patrick_lewis2

Isn't kodachrome a completely different process than the walmart c-4 or whatever negative processing? I thought there is only like one lab in the country that still does kodachrome... so I heard.

I love these pictures! It inspires me to run some of my velvia though my no.1 pocket kodak. I was always a little hesitant because of the absence of a coating, but this proves that you can get some good results. It always pleases me to see what 100 year old technology can do. I've got a 3A model B4 - a beautiful camera - and I'll have to figure out how to rig it up with sheet film or 120. Thanks for posting the photos!

don't forget - it could be a yashica!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It turned out to be the rubber backing, like you said. I coated it with fabric paint, and it seems to have blacked it out, but I am yet to see the outcome of the test of time. Nothing to lose, since it's worthless without the shutter anyway. Thanks again.

Yeah, I don't blame the seller really. It's impossible to notice, unless you hold it up to the light. But I took the lens off right after I posted, and, lo and behold, the rubber stuff your talking about is peeled clean off of most of the second curtain. Would something like fabric paint work to seal the leak? I figure it's worth a try, since it will have to be replaced anyway. I really want to get it working, because everything else in in great shape. Thanks for the help.

I just received my new fed 2 from Ukraine today. It is great except for one

thing: light leaks through the shutter curtain - especially after it's cocked.

It looks like there may be a layer of fabric missing, but is there any other

thing that could be wrong? Also, is fixing these things an all-day event? Is

there any way of getting new shutter fabric material? Thanks for any help!

By the way, is fuji still making the superia 100 iso? I can't find it at walmart anymore. It is my favorite neg film. It has great sharpness and color. But I could only ever find it at walmart, but not anymore. They're not phasing it out are they?!

My costco still developes film. I have to say... they are the best at it, so far as in store processing goes. I always get crisp scans with good contrast and excellent color saturation.

 

This whole concept of eliminating film really annoys me. Yes, let's put all our images on media that will be worthless and unreadable in 30 years! It just seems so consistant with the disposable society that we live in. Now we take 10,000 basura images on digital cameras, only to end up with 10 that are decent. Just throw away the rest. Do we realize what a miracle and what worth the image is?!! Painters would spend months, years! to just create the likeness of their subject. Now we click a button. When they dig up our civilization 100 years from now, they'll find my film in a sealed vacuum tank, flawless. But all the cds (100 years being the lifespan of archival "gold" ones) will be long dead, along with any method or possibility of reading them.

 

So let's not say goodbye to our old friend, film. It is the ultimate "RAW" image, or "Digital Negative". It takes no microprocessor to interpret, other than the one that each of us has been endowed with by the creator of our beings. Film is a miracle. So is the digital sensor. But I prefer the tangeable medium. Long live Costco film processing!

I love the photos. I'm also amazed at the quality of the lenses of old cameras. I just printed some pictures from my No.1 Pocket Kodak last night, and I think it takes sharper photos than my Yashica tlr! People must've been brilliant 100 years ago to do what they did with what they had.

Good job! I still remember processing my first film. Then I made a contact print. I keep it for memories' sake. It's a good feeling. Printing is a little trickier, just because you have to deal with contrast, exposure, and stuff, but it is all worth it when you get "the print".

 

To Jeff Bishop, there definately is something magical about pulling slides out of the tank. I think the great sacrifice involved helps one appreciate them more (I refer to my own setup of a cooler in the sink and various bottles of chems heating to "precisely" 100 degrees, then agitating the tank and returning it to a pool of warm water). Much easier to take slides to a lab, but good to know that you COULD do it yourself when the digital empire outlaws it.

 

Go film.

That seems to make sense about the gummy cam. The self timer doesn't work unless I force it to, so I bet there are a lot of things that could be a little gummed up.

 

I think I may just take it to a repairman. Adjusting the focus seems like it may be a tedious and frustrating process. If it's not, are there any good resources that tell how to do just that? Thanks for all the help.

So I just got my "new" Voigtlander Vito B in the mail today. It has a Pronto

lense with f3.5 to f16. The shutter speeds are from 1/25 to 1//200th. The B

setting works fine, but all of the other shutter speeds appear the same when I

look through the lense and fire the thing. I even ran a roll of film through,

and the exposures are the same, regardless of the setting I had on it. The rest

of the camera is smooth and clean in operation.

 

Has anyone had experience with these, or know what could be the issue and how

to fix it? Thanks a bunch.

Well I took off the lense and screwed it back in closer to the body than before. Just got the film developed, and it seems a lot better. Now it just focuses a little beyond the intended length. Not perfect, but I think this is as good as it will get. Thanks for the help everyone!

Go topcon! I work for them!

 

This is way old, but I have a Kodak 3A model B-4. It is over a hundred years old, I think, and the shutter still works from one second to 1/100th, T, and B without problems. No light leaks in the bellows, either! Amazing craftsmanship.

Oh, and I haven't tried the ground glass method yet. That sounds like the best way to do it. I think I'll give it a go as soon as I can get the glass. thanks

hey thanks to you all. I'm new to photo.net, and I'm thoroughly impressed with the responses!

 

Yeah, it does seem contradictory that it can be in adjustment, but out of focus. I think I'll tinker with that screw you talked about. I fiddled with it before when I took the camera apart to clean it. I think that is what made the lense hit the gear cover, though. I tried an alternative position - one rotation more screwed in - and it had some bad results.

 

Maybe I'm expecting too much, but with the aperture open, things are never in satisfactory focus. Is there only so much accuracy that can be expected from this camera? It's no swiss watch, after all...

 

Thanks for all the help. I'll look into the things you all said. If I fail, then I'll consider adopting another c3 to niggle away my time on.

Thanks for the quick response. I checked the manual and made sure that I had installed the lense correctly, and the range of the wheel is exactly the same as it was. It stops right at infinity and 3 ft just as it should.

 

I did notice that the lense can be threaded in differently, so that the overall lense movement is closer to the film plane. But that way the lense hits the idler gear cover at infinity. So that can't be right.

 

My other theory is that the film does not lay flat in the chamber. I noticed that the gear spool sort of suspends the film above the resting spot. I have no idea whether the spring backing has enough force to press it down though.

 

Any additional suggestions would be great. Thank you!

I just wanted to find out if anybody else has had focus troubles with c3's,

even when the rangefinder is correctly calibrated. I've recently adjusted mine

so that the rangefinder seems dead on, but the camera always focuses too

close. It's really irritating me, since this is the umpteenth time

I've "fixed" the darn thing.

 

Has anybody else had the problem? I would like to know if this is just an

inherent thing with c3's or if mine is just crap. But I've seen some

impressive pictures taked with them, so I may be doing something wrong. And,

yes, I have seen all the repair manuals online. Before I try my luck with

another c3, I'd like to know if I'll be just as frustrated with any of them.

Thanks!