gerard_dsouza

well i did figure out the problem and was well pleased with myself for solving it but ruined all sense of acomplishment by breaking the cocking lever in the process of reassembling the shutter. now my new acquisition is totally unusable until i can figure out how to replace the cocking lever. unlike my previous project(argus 21 markfinder) which is also sitting around with a dead shutter this seems to be a rather rare camera and i cannot count on finding a junker for a replacement part. (prolonged banging of head on desk)aaarrrgghhh.

i am currently working on a Kuribayashi Karoron folder with a carperu

shutter. When i cock the shuter it actually opens during the cocking

action and then closes when fully cocked. I am guessing this was not

how it was intended to operate. any ideas why this might be happening?

Is anyone familiar with a carperu shutter and how to dissasemble the

mechanism correctly?

actually come to think of it i recently saw a petri color corrected 2.8 with wide angle accessory lens and tele lens go for close to the cost of a canon GIII QL17. i dont know if the effective wide angle was a 28mm or not.

consider a wide angle accessory lens mounted on a normal rangefinder. dont know about the image quality though. A good accessory lens may end up costing as much if not more than the camera it will be mounted on. As for a view finder i suppose an accessory finder should work. i have been meaning to try this myself but havent gotten around to it yet perhaps someone who has tried this may comment on whether or not this would be a viable option.

Thanks for the reply richard.dismantling the camera was pretty self evident. I work in a pharmaceutical research lab and have unlimited access to needles of all shapes and sizes. will see what i can find to fit the arm. these needles are high grade stainless steel and i wouldnt expect solder to work on them besides there is so little clearance in the arm mount that i dont think i can solder it without jaming up the whole mechanism. I am also thinking of fabricating a completely new arm from a paper pin. the head should run satisfactorily in the guide and i can bend the middle into a loop to go in the mount. Have you ever taken the mount apart? i tried pushing out the pin holding the arm in and had no success. am i doing it right or do i have to remove the 2 brass rivets that hold the 2 triangular plates together? I would rather avoid removing any rivets as i have no way of putting them back. just thought id check befor i try drilling out the pin.

would anyone be willing to donate the shutter actuator for this

camera? the arm that mates with the shutter is broken on mine. ideas

on how to fabricate the part in question would also be welcome.

aaah well i feared as much. I thought id try something with this one at least. I had to get rid of the case for my TX slr because the felt inside started to perish and ended up shedding more black dandruff onto the camera inside and some of the stuff ended up inside the camera.

 

as for covering the case with new leather i just think it might be better to stitch a new one from cowhide like my argus c3 and my perkeo. trouble is finding the hide and being able to actually stitch it myself.

does anyone have any suggestions or reccomendations for restoring the

everready case. the one i have is fine on the inside but the outer

surface is dry and brittle with a lot of the lacquer (or whatever the

hell it is that canon used to make these things) missing. Any help

will be greatly appreciated. part of my joy in using these older

cameras comes from having them in the original case.

I am going to be in Oxford (UK) for a few months and have lugged my

whole 35mm camera setup but no film with the hope that i can buy and

have E6 film processed here. Does any one have suggestions for where i

can get this done in oxford. I dont have access to a car and so the

place will have to be easily reached on foot or public transport from

the John Radcliffe hospital. Suggestions on good spots for photography

besides the regular tourist attractions will also help.thanks in advance.

What about a digital back to mount onto a FD body? perhaps the t90? I remember seeing a setup like that from kodak for a kodak film slr.

i used to use the 3030 with a 3001 leg set. The head is pretty sturdy and easily supports my 300 f2.8 but it does have a problem with being not too smooth and gets really anoying when you are tring to position the camera precisely in macro shots. I thought the 3001 was pretty good until i bought a 3021 leg set for the extra height. i had read a lot about a good tripod making a visible difference in sharpness but didnt really believe it until i saw my first slides taken on the 3021. In my opinion put in the extra bucks and get the basic 3021 the extra weight is worth carrying for the visible improvement in image quality (dont bother with the so called pro version) and get a 3030 head to go with it. these things are built pretty tough so you can easily buy used stuff to save money and have it last just as long as if you bought a new one.

I prefer a completely transparent cover and have found that the best option is the plastic covers used by drycleaners. I just cut the top off to get a long tube of plastic that i slip over the entire camera set up on my tripod and i secure the front end to the lens hood with a rubber band. The advantages are that it stays in place even in high wind and i can see all the controls of the camera and even operate them through the plastic.It works with all my lens and camera combinations from 28mm to 300mm f2.8 and converters. i have no poblems with fogging or even with punctures under normal use in both rain and snow. although the plastic is thin it is tough enough to withstand some rough handling and i can carry enough of them to layer them if need be as well as to replace them if i do manage to tear them. Best of all it costs nothing and i can fit a whole one in a film canister or several of them folded up in a accessory pocket of my vest and they are even handy as ground sheets if i need to sit or lie on the ground for low level shots. when im done shooting i just chuck the plastic away.

I have a two touch Tokina AT-X 28-85mm macro zoom f3.5-4.5 and i would only replace it with a faster f2.8 zoom. It does seem to show some fringing effects with backlit subjects but it is a nice lens especially if you got it for free. I paid in the region of $60 for mine. i dont have any experience with the sigma lens or a rokunar TC but i guess that a lot of people will tell you that the rokunar is best used as a paper weight and is worth around 12 bucks. But at the end of the day it is up to you to test the lenses out and decide whether they suit your needs.

The shutter on my canon TX only fires from 1/30 to 1 second. at any

speed faster than 1/30 or at the B setting the shutter will not open.

