steven_kembel

p.s. i shoot close up photos of Astro Boy with it<div></div>

Our department photo guy shoots all his staff portraits with Tech Pan, really nice skin tones and no grain whatsoever. It was almost like he had used a orange or red filter, the skin tones were very creamy. Definitely not just a high contrast film... I've developed it to ASA 50 (shot at EI 50 as well) in HC-110 B and it wasn't too contrasty at all and the grain was so fine I had trouble focusing on it when printing from 35mm negs.

Here's another vote for dropping the ratings system, but still allowing people to post comments and put photos up for critique.

 

The whole ratings business has turned into a giant pissing contest, with numerous people abusing the system to (I can only assume) see their name in lights on the top rated photographers list and top-rated photos list until the next idiot comes along with a dozen mediocre snapshots which they and their friends all give "10/10" scores to. The only thing more ridiculous than this practice is the fact that so many people put credence in the ratings system and get upset when an anonymous fool gives their beautiful photo 1/10. Scrap numeric ratings, keep the comment system, and you will avoid wasted bandwidth, abuse and aggravation.

Keith is correct - you should be able to buy an adapter which screws over the shutter release button and allows you to attach a "normal" cable release to your camera. The adapters apparently also work on some old Nikon and Leica cameras, I've heard them called a "Leica nipple". I recently purchased one new for cheap at the local camera store. Describe your problem and they can probably help you find one.

You can use any manual/auto flash with your camera, and the nice thing is that it will sync at any shutter speed. An old flash with PC connection, or a hot shoe to PC adapter, will allow you to use a flash with the Yashica Mat.

You really should use the search function of photo.net in the future - a quick search for something like "Yashica Mat flash", "TLR flash", or "Yashica Mat cable release" would have answered both your questions in less time than it took me to type out this reply.

Thanks very much to everyone who replied. I sent the Yashica D down to Mark Hama in Georgia who did a beautiful job of repairing it for a very good price. In addition to repairing the Bulb setting, he replaced several sticky shutter blades and installed a small screw which prevents the flash setting from slipping to the M setting! I recommend his services very highly. The camera obviously just needed a CLA and some TLC, IMHO.

I recently purchased a nice old Yashica-D TLR camera. It's in great

shape, very clean and the shutter seems to work properly for all

speeds except for B! When I set the speed to B and fire the shutter,

the shutter opens for around 1/125th, even when I hold the shutter

release button down. I've tried holding the shutter release button

down with the lens set at the range of apertures available on the

camera, and the shutter will not stay open. I would like to use this

camera for low-light shots with a tripod, so obviously I want to fix

this problem.

Is this a typical problem for a camera in need of a CLA, or could

there be some other (hopefully simpler and cheaper) explanation? I've

looked around quite a bit and haven't found any other discussions of

this problem. It seems that usually the problem is shutter sticking

open, not failure to 'stick' open, which is why I'm wondering if

cleaning the shutter would really help with this problem. I'm hesitant

to spray a bunch of alcohol into my camera or something, without a

good reason to do so. Thanks for any info you have!

For a Yashica D manual, try the following:

http://www.doctorvision.com/Yashica-D

Gerlof,

 

I also recently picked up a Gossen Sixtomat 2 electronic meter. This meter is different from the Sixtomat Digital which the previous poster mentioned. I haven't been able to find any information on this particular light meter - I'm not sure if it's a rare one, or if it was manufactured under several different names. If you find any information about this meter, or find a merchant that actually carries old manuals for this meter, I'd love to hear from you.

 

As far as the batteries go, this meter takes 1.35V mercury batteries. Mine came with two "Eveready EPX625" button batteries. Apparently these batteries are hard to come by in North America - do a search on photo.net for 'gossen batteries' or something similar to find out more about it. Apparently these meters can be re-calibrated by Gossen to work with standard alkaline batteries of the sort you can buy in North America.

 

Hope that helps - I'd sure appreciate any info you can offer about this meter. In reflected mode, mine seems to recommend exposures a bit slower than the readings my SLR's meter gives me, and I'd like to know how to calibrate it. I've also gotten inconsistent results when I slide the white dome over the light cell for incident readings.

 

Cheers,

Steve

skembel@ualberta.ca