chris_dilenardo

hi all, just got a canonet ql25 from the bay, everything works(had to re cement

and recalibrate the rangefinder mirror!)shutter speeds seem accurate on manual

but when set to b you can see that the aperture never changes(seems around

f11/16) is this problem easy to remedy, ive googled stuff on this and other

canonets but always seems to be the shutter blades stuck, cant find anything on

aperture blades,any one have any ideas

cheers in advance

chris

hi all, just got these two cameras for one pound each, yes one lousy

pound each(about one dollar eighty cents i think), just banged a quick

dozen shots through each with fomapan 400 to check the af(auto focus)

one, and the ef model which came with a 1.5v battery for its "electric

eye!" from what ive read so far this can screw the metering up so shot

evenly lighted subjects with the asa set at 400,inbetween 400 and 200,

and 200. seems to work best between the two.developed with no real

expectation of anything surprising. the negatives look great, i mean

kiev4a with helios 103 great, very sharp,im stoked cant believe such

cameras are worth only one pound. will be getting a scanner

tonight(whoo hoo!)so might be able to post some pics from these and my

other cameras. anyone got any pics from their konica c35? id

appreciate a look

im ranting, i know, but im really pleased with these

cheers

chris

yeh i got my kiev 4a from him, excellent jupiter8 lens that had a rear element looked like it had been cleaned with floor sander, and leaked light badly. still its all fixed up now with a mint jupiter 12 and brand new helios 103 (now thats a a lens!)so cant really grumble i suppose, as with all things buyer beware. all FSU gear is a gamble, what keeps us interested is that its so cheap.

very impressive gene, any chance of a picture of your pinhole camera?is it homemade? if so how did you calculate the focal length and hence the exposures so well on slide film? im itching to try something new and a pinhole looks like the ticket

once again thanks for another interesting post

ive bought a few rangefinders from the FSU and the only one that needed any kind of tinkering was a kiev4a to fix a light leak( then i sprayed it black!) got a mint brand new jupiter 12 and helios 103 and its fantastic. dont believe what people say about russian cameras being crap, im sat here looking at a few slides shot witth a 57 zorki4, and there the equal of anything else ive seen, infact theres a certain quality to the slides, probably to do with the old lens coatings but hey what more do you want for ?10? get one but do your homework on the seller

looks like film scratches to me, could be loads of different things, a tiny piece of grit in the felt of your your film canister, or in the camera, pressure plate etc. did you develop them yourself?could be the dreaded crappy squeegy(if you used one, mine got "fixed " with a hammer after 2 rolls) if youve sent them to a lab could be dust /grit in machinery etc. ps i love that pic, can you remember exposure time/aperture etc? very very nice

"the three fates" yeh baby! emerson lake and palmer!!

very nice dean, its about time i got some more tlr's(only got a lubitel 2 at the moment). let us know the diagnosis!

thanks to the excellent kiev survival site and you guys(mike kovacs

especially, cheers!) its taken just a day to strip down my light leaky

kiev 4a(76) lube everything and get it all working great again, all

shutter speeds working fine(phew!) and while it was in bits decided to

give it a bit of a tarting up!replaced the excuse of a light seal with

some black leather strip forced in, and made a better job of that

sorry little bit of black paper covering the right hand sprocket hole

and above the centre of the shutter.as youll see from the pics my film

cameras are better than my crummy 1.3mp digital toy!

thanks once again

chris

hey mike its a 1976 apparently (as you probably know yoursef) one of the worst years of production. still going after nearly 30 years cant be that bad i suppose. as to the light leak i think ive found it, now the top is off, when i point the top of the camera at the light, you can see light coming in from the middle where that little hook lets go of the shutter at the top, and to the right of that about directly above the right sprocket more light.there was a little square of black paper i suppose to cover this but nowhere near big enough, all internal parts are now flat black and the inner and outer top casing and front casing are also flat black. evrything clean as awhistle inside, all dust and bits blown out and shutter relubed. cant wait for the reassembly! thanks for all your help mike, when its fixed ill get some negs on a cd( no scanner myself) at the lab and post them see what you all think. all the best

chris

WOW what a site! shes now looking rather poorly all in bits with the top plate removed, all that yak string(whats left of it) removed, and the front plate removed. inside its full of bits of old dust, small bits of "stuff" and generally looking like it needs a thorough tidy up. i think ill spray the top and front plates black after replacing all the light seals, clean up the internal glassware and flat black all the stuff thats come away after years of neglect. at least all the shutter speeds work out ok (according to my leningrad light meter) and the rangefinder is accurate and lines up perfectly horizontally and vertically. with the help of the kiev survival site i really want to do a good job on this as there seems to be something good about this camera, something that seems to be a little different from my fed and zorki, just feels right in the hand(if that makes any sense) one further thing if any one can help,the leather work is also all off as it was grotty to begin with. anyone know with what i can replace it with?

