zenit_zepplin

<p>I bought an nFD 35-105/3.5 several years ago as my first fd zoom (just had primes prior to that) and what a piece of disappointment! I mostly chose it at the time because I also have (a use a lot) Pentax A 35-105/3.5 which is a spectacular lens. Of course I may just have a bad copy of Canon's product, but overall it's plasticy construction, fairy useless "macro" feature and a 5-blade diaphragmme are not particularly inspiring, it also flares a lot. So I put it away in its box and went pack to primes. </p>

<p>if, after you get an estimate per Mark's suggestion and discover that it's not what you want to pay, and if you are mechanically inclined it's rather easy to take the top cover off and check for corrosion/shorts. My A-1 was draining batts, but after I cleaned and re-soldered a few wires it's back in business. I would not work on anybody else's camera unless they view it as either old ZZ's spanner-happy little shop of horrors or the trash can now, but I routinly work on my own cameras, it's fun.</p>

<p>well, you were a lot more patient with pentax "repair" department than I was, after our K10d spent two months sitting in Arizona and not getting repaired or even looked at, I finally requested it to be shipped back to me only to discover that despite their now conveniently changed policy I have to pay for the shipping. Well, after only another three more weeks after paying for priority shipping I did get it back with a huge scratch across the entire screen. I have not called to complain since there's no point. Perhaps the repair personnel in Europe is more reliable. </p>

<p>it's probably because the camera's using idiotic logic of setting the speed to the (approximate) reciprocal of the focal length used, they did it back in the zx-blah film days as well; however, you should be able to overwrite it in M mode. You can test this by putting a zoom on and and zooming in and out, while observing the sync speed changing.</p>

<p>one solution is to get an sr-t blank (the cheapest one you can) and then simply adjust the spring tension, e.g. you can easily bring 1/30 to 1/48</p>

<p>I just worked on my A-1 today, funny how about a week ago I was looking for a copy of the repair manual which I know I have, but could not find it, will definitely look through these, thanks for posting the new links.<br />Anyway, to take the top cover off you need to take the lens mount cover plate off first as there're two more screws hiding under it and also the shutter blind switch, in addition to the obvious screws around the top. I presume you've already noticed the circlips under advance/rewind...</p>

<p>does anyone know if there's a canon winder/motor drive (or a 3rd party) which can also power A-1 camera itself? For example I know that Minolta had this option, but reading through various canon manuals I don't see any reference to such a useful feature. </p>

locate Tomosy's Camera repair book, I think he has some notes on FTb in Vol.II, Ftb is a pretty straight forward body to work on, except make sure to mark the position of the shutter speed dial before taking it off.

"(anti)-human engineering" ... not being a human I don't really see any problemme with the rewind, in fact my Zenit ET has a pretty clear arrow with an R painted near the button to indicate how the rewind works. <br> there's also a built in bonus feature, in B setting while pressing the release turn the button cw and the shutter is locked, turn it back to unlock it. Overall it's essentially the same setup as on Zorki 4.

to cut down on tobacco odour I placed a couple tablespoonfuls of baking soda in ziplock bag spread thin over of what became the base of this "decontamination chamber", then placed a piece of wood to rest the lens on (being careful not to get any powder into the lens), sealed the bag and left it there for about a month. Did the same thing with the body. The odour is still there, but much less pronounced.

ok, and it's doing this while the selector switch is set to Auto or to M (in manual mode does pushing little buttons do anything)? Which speed is it reading? do different leds light up as you point the camera from a lighter to darker subject?

sorry, I meant to say repair manual

official minolta manual pages that somebody scanned can be found <a href="http://bowman.iespana.es/minoling02.html">here</a>

exactly what do you mean by "it does not register"? Suppose you set the camera to bulb (B) and the lens to f/22 cock and fire and look either through the back of the camera with the door open or into the lens: do you see the blades snapping in and out upon release? Repeat the same with the lens set to f/8, notice the diff? if it snaps in and out, then there's nothing wrong with the aperture actator lever. If by registering you meant that the meter does not respond, then it'd be a different story...

winding the self-timer was a very bad idea, unfortunately it's a rather typical reaction. Is the self-timer lever also swinging loose now or did did it return to it's normal position? (the point is thatit could be jamming the shutter). You say that the mirror is up, did the second curtain complete its travel? Open the back and look at the curtain, do you see a little round rivet just above the lower edge of the frame or do you see two little rivets?

have not used one in a while, but it's a preset aperture lens. When I get home I'll take a look at it to be sure, but I think you use the front ring to set to whichever f-stop (cw) then open turning the same ring ccw to view and focus, close back(it'd only go as far as the pre-set value) and shoot.

no, mine is a constant 3.5 version as well, Gordon. 72mm filtre, two ring zoom/focus. The front however made is of plastic. That's ok, I mainly wanted to ascertain that it is supposed to be functioning as one would expect on my cameras. Thanks for all of your help.

