bennybee

OOF background : That is a very good point Albert - I overlooked that. I did think about a reflector card instead of the flash however, and perhaps I will use that.

Re. using higher-than-sync speed : I thought (wrongly) that if the available light was dominant, a little fill-in flash burst at the wrong speed would just lighten the deepest shadows a bit without it being too obviously wrongly synch-ed... (= whishful thinking ;-)

Raf, thanks. The old 45CT1 that I have does not support SCA though - I will run it from the PC socket...

What would happen if I choose say 1/250th (with appropriate aperture for correct available lighting) on the F3HP and just give a mild burst from the flash ?

Hi, Next week-end I have to make outdour portraits from my little

niece and I am nervous because I usually never use flash. I will use

my F3HP with ISO200 print film and a Metz potato-masher 45CT1 for

fill-in to avoid ugly shadows in her face. From reading earlier

photo.net threads on the subject I *think* I understand a little and

wonder which of the two procedures below is the right one (it's all

so confusing to me) :

 

1) Choose the 1/80sec flash sync speed on the camera and determine

the corresponding aperture for the available light (for example

f/5.6). Select ISO400 on the flash for 1 stop under fill-in flash and

select f/5.6 from the five possible f/ values on the top of the flash

unit.

 

2) Or dial in the real ISO200 value on the flashgun and select one or

two f/ values lower (f/4 or f/2.8) amongst the five 'auto' apertures

on the calculator dial of the flashgun.

 

Which is the correct way to do this please? Thanks in advance for

your kind help.

Indeed, those are all great pictures. Congratulations to all of you participants. What a group!*****

Roman, Isn't that the railway station (1st picture) that is featured in one of those WWII movies where 'she' waves goodbeye to her love on a departing military train? (forgot the title)

Wow. I'm impressed by the number of participants. And so excited too - can't wait to see the results in about... what? a year from now?

Gene, come on we need you here.

I was lucky that Jurgen went on one of his regular trips to Germany and I could ship him the camera there - from Belgium that is a lot cheaper than a 2-way to the U.S.

The second and last roll that I shot with my own 3.5F Rolleiflex (before I sent it away for CLA) also had the 2 or 3 last images fogged. I think it had to do with too much ambient light while unloading the camera (my desk lamp - stupid me!). Or perhaps the roll would have been fogged anyway because I find that winding is looser on the last 2 - 3 frames, resulting -I guess- in loss of tightness of the last part of the film/backing paper, which could invite light in. They should have installed some kind of braking device inside the camera to help tightening the last part of the film roll. In a much simpler camera like my Agfa Isolette I once took out an exposed roll where the film/paper was so loosely wound that it was sticking out over the edges of the spindle. Now I secure the paper leader to the take-up spool with a piece of scotch tape and I try to wind firmly.

Frank, I had the same effect with the perforated bellows on my Isolette III. They were newly installed by Certo6 (Jurgen Kreckel) and the problem was that a corner of the bellows rubbed against the shutter linkage arm and punctured the new bellows. Jurgen replaced it for free (but I paid for the shipping back and forth). A little hole can have big effects.

As Mike says, it's probably held up by the customs services. They sit on it for a couple of weeks and then steal your money. Just check if the Contax is still warm when they deliver it... I hope you receive the camera soon, Nicolas. I have experienced this many times and I know it is no fun not knowing whether the precious piece will ever arrive or not.

I suspect that a digital camera IS exactly the kind of camera you should keep out of this guy's 'repairer' hands! I still have to find the first camera shop 'on-the-street-corner' that actually repairs digital cameras. As the others said above : giving the contacts of the memory cards a clean, replacing the batteries, blowing on the sensor : yes. Everything else : no - camera goes back to the importer or in the trash can.

Doug, please email me your address. I have them with me today and I can ship yours immediately as well then.

I had only three of those things and I did not keep one for myself, but Jorn has a point : the case alone would have been worth keeping... ;-)

OK, so far I have Doug, Dean and George Shihanian (via email). That makes three. I am sorry not being able to send one to David unless Doug doesn't need one (not fitting the Isolette III).

