supapong_chan

Been there and done that (Fotoskoda visit).

 

It was a really great experience!!!

Fotoskoda was a great place though their pricing was not

different from elsewhere. The city was splendid!!!

Try to stay away from the old town area. I had difficulty

during the night. It was very noisy, from those hooligans

in the street nearby.

Cesky-Krumlov is another story. This small town is even more colorful and serene.

I agree with Neopan 1600. It is almost grain-free with fine grain developer. But Fuji does not make it in 120 format, that's a real pity!

My experience with an SQ-Ai in mint condition is not a good one.

It died on the first month of light use. Sent it for CLA and

it came back in full working condition, two months later it developes

irregular firing of the shutter, few weels later it stops completely.

Now it just sits unattended on a shelf. I am thinking about sending it for repair.

Unlike an SQ-A which is less "electronic". The one I got is still working fine but I still miss the lower noise and the much softer mirror slap of SQ-Ai, that one gives more reassuring feel after I fired the shutter, also it feels better in my hand..lighter, rounder corners.

 

All in all it is better to stay away from Any SQ-Ai.

Hi Anthony,

 

I got one and it is still going strong. It is rugged, yet light. One of the drawback is lack of ISO setting override. I love the ease of focusing of the screen and DOF preview lever is a joy to use.

Right! K1000 is like a Volksawagen Beetle back in '50s, '60s. Everybody seems to once owned and used one. It's cheap,tough, rugged, nearly trouble-free. It has withstood the look-down from several higher tech cameras but while those cameras are already out of business, thousands and thousands K1000s are still going strong. I once owned a KM but that one was not as tough as K1000. The only K1000 that I have now is made from probably China since the top+lower plates and the rewind knob are made from plastic, however, the mechanic shutter still emits the same feeling as the old model made from Japan. I cannot part with this K1000!!! Long live the K1000!!!! :)))

Hi Harris, I just acquired this fine lens from eBay (NOS). I used to have one in Kiev/Contax mount for my Kiev rangefinder and it gave me wonderful result after RELUBING AND FOCUS CALIBRATION. I tried this one on my EOS D60 and test it on resolution chart. The result can be summarized as, better than every EF lenses I own eg. 50/1.8, 24/85 etc. But I have no L lens to compare though. I later tried it with B&W (TMY 400, HP5) and again, excellent sharpness and bokeh. One point to remember, always put the hood on together with a multicoated UV or skylight filter. The coating on this lens is different from the previous one which was purple but this lens almost has no coating at all! I think it will best suit portraiture more than general outdoor photography where glare and flare may pose problem. The previous one is more suitable for general photo-taking. And I hate the grease they use to lube this lens. It's odour is offensive and as time passes by hardening is usually a problem. Mine needed to be relubed after extracting old grease as much as possible, now it's O.K. Go for it you'll never feel sorry. It is actually a copy of old Zeiss Sonnar.

I got a 250 PS in mint condition but its performance is much less than what I expected. I don't like the ergonomics of handling this lens either.

:-((

Hello Jon,

The EII has 62mm filter thread diameter which can accept a dedicated square hood (mount from outside with bayonet click) and a new (better) coating while the filter size of the old MC is 58mm. I never own an EII, and I think my MC is plenty sharp and has enough flare resistance.

I could not agree more with using Vuescan. It makes scanning in B/W negatives with SD IV a lot better than using Dimage software. Now I have much cleaner images (less noise, better tonality). And this Vuescan software instantly recognizes my other scanner, a flat-bed Epson 3170 for MF scanning. It also improved my output from that scanner. Strangely, the noise from 3170 is almost silent (during scanning) with the new software. I am really impressed!

You are right Shane. I also got a seagull 4A-103 with similar problem and I fixed it myself like what you have described. But.. the same problem keeps returning after the camera sat still for a while (1-2 months). Repeating the whole fixing process corrected the problem but never permanently. How about you Seagull, Shane?

