gnashings

<p>English is her second language for sure - well, not first at any rate, I agree with JDM on the origins of her accent. Don't know who she is, but I am sure she made some boy very happy.</p>

<p>They're handsome, purposeful looking machines, aren't they? I think some banality is in order!</p>

<p>Its ok, Ana, English is my second language too - you're doing just fine:) I actually don't know if the word "prong" is the right word, I just couldn't think of a better way to describe it.</p>

<p>The "spring" is not visible through the battery compartment, it is under the metal pieces, pushing it up into the battery compartment. </p>

<p>Tin or aluminium foil is used for food packaging and cooking, can be had from any grocery store, dollar store or indeed the Evil Empire - I mean WalMart :)</p>

<p>The way I see it there are two ways of going about this - the prong on the bottom of the batt. compartment is spring loaded, but there is no actual spring visible in the compartment, just a metal prong.<br>

Can you see any portion of this metal prong protruding from the bottom of the compartment? Even if its stuck in the down position, but visible, you could make up the thickness with tin foil, just to make sure there is contact.<br>

If its not visible at all, that means it must have somehow broken and fallen into the camera, and that would require taking the camera apart to find.<br>

I would not suggest springs, they are fiddly and hard to deal with, aluminium foil will work, either on the + or - side, which ever you find easier.</p>

<p>If i had to guess, I would say the metal prong on the bottom has become stuck in the retracted position, and with a little nudging might pop back out. This is probably due to corrosion or just dirt accumulating over the years (these cameras are old and we can't be sure how they were treated...). Try pushing the contact (if it is visible) on the bottom and see if you can get it to pop out. It should stick out at least 4mm in extended position, anything less and you have one that's stuck.</p>

<p>One more thing - I looked at my AE1, just to see if something jumps out at me - there is a metal, spring loaded prong on the bottom of the compartment which contacts the bottom of the battery.<br>

Perhaps it is stuck in the compressed position? It needs to be sticking out approx 3-4mm, and can be easily pressed down with a finger (you should feel the spring tension, firm but easily moved with a finger). I presume that if there was any kind of contamination or corrosion around the spring loaded prong, it might not be a) contacting the battery properly and b) making the battery physically loose in the compartment.</p>

<p>Hope this helps:)</p>

<p>Ana,</p>

<p>The AE1 is an electronically controlled camera, the battery is needed to power all camera functions, including shutter and meter (I don't even recall if it has a mechanical "limp" mode, I haven't used mine in a while). I wonder if the old battery was the correct one? My first suggestion would be to follow the advice above, if the correct battery doesn't fit then I am at a loss.</p>

<p>Every time my New F1 acted out like that, a new battery solved it.</p>

<p>Handsome cameras both! Good prices too, especially since they look just about pristine. I have resisted the Soviet era RF's for a long time... but I don't know how much longer I can hold out. </p>

<p>Lovely photos - both of and from the camera. And I can't agree enough with your assessment of the design of this lovely camera, it certainly looks gorgeous.</p>

<p>I think "a different perspective" is my favourite.</p>

<p>I did have a chuckle at "<em>..extremely old structure, possibly 19th century</em>" :) I guess that's a matter of perspective, and the North American perspective is much akin to a tween saying "Eeeewww! He's like, old - like 30 or something!!!". :)</p>

<p>Old camera bodies enter our lives not to be adapted, but to adapt US... read: be an excuse to buy more lenses:) Mmmmm....pretty Zuikos...mmmmmm</p>

<p>Paperweight or... project? Can't make it any more "not working", although I suppose you could cause yourself some mental health issues trying to pick something like this apart. Then again, mental health is not a prerequisite on CMC, as a matter of fact it just gets in the way:)</p>

<p>Cliff - "Absolute Mints" - priceless !!! :)</p>

<p>Rick - The Human Gee Gnome, now that one makes me crack up, as did Tom's "gnomenclature" :D</p>

<p>I wonder if they ever OOF and DOF until the BOKEH the house down?</p>

<p>Ver eye kum fromm, dat ees ROMANS!</p>

<p>Rick, I try not to shoot my mouth off, but I get jealous and then boom! gnomes exposed! But threats against the plastic butterfly really concern me, the television doesn't seem to work without it and then I can't watch my stories... ;)</p>

<p>And a Helios 44M fan too... hmm... one of my faves! I was actually thinking of a banality filled little post to sing the praises of that lens. Truth is, I keep coming back to it time and again, even with more shiny 50's at hand... Part of it is sentiment, but a huge part is the fact I just like the way it makes things look!</p>