If i open up the back and keep cocking and firing the shutter it will

eventually start to fire at all speeds.However, I cannot get it to

fire properly with film in the camera. Is this a common fault with

the TX? Is there anyone in the New england area or NY who can fix

this problem? I am more interested in having the B setting work i

dont care about the faster speeds as i never use this camera for work

that needs fast speeds.

Jeff, sadly the T70 feels top heavy with any decent flash in the hot shoe. I put it down to the fact that the t70 is to short to afford a decent grip for long periods of time. I therefore built my own grip(looks like a battery pack or a power winder that screws into the tripod socket). The grip increases the overall height of the camera body and gives me a firm and comfortable grip on the camera. I have also fabricated my own flash bracket and off camera cord for the 277t which creats a more balanced combination and allows me to use the 277T as a bounce flash. If you like tinkering with your equipment these solutions are fun to implement, but in any case stick with the 299t It is a stronger and more versatile flash.

Hi Jeff

 

You do not have to carry 2 flashes. All you need is a tiny piece of electricians tape. the T-70 has 4 contact points in the hotshoe. the central large silver dot and the metal lip of the shoe are all you need to fire a flash(just like in the older mechanical cameras). the 2 smaller contacts just below the center contact are what the flash uses to take over the camera. Just use the electricians tape to cover these 2 contacts and then slip in the flash. You can then set any shutter speed and manually set your flash in either F No set mode or full manual mode and it will fire at the set shutter speed(1/60s or less). This is how i get around the problem with the two T-70s and 277t that i use.

I was wondering if it is possible to have the T70 leader out

modified. If it can be done, how much will it cost and who can do it?

In case anyone is interested my converter arrived yesterday and was promptly used.My first shots w1th it seem to be satisfactory. The robin picture in my wildlife folder was the result of this initial test. Based on the earlier discussion though i am going to get a canon tc too at some point.

Thanks Vivek!

Hi All

 

I have a reasonable manual lens and camera set up for nature

photography based on the canon FD system and a T70 camera body. I

would like to add a digital body to my long lens tamron adaptall

300mm f2.8 to save on film development costs (especially when

shooting wildlife handheld). I have narrowed my choice down to a

Nikon D70 or the cheaper fuji S1 since in theory they will both

accept an adaptall/nikon adapter based mount. I understand that

metering will be inoperative. Can someone clarify exactly what

adapall adapter would be applicable(nikon Ai perhaps?)Are there any

other potential issues i should be aware of? I have never used a

nikon (except for a N70 that was attached to a microscope in my lab)

and would really appreciate opinions and suggestions on the

combination i have described.

Alas! if only i had waited a little longer. I ordered a 1.4x tamron from KEH last afternoon. In addition to agreeing with David that the tamron might just be better optically matched, I was concerned with clearance issues related to the spring on the stopdown lever of my adaptall/FD adapter. I seemed to me(from eyeballing it)that even if i had the baffle removed or bored out, the spring might chafe at the front element housing of the canon tc(this would depend on the diameter of the front element). Further, last night I tried to remove the baffle as steve suggested and found out that while this is easy enough to do, the baffle serves as an attachment point for a spring that looks like it is part of the stop down mechanism on the tamron side. It appears that neither removal or modification of the baffle might work in my case. Could it be that there are different versions of the adaptall/FD adapter? And thanks Mark for the tip on the exposure malfunction. I suppose i will have stick to setting the aperture manually.

Thank you both for your comprehensive and helpful answers. I suppose i do have one last question. In your experience, is a canon 1.4X-A that much better in terms of optical performance to justify the fact that the canon typically costs around 4-5 times as much as the vivitar or the tamron.(or is the price difference due to the collectible nature of the canon TC)

Hello all

 

I have been looking to acquire a 1.4x TC to go with my Tamron SP IF

300 2.8 lens. This lens has an adaptall mount for which I have the

required FD adapter. The adapter has a rectangular opening in the

back. I was wondering if this somewhat smaller opening will prevent

me from mounting the canon 1.4x-A on this lens. Does anyone have any

experience with such a setup? Also will i have the same problem with

a vivitar 1.5x-A TC? I have no way of getting my hands on either of

these converters to test if they fit my lens and would rather not pay

for them only to have to send them back if they dont fit. I could

alternatively decide if provided with the outer diameter of the part

that protrudes into the lens. Any help on the matter is highly

appreciated.

Pradeep

 

What everyone has said so far makes alot of sense and any of the combinations will work to give you pictures. However, you are by your own admission an amateur and as far as i can see have only 3 images in your portfolio(these may of course be the only ones you care to share)As a fellow amateur with similar interests and a limited budget i would like to remind you that you can spend as much money as you like on the latest equipment and still not get any pictures. What is really important is being able to repeatedly find and get close to the subjects you are interested in to get pictures. If this has been challenging for you using a small digital like the coolpix, will it be feasible lugging around a large contraption of DSLR, long glass and tripod? If you cannot answer a fairly certain yes to the last question i would suggest you first spend your time learning to get close to wildlife before dropping the big bucks on the set ups you are considering. From personal experience i find that a fast 300mm is a good starting tool to learn long lens technique while still producing some reasonably pleasant images of large wildlife. good luck and do share the images when you get them

I found what seemed to be a bag designed to carry one of those little razor push scooters for 3 bucks in a Building 19 Store. I bought one for each of my tripods. The bags are made of some tough woven polymer stuff and have a sling strap that splits down the middle to form a backpack like harness. I carry my tripod around in one of these all the time on hikes either slung over my back or clipped to the bottom of my ruck sack so the tripod is horizontal across my butt(I prefer having both hands free on a hike). I have made a stiff removable insert out of a hard plastic tube with some foam padding on the inside that i use when transporting the tripods as check in luggage by air. The only downside about these bags is that i could only find them in a hideous bright red color.