Hello, I own both Rolleicord Vb and Rolleiflex T but the only mask 16 kit I have (they come in a long rectangular case not the square case) can only work fine on my Vb. The reason is the insert has a notch to push in some mechanism to adjust the gear travel to suit the new format (5.5x4 cm). On the T body my insert cannot push in deep enough to fully activate that mechanism and the frame counter although did move but only half way and when I wind the film there was strange feeling as if it was not correctly engaged. I think the insert for T body should have deeper notch. Anyone who owns both mask kits please give me some clue.

Thanks for every advice!

Thanks Conrad. I never know that before!

And the temp for that development was 20 Celcius (I mixed with cold water).

After I left the mixture at room temp now all that crystals are completely dissolved. I used that solution to mix with equal volume of water which diluted it to regular strength working solution and developed 2 rolls of Delta 32oo at 9 min., the negatives came out beautifully. At EI of 1600 I have the best tonal/shadow detail quality. So I don't have to keep this mixture inrefrigerator like Rodinal or T-Max developer.

Hello again, Thanks for every valuable opinion. I'll try bringing the bottle back to room temp to see that the crystal will dissolve completely or not.

Hello All,

I just began darkroom processing B&W film. After using Rodinal for

a while (I started off with this soup due to its convenience of mixing

and storage) I want to try another chemical which may offer finer

grain, I chose D-76 to be another choice. I have only one 2-Litre

corrugated bottle so I decided to mix the whole powder in 1.9 litre of

warm water instead of 3.8 litre as per instruction. The powder easily

dissolved, I then later poured all solution in that corrugated bottle

and kept in a refrigerator. When I took the bottle out to make a 1:1

(with plain water)working stock solution I noticed that part of the

chemical was already crystallized in the bootle, I can feel that by

shaking the bottle, it can be easily felt like you are shaking the

bottle of water with small ice cubes! I tried shaking further wishing

that the crystals will be dissolved. But after a while some of the

crystals still remain undissolved. I don't want to waste time by

letting the whole bottle to return to room temp (in my house that's

about 28 Celcius) how can I correct this problem? Or is it because I

did it incorrectly from the start by not strictly follow the dilution

advised? Anybody with an answer? Thanks for your advice.

Well, well, well...I heard a member in spotmatic group complaining about the protruding part of the Bessaflex prism housing interfering with mounting the Takumar lenses. It's the auto-manual SW that cause this trouble. The solution is just use the lens in macro mode by adding a short extension tube, then you cannot have infinity focus. IMHO, I'll stick to my old faithful Spotmatic F.

Hello Paul,

I recently acquired a second-hand Minolta Scan Dual IV in new condition, I have been using an Epson 3170 for quite a while. That flat-bed scanner is fine for MF negatives and trannies but not close to "being usable" for any 35mm film type.

I downloaded a new driver from Minolta-USA (the man who sold this SD-IV told me that the new driver is better than the one came in a supplied CD-ROM from factory). After careful fine-tuning I tried scanning from my color negs, B&W negs and some slides. Everything was smooth and the images came out bright and clear. I have never had problem like the scanner stops working after the sixth or fifteenth scan. The new driver I downloaded is very easy to work with. For cost-concious serious amateur I wholeheartedly recommend this scanner.

Here is my link.....

http://www.pantip.com/cafe/blueplanet/topic/E3757415/E3757415.html

Hi! Folks, I just finished my trip to Sydney. I shot lots of photos with my

spotmatic F (with SMC 35/3.5). I will try posting some for you.....

Congratulations!! And welcome to the world of Chinese TLR. I own both Seagull TLR (4A-104) and a folder (203-1), both are wonderful MF cameras. They can't compare to my Rolleiflexes but not far behind! Enjoy!!!

Folks!!! These are great photos!! Lots of tonal variation and detailed sharpness. Two thumbs Up!!!

Bob, for $5 that's a steal. I bought one for about $25!! For stationary work I prefer the crank winder.

Hi! Folks,

I got two Seagulls, a 4A-104(with 3 element lens) and a 203-II (second version of folding 6x6, 6x4.5) both have hot shoes. The TLR one with rapid winding crank is a better one, both were bought new though, both are old stock. They can produce sharp pictures when stop down below 5.6 and they are really fun to shoot.