<p>Sorry - meant to say that my SOLIGOR (m42 mount) has the pedigree of a sewer rat, not your Makinon.</p>

<p>mangyu - with a camera like the AE1, I would suggest you just trust the meter, its really rather good if you just learn to understand what it "sees".<br>

You do NOT need to adjust exposure from lens to lens. The pictures, IF the lens is ok, and the meter is ok and your exposure was right and the shutter speeds are ok, should also... be OK. If your exposure is (purely for example) f4 @ 1/250th of a second, it will be that regardless of the lens you are using. (yes, I know there are T numbers and issues that arise from bellows, etc, and yes, I am generalizing a little bit - but I think that statement is 99.9% accurate for most photographic situations).</p>

<p>As a matter of experimentation you can mount your standard 50mm lens, stop it down to f2.8, then move the DOF preview lever on the left side of the lens mount and see what it looks like, then do the same at f4. You will see how dark f4 actually is compared to f1.4 or 1.8!</p>

<p>Still, the proof is always in the finished products, if you want to be as close to sure as you can be, run a roll of slide through it - that way you eliminate any variables of printing, etc.</p>

<p>You see, because Rick employs terrorized garden gnomes as slave labour to actually blur the background in the actual scene, its kind of hard to compete ;)</p>

<p>Jokes aside, its no secret that the longer focal lengths have a great effect, and the appearance of the out of focus areas is usually buttery-smooth even with lenses that have the pedigree of a sewer rat (like my 135 f3.5SC Canon lens, or the 135 f2.8 Makinon). I found that the short tele formulation has been so well researched and developed that even very pedestrian lenses are really rather good and very nice for portraiture especially. <br>

Still - I think there is some magic to that Komura, Rick's obvious skill and talent aside - it was remarkably silky.</p>

<p>I rather like #4 - its a very nice pic.</p>

<p>very vivid, lovely shots - velivialiscious :D</p>

<p>People in the rain always seem to be in a hurry, always seem to be fixated on their destinations - I think the slow shutter really contributed to conveying that feeling one gets when looking at people rushing in a hard rain. Great pics, interesting post as always - thank you!</p>

<p>Thanks for sharing those with us - and good point about the perception of a "guy with an OLD camera" being much different than a "guy with a camera":)<br>

I especially like the shot of the girl on the bench, lovely pose, very natural. Gotta love the firetrucks too - all that chrome!</p>

<p>These are amazing shots, and a real tribute to what happens when the most rudimentary of tools is used with skill and vision.</p>

<p>You know, I really stopped being "down" with the lomography thing when it became... well, "the lomography thing"... prior to that, I thought Holgas and the like where interesting in their own, imperfect way. I still do, I like m Holga and love some of the images I got from it, love the break from the usual approach to shooting - it feels like it actually takes me back to the days of "child-like wonder" if you will, you know, when cameras where magical boxes and you didn't really fully believe any mount of numbers could dictate if a picture comes out - some higher power was involved and you always felt like that "power" smiled upon you when "something came out!".. Anyhow - I digress, I got way off topic. Very interesting post, and and striking images.</p>

<p>I hate U2...</p>

<p>I don't see a reply yet, so I'll weigh in with some very, very generalized information - never having done this on a nikon lens. Usually I found that there are metal tabs of some sort that stop the focusing at min and infinity. Generally once these are gone you should be able to do just what you described, which is screw the barrel off. In my experience with other lenses, you can get the barrell "started" onto the threads in more than one place during re-assembly, so please scribe (index) the pieces before taking them off so as not to cause yourself to reassembly the whole lens and find out focus is out of whack. </p>

<p>If this is no more info/experience than you already have, I apologize, if not, I hope it helps, at least until someone else weighs in.</p>

<p>If it helps, and you haven't seen it yet, <a href="00Yx52">this thread</a> has a picture by a fellow CMC'er of fully disassembled nikkor 50, but I believe its a newer lens - still... its an "exploded" view, and if nothing else, a very nice image:)</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>You totally suck at banality Rick ;)</p>

<p>Awesome story!:D Gotta love dogs, and when things like this happen you kinda feel like there is some good vibe left in the universe lol</p>

<p>John - I certainly don't think the results suffer any for he format choice, I was merely curious having never shot IR sheet film - I imagine you would have to give particular care to shape your film holders are in, and perhaps HCB's famed "decisive moment" would happen to shift from exposure to expenditure :D </p>