battra92

What a nifty little TLR. From the quality of the photos it looks like a good shooter to take out.

Nice photos as well.

Always cool to teach the youngest generation the three Cs (Cameras, Cars and Chicks)

All joking aside, those are some really great shots for a 5 year old. Hopefully this might start a hobby for the boy and he'll accumulate shoeboxes full of photos like most of us did as kids.

My first photos weren't until I was 11 or so. Once my mom discovered 35mm, her 110 camera was mine to play around with and take "pretend photos." Eventually Mom and Dad bought me some film and got it developed, though they made me be frugal in my shots (my Dad was between jobs durring that time so I was really only allowed one 110 cartridge for a special occasion, like a school trip) After that, I got my first 35 when I was either in the 8th or 9th grade when the 100 bit the dust. They gave me an Olympus P&S and I really didn't get anything "serious" until I entered college.

<i>I'd suggest you try a Holga for awhile. When you've thoroughly mastered that - get back to us with the results.</i>

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Ya know, I actually do reccomend classics like a fully manual TLR and toys like the Holga to people starting in photography as it is a good disiplinary school to get into.

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For example I've been trying to disipline myself by limiting myself to only using my Argoflex EF and my Yashica 44 (though i tend to use the latter more sparingly due to the much higher cost of 127 film).

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Oh, and someone mentioned earlier about how they thought it was a bad thing for someone to say that they were using a classic camera when everyone else had DSLRs hooked to laptops. Personally I don't see anything wrong with someone being happy in the fact that they are using a way that is different from what most people seem to see is the only way to go.

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A good analogy is like if everyone in town owns a little reliable Japanese car with all sorts of new gadgets and what not. All the cars are genereally the same and are pretty borring. Now once I was admiring a 1970(I think) Oldsmobile Cutlass convertable in mint condition and mentioned it to a friend. His responce, "Yeah and it'd be so hard to drive and getting parts would be a pain and blah blah blah." Now he's perfectly happy with his little Nissan and more power to him, but sometimes being different and using a classic is just more fun for some of us. </p>

I know I'm too late here, but my suggestion would've been to take apart the cassette and unload the film (needless to say, in total darkness of a darkroom) and dry it off using a set of "squeege tongs" - or in a pinch between your pointer and middle fingers. Then put the film inside a light tight canister and then take it to the lab.

The only thing I do wonder about is how these things happen. I know I've done some odd things in my life but when it comes to film, it's a good idea to have a little pouch or something with you at all times for film. Of course this gets worse when you deal with rollfilm.

Okay, best I can tell is that the little lever that sets exposure is supposed to turn this dial which has the values on it. I took off the front and really couldn't quite see how it was slipping.

Basically, it would go so far and then slip, but then pull all the way back. and beyond the 3.5 setting. Since this looks like a big job, I might just make a sticker and affix it to the side with the f/stops to correspond with where the lever should be. I'm not the world's greatest technician so ...

<i>Among film cameras, I don't regard box cameras, including the ones with big finders that masquerade as TLRs, as particularly good tools. I respect very few pocketable folders, no matter what format, and very few fixed lens cameras.</i>

I wasn't aware anyone did regard box cameras as good tools. They're fun to use to point and pray, as a nostalgia trip or what not but I wasn't aware that they were considered by anyone to be high quality tools.

I really like the first photo. Churches are a favorite subject of mine for photography so perhaps I'm a bit biased.

Still, very nice work.

>>You could always buy a sheet and cut your own.

Very true. I also need to find some little screws to fit the front plate. ;) Though this could be an interesting project, I just don't want to ruin my best 127.

I have a Yashica 44 that has an odd problem. Now the aperature iris

opens and closes just fine, the problem is the little counter near the

shutter speed that doesn't want to move. It always stay 5.6 and thus I

have to sort of guess. Some of the front screws are missing so I think

it was monkied with in the past but I think most of the screws taken

out were just holding the leatherette on as nothing in the front is

loose at all. Either way, the camera does work so I'd like to turn it

into a reliable shooter. Any ideas on how to remedy this short of

sending it out? And what would sending it out run me in terms of cost?

