mike_shaffer

Dang! just saw this. I have been wanting a focusing model. Hope the winner gets good use out of it. Used to have one just like it.

mike

Yes, classic. I really miss my 61 122S (Amazon for those across the pond).

mike

Once while watching the traffic at South Saint Paul's Flemming Field I got the opportunity to watch a beautiful Baby Electra come and go on the way to Oshkosh. That bird was CLEAN!

mike<div></div>

Well, my younger brother took a tumble in an ice cold mountain river with grandma's DuaFlex around his neck about 10 years ago. It still works fine. ;-)

mike

This is a very interesting thread as I am thinking of playing with this stuff. I am in the learning mode so have little to contribute other than to encourage the posting of more samples and to say that I LOVE the pipes picture. It is so... creamy I guess. Lovely.

mike

Alan;

Try "select all" to highlight all of the text. In IE I sometimes find photo.net stacking the text like that. When I do a "select all" from the drop down menu it fixes the problem. May not help since you are using a different browser but might be worth a try.

mike

Wow, thanks for all the great responses!

Gary:

I have a few P5 clear and maybe one P5-B. I have some M3s but they won't work in that holder (though I do have a tilt-a-mite that could be wired in).

I picked up a dual 555 IC timer that I plan to eventually use to make a variable delay circuit to trigger an SCR so that I can use my ProMaster 5600 auto flash with it. I may also try making it switchable to a digital slave flash adapter too.

That dilution is about what I was figuring 1:2 or 1:3.

Todd:

Thanks for the info on the date decoding. As soon as my lazy brother gets the camera shipped off to me I will check and see what the date is. It is my G-mother's old camera. We used it a little bit back in the 70s with Kodacolor. It seems that we had some fogging but this might have been from the window or the seals. I figured on puting a piece of electricians tape over the window when not winding. If that works I will probably glue a piece of velcro with a hole cut out over the window and a flap for easy use. Do you know anything about replacing light seals on these?

I also want to rig up a cable release too. Maybe I can drill and tap a small metal cup big enough to fit over the collar on the shutter button. This cup could be held over the button with a strong elastic strap and a standard cable release screwed in to the tapped hole so that the tip of the cable release will push on the button.

I haven't found much information on these on the net. I guess a simple camera doesn't require much information :-) I think these things are kind of neat but they really don't evoke much of a following I guess.

If it works well enough I plan to use it for a "simple" series of photo projects like "Simply Warsaw" (pictures of the home town), "Simply Thespian" (Theater), "Simply Praise" (Celebro Deo) etc. Each project would use the simplest of equipment to produce images that communicate the essence of the subject.

I intend to play around a little bit with an old Kodak Duaflex with

the focusing lens and adjustable aperture (f8,11,16) and shutter

speed of about 1/30. I also want to try developing my own negatives.

In order to get the most flexibility and minimal cash outlay to get

started I am considering this plan.

Get a Patterson or Adorama plastic tank and start with Diafine and a

rapid fixer. My thoughts are to use Tri-X for low light and indoor

available light situation and a slower film like Efke 50 or 100 for

outdoor use.

I figure the diafine would give me flexibility to compensate for the

limited exposure adjustments on this camera and would speed up the

Tri-X enough for exiting light situations. The extra sharpness also

wouldn't hurt given that the camera lens is probably on the soft side

to begin with.

I am not sure how Diafine will work with the slower films though.

Later on I figure I could get the thermometer and such to try HC-110

or Rodinal with a vinegar stop bath before the fix.

What do you think of this approach? Am I way off base here?

mike<div></div>

Winter is a great time to hone your eye for forms and tonality. I have shot all kinds of interesting things.

- I once lay on my back and shot up at ice flowing down the side of a stone wall which gave a very interesting effect.

- Sage brush in the snow and the like are often interesting with a wide angle lens.

- Look for small things too. Macros of almost anything can be interesting when there is snow on it.

- Also try some night shots on slide film. Street lights and building lighting give very interesting when your shutter speeds are long enough to get you into reciprocity failure.

This picture demonstrates the interesting lighting you can get. There are problems with this shot including the telephone lines but it gives you an idea of what I mean.<div></div>

If it is not on the negatives it could be a dirty laser on the printer or other grit in the transport mechanism in the printer. 6" paper would be running through the machine in a way as to cause vertical lines (i.e. across the short dimension) when making 4x6 prints.

mike

Can you be more specific about what you mean by dull? Do you mean boring as in flat lighting due to direct flash from the camera position or do you mean dull colors or lack of contrast (possibly due to exposure problems)?

If it is just boring try bouncing the flash off of a white ceiling. This is a very low powered flash unit so be sure to use fairly fast film when bouncing since you will lose about three stops in an average living room type situation (rule of thumb based on two stops light loss and one stop to compensate for the new longer effective distance from flash to subject). I wouldn't try it with less than ASA 400 speed film.

mike

Thanks guys. That is pretty much the answer I expected. I am planning on trying an informal portrait shoot with an old Kodak DuaFlex and rather than burning up a lot of expensive flashbulbs I am trying to think things through carefully ahead of time.

I will probably use a tilt-a-might flash gun rather than the Kodak unit since I can use the less expensive M3 bulbs in the TAM. This unit has a folding reflector and tilting head so bare bulb is easy.

I am considering a bounce umbrella, Ceiling bounce, or firing the flash through a sheet. The sheet would probably give the softest lighting I suppose. I have some photo floods that I can use to experiment with layouts and to measure light loss of the various modifier schemes. If I can't get acceptable ratios using reflectors I could still use the Kodak flashgun for a fill light at the expense of extra bulbs.

