SCL

<p>Another way of accomplishing the correction is if you have eyedroppers for the white and black points, use them....the blue haze instantly disappeared when I tried it out on your shot (although the color was still slightly off due to mixed quality of light from the flash and ambient light).</p>

<div></div>

<p>Choices of various lenses on the bellows, different magnification ratios - on the plus side. Typically heavier and more unwieldy than a macro lens on a body.</p>

<p>My catalog #42, dated 1/1/69 shows some of the following prices:<br> M4 w/o lens $309, black w/o lens $339, with 50mm Elmar f/2.8 $390, with 50mm rigid Summicron $459, with 50mm Summicron DR f/2 & OVU $498, with 50mm Summilux f/1.4 $537. I bought mine earlier thru a USN purchasing program for a good discount.</p> <p>The Leicameter MR-4 was $51 or $57 in black. The bright line optical finder for 35mm lenses was $37.50.</p> <p>The Leicaflex SL w/o lens was $483. A Focomat IIC with lamp, 60 & 100mm Elmar f/4.5 lenses, baseboard, double condenser, upright, illuminated magnification indicator and color filter holder was $1086.</p>

<p>The Black Canyon is quite interesting. Years ago my wife & I decided to hike it in late Oct. When we returned to the parking lot about 8 hrs after starting the ranger read us the riot act...telling us the trail had been closed due to landslides (of course it wasn't posted, even though we signed the book in the ranger's trailer), and it was the 1st day of hunting season...guess who wasn't wearing anything red!</p> <p>Anyway, I agree you are trying to fit in too much in the short time...narrow it down and enjoy yourself.</p>

<p>I saw a meteor from my deck before going out. So, enthusiastically at the appointed time I trudged my camera, tripod and collapsible hunting chair about a block & half to an area which is reasonably protected from surrounding lights. The sky was only partially clear, but it seemed to be an on-off thing...I watched the stars for a while then did my exposures for the next 1/2 hour....never physicallt saw a meteor, but figured the there were some captured on the camera. Eagerly rushed back home to check it out....thousands of stars, no meteors. Went on to the NASA site, and the messages were flying in....nobody anywhere seeing meteors, North America, South America, Switzerland, etc. Mentioned it to my daughter this am, and she said her friends who stayed up were disappointed as well. So, I guess next shot is August. BTW, I"ve found that ISO 500, f5.6 for 30 sec. with a 20mm lens on my Nikon D300 works great for these type shots.</p>

<p>You can ignore the lightmeter on your Spotmatic if you desire, it doesn't control exposure, merely helps you decide what the proper exposure is. Most M42 auto diaphragm lenses will stop down at exposure time...some hade an auto/manual switch on them which allows you the choice of automatic stop down at exposure time or manually stopped down both when metering/viewing and at exposure time. You can easily mount the lens on your body (no film in the camera), set it to a slow shutter speed, and observe if the lens is stopping down at exposure or remains wide open.</p>

<p>It's simply a case of good light and exposure, introducing flare in some of the shots then undersaturating the photos in post processing.</p>

<p>I've bought many mfr. (not 3rd party) refurbs....Canon, Nikon, Olympus....all from reputable dealers with reasonable return policies. Never had a problem with any of them.</p>

<p>I take my hat off to you....that must have been quite a challenge, and the end result (even if the 2 speeds are still problematic), is just spectacular. Thank you for sharing the story and pictures with us.</p>

<div></div>

<p>Not the Yashica Electro! The 35 was produced for about a year as Yashica's entry into the world of fixed lens rangefinders (not interchangeable lenses as in their offfshoot versions of the Leica III series bodies). I found this one in pieces...that is, the shutter timing escapement had been fully disassembled and was in a plastic bag. The front covering of the camera body was peeling, the front element of the lens was scratched and had plenty of cleaning marks...but the camera just looked really neat. So I replaced the front covering with material I had on hand..it sort of matches the back. Cleaned the lens as best as I could and collimated it. I thought I could figure out how to put the escapement back together, but the little gears and springs are hidden beneath the top cover of the escapement mechanism in all the texts I can find. Nevertheless the camera fires at bulb and approximately 1/250 sec. even with the escapement missing. To my surprise, the rangefinder was spot on...a little hazy, but why tamper with something which works. So I decided to reassemble the lens and shroud and see if the camera was even worth my time and effort to try to fix. Given my county has been declared a disaster area due to flooding, and I am less than a mile from the river, but on high ground, I decided to shoot in a nearby town where the river had crested about 15 ft above normal levels, and then go to a relatively undiscovered forest preserve between my home and the river, which is also on high ground...to test out the camera and lens. First the obligatory picture of the camera itself.</p><div></div>