charles_miller5

Well, no, they are inserted correctly, and they're brand new Energizer 386 button batteries.

Funny, the shutter doesn't open at all without batteries in it. The shutter DOES open with

batteries in there, but it stays open for as long as I hold the release... Which would be fine

for timed shots, I guess, but I want my auto-shutter back.

One other thing... The Nimslo Opti-Flash, which tests normal and functioning properly by

itself, won't fire when attached to the cameras. Neither of the cameras. I'm starting to

wonder if the battery contacts are sufficiently gummed-up to disrupt the power. I'll have

to dig out a pencil eraser and clean 'em up, see what happens.

I just realized that this year, 2007, the infamous Nimslo 3D camera turned 25 years old. Which makes it

an antique, if not a classic.

In honor of the occasion, I dug out my two Nimslo 3Ds and loaded them with their required 386

batteries, just to test them and keep their components moving.

And I was sort of surprised to find that the automatic shutters aren't responding anymore ? I mean, the

shutter remains open for as long as I hold the shutter release, although the thing is supposed to self-

adjust its shutter speed per lighting conditions. And both Nimslo cameras are misbehaving in this

fashion.

I remember once reading somewhere that the photosensitive eye of the Nimslo requires exposure to

bright light for a period of time before it will function properly, but I can't confirm that as yet.

Yes, I know the Nimslo doesn't fall into the "before 1970" category, but I still collect these old flash-in-

the-pan cameras, so you'll have to pardon me. Anyone else out there have experience with the Nimslo

3D and its peculiar shutter behavior? Thanks for your time & advice, folks!

? Charles Miller

Wonder if the apparent condensation spots are not from humidity, but from a previously

attempted lube job? A little too much petroleum-based lube, a little too much heat, and

there could be a potential for petrol vaporization, if you know what I mean. :0

<p>

Well, yes, I figured that lever was there to release the ring, but it doesn't. Those lever/

tabs, like everything else, are frozen and ineffectual.

<i>I grew up hearing stuff like "Japanese products are made from beer cans", etc. Stories

like that are perpetuated by people who were blindsided by nimble competition or feel

threatened by rapid change.</i>

<p>

Point of fact, a great number of Japanese tin toys from the 50s and 60s <i>were</i>

made from tin cans and other recycled bits. And not in the modern sense of recycling, but

in the sense that old cans were simply squashed flat and die-stamped into new shapes.

<p>

In another and more lucrative area of collecting---that of tin litho toys and robots from

the 50s and 60s, the great majority of which were manufactured in Japan---it's generally

accepted that any given specimen of wind-up toy may very well bear a lithographed coffee

or tea or tobacco tin label on the inside.

<p>

So, no, stories such as that aren't perpetuated by slackjawed xenophobes---stories such

as that happen to have a strong basis in fact. Fact that has seemingly escaped those who

haven't thoroughly researched the subject. :)

<i>Gosh, sorry, I must have made a mistake then. The cameras I have that were made in

Japan during the decades following WWII were junk. I mean, we're told this in CAPITALS, so

it must be true.</i>

<p>

Stop apologizing for everything, Peter. Seems like your every sarcastic utterance is

prefaced with <i>sorry</i> this and <i>sorry</i> that. It's not your fault that your

information is as defective as your attitude, so there's no need to constantly apologize.

Nobody likes that. Now, be a good lad and go play in the garden.

Not exactly sure of the year (appears to be early to mid-1960s), here's a pretty little Tenax

in excellent cosmetic condition, but with some major problems, I think.

Does advance okay, and shutter releases okay---but, about 25% of the time, shutter

releases WHILE advancing, all by itself. Also, my F-stop ring is frozen, shutter speed is

frozen---nothing between the camera body and the rubber hood can be adjusted. I see

no signs of corrosion or gunk, inside or out. And I don't want to use brute force, although

it's coming to that. Any ideas? Danke!<div></div>

Well, yes, most televisions in the 60s were still tube-type, and we had a tube-type TV well

into the 1970s... But that doesn't mean it was the cutting edge of technology. The cutting

edge was transistor technology (developed by Texas Instruments in the late 1940s), which

is what allowed us to start miniaturizing radios, TVs, computers and cameras, among

other things.

Within the context of this thread, I think the suggestion was that the Traid Fotron might

somehow be a product of tube-type technology; and my contention was that the Fotron,

bulky as it was, was more likely a product of transistor technology, given all of the

features crammed into it. :)

Charles Miller

Kings Mountain, NC

I know that, for decades following WWII, the "Made in Japan" legend was indeed

synonymous with junk. Make no mistake, it WAS junk.

The intent of the Western occupiers of Japan following the war was that Japan should NOT

return, at least not quickly, to its full technological glory. We DIRECTED the industrial and

economic reconstruction of Japan, steering it into the production of small, cheap, mass-

produced items, which could contribute to the recovering Japanese economy without

contributing to great advances in Japanese technology (read as military technology). So,

for many years, Japan produced wooden matches, tin wind-up toys, handheld transistor

radios, and myriad cheap novelties almost exclusively. This was OUR doing, and it was

intentional.

As it happened, though, these mass-produced items became the backbone of the

Japanese economy, so they just continued investing in the industry, and in the process

invented newer and better ways to operate and manage mass-production facilities. Japan

eventually became THE MODEL for mass-production business around the world, and that's

when "Made in Japan" became synonymous with efficiency and high quality technology.

Well, this is late 1960s technology, which was transistorized (not tube), but by no means is

this thing micro-miniaturized. The Fotron in the picture above is a solid 9" long (including

hand strap) x 5" tall x 3" thick. The camera has a built-in flash, is rechargeable (with

multiple internal capacitors and a kitchen appliance-sized power cord), and has a built-in

power winder. The Fotron owner manual describes the indicator lights as "neon" and

describes the camera as programmable (you select distance by push button control). And

this thing was on the street years before other cameras went all-electric. Sheesh.