Gordon, no unfortunately it's not as simple as not mounting the lens properly. It clicks in and the blades open to 5.6 unless the aperture ring is set to 3.5 in which case it does open all the way.<p>

I set the camera on B-lock and looked through the back as well as the front while turning the aperture ring back and forth--the blades are clean, not a trace of oil. I suspect that something inside must have been bent or misaligned. <p>

Dave, I thought about the "open aperture" metering as well, here's some data: zoom set at 50mm (vs 50/1.4ssc). At 1/15 6.3(vs 8), @1/60 3.5 (va 4), @1/4 13 (vs 16). Hence it's consistently +0.5EV, not +1.5 as one would expect. Thus once again I suspect that the problemme is deeper, perhaps with the way the aperture actuator couples to the iris mechanism. <p> Tim, thanks for letting me know how it supposed to be. I only have Ftb bodies as I feel that that's the model which has all of the features I want and none of the battery sucking gizmometry that I don't really need. It'd be interesting though to put it on a body that supports the A setting and see what comes out of it. <p> I mostly bought this lens since I have a Pentax-A 35-105/3.5 and use it a lot. I wanted to get a Canon equivalent. Overall canon's version is a lot flimsier, too much plastic and the macro feature is a joke. I do enjoy my old Canon primes though.

my only bayonet fd lens, which is a 35-105/3.5 (new FD?) displays the following

behaviour. When mounted on an Ftb body the lens is completely open only when

actually set to 3.5, otherwise it closes to about 5.6 and stays there, e.g. if

I chose f/11 the aperture closes to about 5.6 and then when the actual exposure

is being made closes to f/11 as it should, then snaps open back to 5.6. When

the lens is set to 3.5 then it actually opens all the way to 3.5. Also I found

that should I use the dof lever the lens remains closed even when the lever is

moved back to the open aperture metering position, and I have to turn the

aperture ring back to 3.5 to open it. It does not snap open the way all of my

breech lock FD lenses do. I tried it on all of my Ftb/Ftb(n) bodies and it's

the same.<p> I find this rather puzzling, but I also wonder if perhaps it's

normal for non-breech lock lenses. And, yes, the blades are clean and dry, I

don't see any oil or obviously bent or otherwise constricted levers etc. also I

am aware that when NOT mounted on a camera the diaphragm should be closed to

about 5.6. If anyone has any hints on how to take it apart, I'd appreciate

hearing about it too as perhaps there's some internal problemme. <p>

if you've "seen" it on ebay then make sure to ask the seller if the aperture is working and is not just stuck wide open. Apperently it's a common problemme with these lenses. I have this lens in a Kiron skin and it's f/2 only. Eventually I'll get into it to clean the crud out, but even wide open it's pretty good. The previous suggestion to stick with K 28/3.5 is as irrelevant as suggesting to avoid 50/1.4 in favour of 50/3.5.

Douglas wrote:" But I've always been concerned about the chemical processing and recovery processes that are used in films and paper. For better or worse, going digital eliminates these processes and I would suggest makes photography in general more 'green'. "<br>

I wonder, and perhaps the EE fellow can tell us about just how much energy goes into (1) manufacturing a digital camera, and (2) most importantly running it and viewing the results. <br> I can and often do use nothing but the Sun to look at my slides through a magnifying glass; with a digital image, one has to have a computer or some such electrical gizmo for viewing/editing. So it's all just a matter of a longer tailpipe. Just like it was NOT shown in that Who killed the electric Car "documentary". I think that film technology is cleaner overall when one considers all the electronics/energy-intensive support/short service life/difficulty with recycling that comes with a digital media spread all over vs more or less centralized film processing facilities

to be a true Green photog one would have to limit oneself to taking mental polaroids only

no, I don't think it's fungus, besides whatever it is, it's trapped inside, not on the surface of the glass. I've read in Tomosy's book about heating a lens with a hair dryer for a couple hours (!), but that's great for metal mounts, whereas this one is plastic. Had it been made of metal (like Ftb's) it'd be swimming in acetone already.

Perhaps that's what I'll do. Thanks for the rf link, I'll read up on those other solvents.

another pic<div></div>

hello,<br> does anyone have any suggestions as to how to pull apart the eye-

piece lens on a Minolta SR-T? Please see the pictures attached. I suspect that

it is made of two pieces of glass glued together by Canada Balsam or some such

substance which has disintegrated enough to considerably obscure my view, but

not far enough to actually completely separate. Further, the whole thing is

mounted in a plastic frame, so I'm curious about which solvent is safe to use,

i.e. I'd go with acetone but (1) it may not do much for the glue that bonds the

optics to the frame, and (2) it may mess us the frame itself.<br> So basically

if anyone cares to share their experience making such a repair, that'd be

great.<div></div>