once again many thanks, you guys are the best!!

hi there just done a couple of test rolls of b&w in my new kiev

4a(meterless) much to my dismay theres light leaks that appear as a

straight darkish patch at the bottom left of the neg(when its the

right way up)doesnt happen on all of them but on most of the ones

taken today in bright sun. used a jupiter 8 that came with it(light

cleaning marks on lens; yeah looks like its been cleaned with a floor

sander!)and a jupiter 12 wide angle (mint thankfully) anybody seen

this type of leak before, it stretches into the sprocket holes as

well. all pics were taken with the ever ready case on which covers

the back up mostly, so i dont think its the back probably something

shutter related? any help much appreciated as i really like this

camera, its the first russian one with any faults ive got as of yet

and with the extra lenses is a nice set up(got a brand new helios 103

coming soon as well!)

cheers

chris

mmm i went there on a school geography trip when i was 12(i live in derbyshire) and even at that young age the whole experience pure spun my mind. ended up getting lost in that shopping centre as it all looks exactly the same wherever you stand inside it. i believe they once had (or still do) fibreglass cows dotted around to give it a more rural flavour! bizarre! ps dont own a leica but got a 60s fed 2 a 1957 zorki 4 and waiting for a kiev to arrive. do i qualify to post here?!

well i ordered some stuff when i didnt really know what was what to do my first ever b&w developing and printing. i dont think ive ever talked to a more patient and helpful bloke( cant remember his name) heartily recommended with fast shipping as you say.

for how much you can get them from the fsu why not get both?! to be honest theres not much to choose between them in terms of image quality( assuming youll get a good one) better selection of speeds on the zorki4(got a great 1957 one) but whether the extra slower speeds work can be a bit of a lottery. the feds a bit smaller and feels a little nicer (to me anyway) ive got a kiev 4a coming soon and thatll be the last one. honestly!

do it man!, get tons of expired b&w film from ebay for peanuts, develop it yourself, and print it as big as you can. then smile. alot.! film will be around probably till the worlds silver dries up

panos, youre dead right!, in my pocket i had a 35mm roll of sensia and a 120 roll of velvia to get developed as well. after seeing the abortion they did on that film both the others are back at home waiting for a few more rolls to join them on their way to peak imaging! guess now i have to face the uk postal system which is worse than the developing at kodak so it seems. ah well. thanks for the replies. a lesson learned

i know this might sound daft but are you sure you exposed the film properly? i use calbe r09( same as rodinal)and at 20 degrees give delta 100 10 min at 1-40 and get good well balanced neg. i cant think of anything else. sorry

just got back my first roll of slide film (mounted) and to my horror

on 25 out of 36 there is what looks like a huge crack/scratch in the

centre. i could swear its not a scratch in the camera as its wavy

and not the full length of the slide(ive seen scratches a plenty in

some vintage cameras i use and they are perfectly straight across

the whole film) any ideas what caused this? theyve been sent back to

kodak(uk) to be fixed (i cant see how). im really fuming about it.

should i try to claim some compensation for my lost efforts? ( about

20 hrs worth of walking involved in that film. any suggestions

greatly appreciated

cheers

chris

hi, got a chance to get a lot of orwo pan 100 (120 size) has anybody

here used it?is it on a par with ilford delta? i think i read

somewhere that orwo 125 is repackaged fp4? cant seem to find

anything apart from wildly conflicting development times using

rodinal 1-50( from 8 min to 18 min! any info much appreciated

chris

hi, ive just got a mamiya 645j and im very impressed with it apart

from one little thing. when you get to the last frame, have any of

you got a way to roll up the end of the film and paper without keep

firing the shutter so the last bit of paper gets caught under the

shutter. im sure this isnt doing the camera any good. ps ive got the

manual for the 645 1000 and this says keep the shutter pressed down

or something but this doesnt work. am i missing some little easy

trick?

cheers

chris

yep that stinkin site got me a while back. aint been there since. why in gods name do they do that?

id second the above, the writing on the film doesnt get exposed so bracketing wouldny make a difference. underdeveloped by the sound of it, either too low temp, exhausted developer or too low concentration for the time you gave it, or not enough time. im quite new to developing my own b&w, and ive done this a couple of times, same as you. hope this is of use

simple mate, ebay/photography/fed/ show worldwide then youll have lots of stuff to peruse at your leisure, then get pay pal, then be permanently poor but have loads of nice old cameras. buy it now!!how i hate that little icon :>)

zorki and jupiter 8 is a great combo, put a few rolls b&w through mine and its very impressive. got a roll of fuji asa 100 slide film in it at the mo and cant wait to see how that pans out (first colour film through it) keep shooting!