It's my main 127 shooter so I'm hoping I can get it tuned into a well

working piece of equipment.

Also, I was able to get this camera fairly cheap since it's missing a

lot of the leatherette. Does anyone know a place I can get good

reproduction leatherette for the Yashica 44 to apply?

I personally use classic cameras mostly because I find them at a much higher quality at my price range. Also, I tend to think that they are great educational tools for me.

Personally, I am a college student who hopes to look into photography as a possible career/side work. Since I am an amateur/student I want to basically learn as much as I can about the craft and thus I go through a lot of film and generally take 2-3 cameras with me at a time. I own and use rangefinders, an SLR and a few TLRs (which I prefer) and have been known to use digital.

One thing that always amazes me, and this is not exclusive to film or cameras or anything like that, is how quick some people are to throw the baby out with the bathwater. If Nikon or Canon comes out with a higher MP DSLR, there are some who feel they need to go out and replace their 12MP with a 16MP so that they can take their 5 or 6 snapshots a month. Is it some sort of status symbol that they have that latest and greatest? Are they a higher amateur than this 22 year old college student often seen carrying around an Argoflex EF? ~_^

To me variety is the spice of life and at my budget, the DSLRs are much too high. My friend has offered to let me borrow his but I told him I honestly didn't think it would do anything better than the junk I play around with.

And one other thing I should mention is that a lot of classic cameras are pretty slick looking. Most of the modern SLRS and DSLRs are pretty bland so it's sometimes fun to carry around an art-deco styled classic, or wow people when you pull out a folder. To me that's part of the fun is that you look cool in a different way since you enjoy and get use out of the equipment you select.

But in the end, to each his own.

Actually, I'm working on building a slitter myself out of an old crappy Brownie Hawkeye. I can imaging the toughest part would be getting the X-acto or razor blade lined up just right, then the whole respooling. I can see myself doing this in the darkroom as a changing bag might be a little difficult. I also picked up some 120 canisters from JandC (a quarter a pop makes it a no brainer) so I can do a bunch at a time and seal them away.

Hopefully this will solve my super slide dilemna.

>I have difficulty enough deciding which camera to carry out the door

>with me, never mind a back-up!

I agree with this, 100%. Heck, tonight I went out with my Argoflex EF and my Yashica 44 (which I still need to finish a roll and see if I know how to handle and process 127 properly. ;) but for some reason I would've felt guilty if I didn't bring the N75 along.

My digitals are almost never used. Interesting that the hundreds I've spent in those digitals and they ended up being nothing but toys to me and the old manual classic TLRs are my real joys and my "serious" camera is a 35mm SLR.

>The Tri-Lausar is reputed to be "tres lausy",

Really, I thought it was "TRY as hard as you want to but the exposures will still be LOUSY" ~_^

If nothing else, it is a neat looking camera and the type you'd not mind re-leathering and customizing (if that's your thing)

Ouch is right. Though since it now works and the body was free and looks like it does, you could always do something silly like customize the exterior or what not.

By the way, how bad does it look when looking at the whole camera?

127 film is a very interesting format to say the least. As mentioned earlier the film emulsions are a little sparse but if you can get your backing papers and spools back from your lab, then you have whatever 120 offers available to you.

127 is not a cheap format, unfortunately. B&W, C-41 and E-6 emulsions are all around $5-6 a roll. Of course getting that developed can be tricky, but you can always use an A&I 120 mailer.

As stated earlier, let me also sing the praises of superslides. This is really the main reason to use the format since you can really wow your slideshow audience when you fill the screen up with a much larger picture after standard 35mm slides. By the way, anyone else still do slide shows?

One other thing, I keep hearing the rumor about Macochrome being discontinued which I sincerly hope is not true. Does anyone have a link to a credible press release or something? I've heard several contradicting reports about it and I'd like to know if I should buy my own freezer stock of Macochrome? Right now I only have about three rolls of it as well as three Ekfe R100 which I can recover the backing papers from so I should be set for a while.

I got mine a few weeks ago actually. It's a very nice catalog for wishlists and sometimes looking through a physical book is better than just browsing the website. I mean, there are so many things I'd never look up online that I become aware of thanks to this catalog.

Great stuff. :)