Also forgot to attach the picture I specially made (my brain is in its Sunday mood...) - here it is.

I have George's address. Dean and Doug please email me yours and I will ship tomorrow.<div></div>

Dean, the first one is set aside for you.

Doug, I have an Isolette III too (with Apotar 4.5/85mm lens) and the hood doesn't fit, but if you want one you can have it anyway.

One hood left then.

Hi everyone, I have three 'Agfa Elastic Lens Hoods' on offer for

free. Takers only have to pay USD3.00 per piece for shipping cost. I

purchased one on evilbay a while ago and received three (!)

identical NOS rubber hoods. Unfortunately they don't fit my

Isolette, nor my Record III - In fact I don't know what they do fit.

The boxes are labelled 'S30,5mm - Typ 6317 - Made in Germany - Agfa-

Gevaert AG Camera-Werk München' and the hoods come in a nice

leather 'case with two compartments for filters'. They are made in

soft rubber with a hard plastic threaded ring. You can email me off

line. I hope I can make someone happy with them.

Beautiful colors PC! I like those pictures very much.

Lex, you are right. I also want to thank everybody on this great forum. Sometimes I feel so lonely (photographically speaking) because nobody in my physical neighborhood shares my interest in film cameras, let alone classic cameras. It is great to have a place like this forum and I'm sure I would loose part of my interest in old cameras without it. But I don't blame any of you for making me spend more than my pocket money on these old crates ;-)

Mike that is a great idea and I would like so much to participate, but I'm afraid the Customs will make me pay import duties and taxes on the camera...

Rather by 'coincidence' I ended up with my own M42 (admittedly non-classic) camera for classic lenses : I purchased a Minolta XE-5 with two Rokkor lenses because I loved the looks and the feel of the body. After a while I unsuccessfully tried to sell it again during one of my recurrent 'I Have Too Much Gear' attacks. So I had to keep the camera and later stumbled upon a cheap Minolta/M42 adapter ring. Unlike Nikons you can focus to infinity when using such an adapter. So now I have a rather cheap and decent M42 'lensholder' that does feel like it was made out of a solid metal block.

Jonathan, I have a similar problem with the rather expensive Tewe varifocal viewfinder I bought for my Retina IIc (and other camera's): it fits but I can't move the little handle on the left of the VF to adjust the distance...

Hahaha, <<having my glass pre-scratched for me>>... CE, this is a great and funny story. All along while reading I asked myself 'Is he going to buy it or not?'. Thank you. I enjoyed reading it and recognized myself in it too (don't we all?). Benny.

I have a hate/love relationship with all of my classic cameras. Some have broken down on me and others are awkward to operate or missing a feature I wish for. I know I shouldn't expect old cameras to be failproof but I can't help being disappointed by some of them. The poor old things probably went through a lot and time is cruel (just look in your mirror ;-)

For example : that $250.00 Retina IIIS with broken coupling string keeps me awake at night. My $700.00 Minty Rolleiflex 3.5F rapidly became my favourite classic until I had to send it in for a $400.00 repair & CLA from which it hasn't returned yet. Perhaps I should buy cheaper cameras that I can eventualy work on myself...

My Isolette III and Retina IIc come in second and third place.

My first camera was a Diana. I was 12 years old and a could afford just enough pellets for the airgun at the local fair to shoot the required 10 plaster 'pipes' for the camera. Sadly I dont' have the camera any longer but I still have a couple of b/w prints made with it. My second camera was an Instamatic 133, then a Topcon Unirex which my late father offered to buy so that I could upgrade to a Nikon FM. He never mastered the Unirex though and ended up using his first camera - the Richard Six pictured in an earlier thread, and which is with me now.

Great pictures Dean, and very nice little camera too. I am impressed with the small size of the camera and the quality of the lens. Now that is 'MF in your pocket' !!

Nikon EL2.