To me, the Fotron is a real enigma, but I can understand its failure---this is just NOT a

practical size or weight for a recreational camera, especially when the competition was a 6

oz Kodak Instamatic.

Charles Miller

Kings Mountain, NC

Yes, for laughs I picked up a very clean and possibly functional Traid Fotron, just to hold

the thing one time... What was Traid Corp thinking? Is this enormous, tastelessly sculpted

brick for real? Do you think they actually intended to take consumer-level photography by

storm, or was this (as the story goes) just a con-job to defraud people door-to-door?

I mean, if it was a lightweight and fragile plastic box, I could more readily accept the fraud

idea... But this gigantic thing weighs 3 pounds easily, and is cram-packed with mysterious

technology. By "mysterious" I don't mean ALIEN technology, necessarily, but "mysterious"

as in WHY THE HECK DID THEY DO IT?

I don't suppose there's any way to use this King Kong today, with its sealed 828 film

cartridge only processed by Traid Corp (which mercifully stopped making the things). But

has anybody tried to jerry-rig a film cartridge and process a few pics with the Fotron? I'd

like to see the results and hear any other comments on the monstrosity. :)

Charles Miller

Kings Mountain, NC<div></div>

Where can I purchase 616 B/W for my Kodak Six-16? The stuff I've

found so far is extraordinarily expensive---like, $20 for an 8

exposure roll. Is this just the price I pay for having a Six-16?

Well, I was a traditional hands-on commercial artist & photographer until 1984. I worked

with everything from retail SLRs up to Argyle process cameras, mixed my own chemistry

and recycled silver, the works. A very stinky business.

In 1984 I jumped on the desktop publishing bandwagon (in spite of the limited software at

the time), and pretty much abandoned my traditional roots. In the last 22 years, I've

mastered digital scanning and photo retouching, so much so that I'm now the marketing

manager of a global business software company.

Lately I've pursued a few fun side jobs rebuilding damaged photos for friends, family and

some customers---for example, taking 80-year-old family photos creased and ripped to

shreds and reassembling them digitally. In one instance, a friend of mine in Norway sent

an old set of 1940s reject negatives that had never been printed, and he wanted to see the

images "brought to life," to use his words. Pleasant surprise, the photos were from a

picnic in the Norwegian countryside, featuring his departed mother, her sister and her

brother, and he was thrilled to see the photos for the first time ever, albeit 60 years after

the fact.

In fact, it was that experience that convinced me to dig out my old cameras and try to get

back into actual prehistoric photography as a hobby. With all the instant gratification of

digital cameras and back-lit scanners, I had almost forgotten that sense of anticipation as

you process your film, kind of like waiting for Christmas to open presents.

Charles Miller

Kings Mountain, NC<div></div>

I'm sure that more than a few of you folks process your own film and prints, just as I used

to do many moons ago. Today I'm getting back into B/W shooting and vintage cameras,

but I'm NOT sure I want to build-up another full scale darkroom, 90% of which would be

devoted to print processing.

Instead, I'd like to process film only, then go straight to a digital film scanner with my

negatives. I mean, I can develop a can of film in a 2-square-foot daylight glove box with

my eyes closed, no problem. And with negative scanning technology so affordable, why

not just go straight to the screen?

My question is, do you good people process your own film and skip the print process as

I'm describing? Any hints or tips to bring me up to speed as I creep back into the hobby?

Thanks for your kind replies! :)

Charles miller

Kings Mountain, NC

No, I don't turn to eBay for every trifling purchase. It is a good gauge of what's available,

however. I would prefer to purchase online, as I live out in the foothills of the Smoky

Mountains, with no easy access to retail outlets.

Google returned about a half-million hits for 200mfd 30v capacitors, associated with

scores of applications, but I'm not on an Easter egg hunt. I've inquired directly to Radio

Shack---their online product listings are rather limited.

CM

RE: "200 microfarad 30 volt capacitor"

Well, this isn't an easy find on eBay. Is there a classic camera supply online that carries

this capacitor?

Again, thanks for your help!

CM

When you say "brown," are you talking about the yellowish-beige skin? I personally think

it's the prettiest, especially in contrast to the black & silver fittings. :)

CM<div></div>

Finally picked up an original Argus hotshue flash to try on my Argus C-Four.

The flash is in mint condition, but it's a bit perplexing. Inside the battery case, I see two

beds for what I would THINK were AA batteries. The designation inside the battery case,

however, reads "B.BATTERY 22.5v" in one bed and "CAPACITOR" in the other bed.

I experimentally plugged in a couple of fresh AA batteries (both + poles pointing up, as

indicated inside the battery case), and tried a #5 bulb, mounting the thing on an Argus C-

Four... Nada, zilch, no fire at all. The test light wouldn't come on, either, but that didn't

surprise me, and I was starting to wonder if the bulb was bad.

Started to remove the flash from the hotshue, and BAP! the flash went off right in my eyes.

Saw blue dots for 5 minutes. Once recovered, I mounted the flash on my OTHER Argus C-

Four and went through the whole routine again---nothing happened when I depressed the

shutter release. Tried a remote release, still nothing. Then jiggled the unit a little and

BAP! the thing flashed again (not in my eyes this time).

Okay, that's $2 worth of #5 bulbs I've wasted, and I'm not any smarter. At this point I

decided to look for help, which is why I'm here. I assume the flash circuitry is intact, as

the bulbs keep flashing (just at the wrong time). What, then, is the secret to making this

thing work properly, and why is it not firing in synch with my shutter release on two

separate cameras?

Thanks in advance for your reply and assistance. :)

CM