The subject will be my wife seated at her 1901 Knabe grand piano so the vintage equipment seemes appropriate. I figure that the Kodak lens will be pleasingly soft at F8 but will also try F11.

mike

Actually Gerry it is mostly curiousity. I have been contemplating putting together a delay circuit to use electronic flash with a Kodak DuaFlex (m-sync only). As I meditated on this juxtiposition of modern and antique I became interested in going the other way around. Why? Just because it sounded interesting.

As I thought about the pre-flash it occured to me that the digicam makers may have unintentionally provided M-sync. :-) If the delay is in the 15 to 25ms range a flashbulb triggered by a standard slave would be just about at its peak when the shutter tripped.

Weird I know, but intriguing.

I was wondering what the typical delay time is between pre-flash and

the taking flash on typical digicams. Also is this time fairly

consistant with a particular camera model or does it vary

significantly with each shot depending on conditions?

mike

Would a bare bulb bounced with an umbrella give results medway

between normal umbrella bounce and direct flash or would the direct

light from the bare bulb just overpower the reflected light?

mike

I have been thinking about this too. I was considering the Sunpak 120J which has a GN of 150 (only about one stop less output than a P5B or M3B) and a big round reflector that looks much like the old flash guns used with vintage cameras. The only thing that looks out of place is that the flash body is wider than most bulb guns. Using the auto mode you could get the convenience of auto flash with the look of the vintage flash gun.

If I get into vintage cameras in a big way I will probably get something like it.

They do make a TTL version of this now but I don't know if they have modules for modern MF cameras.

Of course if you have a hot shoe flash with no PC connection you can always use a converter.

mike

I seem to remember someone making a 35mm SLR which allowed one to remove the prism and use it as a waist level finder. Does anyone else remember something like this? It would seem to have some application to street photography.

mike

I would dearly love to get something like a Sunpak 120J (parabolic

reflector electronic flash) but lack the $$$s. Has anyone compared

the light quality of such a unit v.s. something like the Lumiquest

Pocket Bounce? I could easily make a similar device for next to

nothing.

What got me thinking this way is the much more even and soft results

that direct flash bulbs in a reflector give compared to direct

electronic flash. I assume that much of this is due to the shape of

the bulb and reflector.

Thanks for the response. I presume that the DuaFlex has a simple (not gear driven) switch. I guess when I get my hands on the camera I will just have to figure out how to get to the shutter and check it out. I have searched and I can't find anything on the net showing the design of the shutter or how to disassemble this camera.

mike

My distain for E-6 comes from experience (though admittedly limited). I have both ektachrome and kodachrome slides from the 1950s. The ektachromes have all faded to majenta. The kodachromes could pass for brand new slides. Kodachrome has always given me exceptional sharpness compared to E-6 films as well but the main thing is that I have no confidence that E-6 films will outlast me. I do have faith in the kodachromes though.

I appreciate all of the input. Nix the slide projector idea. I may look into playing around with contact prints in MF. If I can use a simple light bulb to make proof sheets I can then just send out enlargements to a good lab until I can get up the $$$ for my own printing setup.

At the moment I don't see myself buring up a lot of film in a short period of time so it looks like my best approach is to send out all color processing (both 35mm and MF) and experiment a little bit with B&W processing (of the negatives) first. I would like to play with EFKE 50 in MF and T-max in 35mm. I will have to keep my eyes open for some used processing equipment.

I recently started working in a WalMart photo lab (I know not exactly pro-lab stuff) so I can get the 35mm negatives done there but I don't think that I would trust their send out service to do the true BW or MF work.

Any suggestions on good mail order labs (good value not just top quality) for development and optical enlargements would be appreciated.

BTW does anyone have any idea why my IE can't seem to display this forum properly? On many of the posts the text seems to write all over itself. I have to view source to read much of it. or it looks like the attached screen capture.

I have been inactive in the photography hobby for some time. I was

distressed on my return to learn that Kodachrome had become so

expensive to process and difficult to find. I used to shoot nothing

but slides and preferred Kodachrome over all other films. Now that KC

is on the way out I was thinking that there is little reason to shoot

slides anymore since if I want pictures that fade I can do that as

well with C-41 films and get more exposure latitude in the process.

However one thought did come to mind. Maybe there would be a point if

I was to get into home processing. I know that C-41 is difficult and

expensive for home processing but how about E-6. Is home E-6 a

reasonable thing to try?

Another related thought... for making 120 roll film contact prints

would a slide projector be an adequate light source? Also what about

using a carefully aligned slide projector as a make shift enlarger

for 35mm just to try out the processing side of printing before

spending the bucks on an enlarger?

mike

I found on a brownie site that it is possible to bend the flash

switch contacts to sync with electronic flash. Does anyone know if a

similar modification is possible with the DuaFlex models? This would

be simpler than screwing together 556 IC timer and SCR for an

electronic delay circuit and having to worry about another battery.

mike

Thanks for the input. I figured that they must have had some problems since they apparently didn't catch on. The Maxxum 5000 is an interesting idea. I didn't realize that any of the maxxa used the X series flash. That is a big plus.

Another option that I am thinking about is picking up a 70's vintage fixed lens rangefinder like the Hi-Matic or Canonette (sp?). Those might be easier to focus quickly in low light and are probably available at a pretty low price.

I use an old X570 minolta and love it. It is of course a manual focus

camera but there are some situations where I would like to have an

autofocus medium zoom (like family get togethers with fast action

indoors and out). I seem to remember years ago that someone was

making zoom lenses in MD mounts that had an IR autofocus system built

into the lens. Does anyone rembemer anything about these lenses and

where one could get one?

mike