they are both fantastic). IMHO easily one of the best bargains in the Pentax realm (expect to pay between $50-$100 dollars for one). When you start getting wider than 28mm the price goes up considerably so if you don't know what focal length you want 28mm would probably be a good place to start.

Update -

 

I tried the eraser - didn't do a whole lot for my camera. Was thinking about the car rubbing compound but was worried about getting a bunch of goop in the shutter. I ended up trying the sandpaper idea (only because I had some 1500 grit wet/dry paper laying around) - It worked really well (I lightly wetted the paper and only took a few light/even laps - just enough to knock off the corroded high spots without doing too much to the base metal). I Put a roll of film through the camera and developed/printed it - focus seems spot on and the negatives had significanly less scratching on them. BTW - the glass "sanding block" really helped as far as controlling how even the sanding strokes are. I tried it without the block first and quickly aborted the mission - there was just too much of a chance of totally rounding out the rails.

Hi,

 

I just happened to pick up a really nice Pentax Spotmatic body for a really

good price. Upon initial inspection the camera seems near flawless except for

one thing - there seems to be some mild corrosion (or maybe gunk buildup from

film emulsion)on the film rails (the pressure plate rails are perfect). I

assume that this is due to storing the camera with film in it. I ran a roll

of film through it and the rails seem to have scratched the film along its

whole length near the sprocket holes. Does anybody have any do-it-yourself

suggestions on dealing with this problem? I have tried acetone on a Q-tip but

didn't get anywhere. My next thought was to cut a piece of glass that would

span the two rails then use some spray-tac to attach a piece of 1500 grit

sandpaper to the glass and use it in a similar fashion as a block sander to

polish the rails. I realize that the tolerances of the film rails to lens

mount distance are very critical and I don't want to ruin the camera by taking

off too much surface (although I seriously doubt 1500 grit is going to take

off that much). Any suggestions/warnings? Should I try the block sanding

idea? Send it to a pro to have the problem fixed? Or should I just live with

some mild scratching on the film near the sprocket holes? Any help is greatly

appreciated.

 

Thanks

It's definately a strange time for buyers of second hand Pentax lenses...a total sellers market (remember when Pentax used to be a "cheap" system to buy into?). People have gone nuts - ebay sellers are asking silly money for lenses (have you ever seen more "rare" lenses in "minty" condition in one place before ;-P) and buyers are lapping it up. Unfortunately normal shops see this and some have started to price Pentax lenses at a premium. Most of it can be chalked up to the K10D and K100D - they brought in a LOT of new Pentax users. Combine the increased user base with the Pentax factory not being able to keep up with demand on new lenses and you have the makings of a feeding frenzy. On the brighter side - hard to find pentax lenses have never been easier to obtain (if you are willing to pay the price). Before ebay you could spend years looking for some of the more exotic pentax glass - now you can find examples of the scarce stuff on Ebay at a pretty steady clip. Personally - I'm going to wait it out and hope that the pentax lens bubble bursts sometime down the road.

If I am traveling and want to do a fair amount of photography I take a Pentax LX, a spare battery, a ton of B+W film, a 1.4x teleconverter, and the following lenses: 30mm/2.8, 50mm/1.4, 105mm/2.8. Mind you, this is a film camera - the DA 21mm limited, the FA35mm/2, and the DA70mm limited would be the closest equivalents on digital.

 

If I am traveling with the intent on having fun and getting a couple of snap-shots to remember the occasion with, I just take a point-n-shoot camera (this is how I travel 75% of the time).

Last time I checked you can order them from the Pentax website (www.pentax.com). They are not cheap "direct from the source" but you will get the real deal.

Ron,

 

It is pretty rare to find a lens of that vintage without any dust inside (I've even gotten NEW lenses from pentax with small amounts of dust inside). Unless it has fungus (which is pretty easy to distinguish from dust)I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Dana

Hello,

 

I would suggest that she picks up a Pentax A 35-105mm f3.5. I am generally not a big fan of zooms, but this one is a dandy. It is built like a tank (very high quality-solid chunk of metal and glass), easy to handle - smooth!, offers a constant aperture across its range, and for an older zoom it offers great picture quality. The only downside it that it is a bit on the heavy side. You shoud be able to pick one of these up on the used market for between $100-$200.

 

Dana Pionek

Thanks for the advice everybody,

 

I was all set to buy that Voigtlander (even phoned in my order at cameraquest) - unfortunately I just learned that the cosina factory just sold out late last week and there are no plans to resume production. Talk about your bad timing!

 

I thought about the tamron, but I already have a macro - my model is great at macro distance, but unspectacular at infinity. I have heard that the tamron is better than infinity than most, but I like more focus control at the longer distances than your average macro lens allows.

 

oh well - looks like I'm going to have to resume the eternal search for the elusive pentax 85/1.8. Maybe I'll pick up a pentax 100/2.8 or an old screwmount 105/2.8 to hold me over till I find the 85.

 

Thanks again,

Dana

Howdy,

 

does anybody know if the optical formula and glass dimensions of the

screwmount 24mm f3.5 lens are the same as the k24mm f3.5? I have this lens in

a k-mount unfortunately one of the internal elements is damaged. I hate the

thought of just pitching it into the dumpster, but "parts donor" k24mm f3.5

lenses seem quite rare indeed. Sooooo - that leaves me the option of

salvaging an element from a screwmount lens. Anybody have a trashed

screwmount 24mm f3.5 that they are willing to unload cheap (or better yet a k-

mount version)?

Hello,

 

Do any of you have any experience with the voightlander SLR lenses made by

Cosina - specifically the 90mm f3.5?

 

I had a couple of old cheap cosina lenses back in the day - nothing to write

home about. I understand that the voigtlander lenses are a pretty big jump up

in quality compared to the "budget" lenses that they normally pump out. Any

comments about build quality (how do they comare the the old pentax K

lenses?), durability, and optical quality, multicoating, etc?

 

I've been looking for a pentax mount 85mm portrait lens for a while but the

prices have gone insane as of late - assuming you can even find one. I

realize that the Voigtlander 90mm is not ideal due to the lens being limited

to f3.5 when fully opened, but it is better than nothing (and truthfully I

kind of like the idea of giving my money to a company that still supports film

based cameras - no slam intended on digital)

 

P.S. - If anybody would like to persuade me against buying the voigtlander by

offering to sell me a nice K85mm f1.8 I would definately be willing to listen

to their argument ;-P

 

Thanks,

Dana

I don't have any experience with Pentax Canada, but I have been very happy with the repair that Pentax US performed. I wasn't cheap (~$250)but the camera has been working flawlessly since.