greg_nixon2

Thank you Woodrim for the images. It gives us/me a good idea of the different lenses capabilities.

I have used Ektar since it was introduced. Its touted as being the the finest film grain for a colour negative film. I was quite happy with it until I asked the lab to develop the negatives only, thinking I could scan it at home. I found that it it was very difficult to scan. I had difficulty getting the colour balance right. I got some acceptable prints but not as good as the ones that were developed and printed by the lab.

"Any film with "chrome" in the name is a slide film." Except for Verichrome

Good Job. Its very important to keep these out of Landfill.

It thought I was going to put it back together, but the camera had not finished me yet. I took the top plate off to see what was happening underneath there. I found the camera had some sticky lock levers. They will need to be cleaned and re-lubed. The last thing I was chasing was a loud squeeking noise when the lens tube was retracted back. It did not appear to be the gear that engaged with the helical gearing, rather it was on the gear or shaft connected the focus knob on the front of the camera. To get to that gear, the film spool housing has to be removed, then the spacer for top and bottom plate. Same again on the other side. Shaft and Bushing Gutted The Mystery Levers

I have spent a bit more time on this Medalist. There is not much more to say except for the lever on the top deck. It's referred to in the service manual as the upper range finder coupler arm (shown with red arrow). It should be chocked in place to stop the couplet bar from dropping down into the camera body. In the camera body it is coupled to this screw and lever assy (shown in red arrow second photo). The idea is to set the lever into its position on the upper deck and push the coupler bar into its place. This keeps the range finder coupling bar up in place until it can be put in the slot in the adjusting screw bracket. I don't know what else the bottom levers under the screw head do. There are actuating bars from the cocking lever (yellow arrow) and the range finder actuating bracket (orange arrow) near that screw head. Does anyone have a photo of how the spring in the coupler bar rod fits? Its time to clean up the old dry grease and put it all back together. Thanks every one for your input. I'll post some photos when its all working again. Cheers Greg

Thanks again Hunter. In the photo above I can clearly see the link stud (yellow arrow). In the photos that John posted, I can see the head of the adjusting screw acting on that stud. I still don't see the plate that the RF adjusting stud locks into. The hole for the lock stud has never been threaded or show any sign of use. The same with the RF adjusting screw. It is screwed fully in with without any signs of being used. The distance scale is being rotated, so something is acting on it. Thanks all for you input. I will continue trouble shooting. Greg

Thanks again for your responses. kmac John, that's an interesting idea but I cannot see what it would screw into or for that matter, what the adjusting screw bears upon. I'll post some more photos. Here are two more photos of the interior of the camera, with the focusing tube guide removed. This is a photo of the cutout end of the couplet bar. There's a screw and a couple of brackets. I don't know what they do, but they do impede the couplet bar being pushed fully up. In this position the bar can get caught up in the slot in the adjusting screw bracket. In the service manual there is a reference to this. And the fix is to set and chock the upper range finder coupling arm. All that happens on the mechanism plate under the range finder plate. It looks like I am going to look have close look at the top mechanism and the range finder. Cheers and thanks

I don't expect anyone to take their working camera to pieces. Your two photos have been very helpful.

Thanks for the photos John and for the explanations Hunter and thanks for your observations kmac. There is no adjusting screw lock stud on this camera. There is a hole in the bracket where it should have been, but it has never been threaded or used. I can see that the couplet bar is guided by the slot in the adjusting screw bracket. Correct me if I am wrong in this. Further down, the slot in the upper part of the couplet bar, is intersected by a plate operated by the trigger button. When the focus tube is wound in, does the couplet bar disengage with the slot in the adjusting screw bracket. If so How does it re-engage when the tube is extended? I do have a service manual, its the one for restricted use date October 1945. Shipped with this camera are 6 film holders, a ground glass viewing back, but no accessory back. Cheers

I am working on a Kodak Medalist I. Looking at the back with the back removed, on the right hand side of the chamber there is a bar called the Range Finder Couplet Bar. According to the Service Manual the bar should be be spring loaded, to set it up or down, but I'm finding it difficult to determine in which direction. On this camera it just flops about a bit and doesn't seem to sit in one direction or another, One end of the couplet bar spring is supposed to go in a hole at or near the right hand side of the housing, but I can see no such hole. When extending the lens tube the couplet bar gets caught on the slot of the adjusting screw bracket. Are there any members who know this camera or are willing to look in the back of their Medalist I. Greg

I wonder what part of the exposure, developing, scanning, that you are displeased about. Those scans look excellent to me.

You have all you need right there. Vuescan will do a preview that will display negatives as positives. You might need to upgrade to the professional version. Your V600 has a transparency holder that will scan 12x35mm frames at a time. While you have the transparency loaded you would be able to scan using a decent resolution and keep the scan. No point doing a low res scan and then a high res scan. Adobe Bridge is free and is a good piece of software for tracking photos. Are you aware that Viewscan is able to scan photos on a flatbed and save each photo as a different file. If you have a heap of 110 negatives, google around for a 3rd party negative holder.

Nice repair, bringing back a Minolta TLR is always a good thing. A while back I did a 3d sketch for the same part, and created an .STL file for a 3d printer. I know the owner did get a plastic version printed. He was going to try and get a 3D metal part printed, I don't know whether he did or not.

I would like to see the "after" photos.

The black and white points need to be reset using the histogram. Shift the sliders to where they almost touch the high and low points of the image histogram. This will remap the image high and low points to the high and low points of the output frame. You will never get a high contrast image with the high and low points set as they come from the copier. When that's done I would normally adjust the "gamma" slider to around .7. This type of image adjustment is best done using 16 bit grey rather than 8 bit. The 8 bit spikey gaps that are created when manipulating the image are filled in more smoothly.

Whats with all the out of focus images from photobucket? How do you see them in focus? Cheers Greg

Has the Kodak Medalist been overlooked? It fits the bill as being a 6x9 non folder. It has a disadvantage that it uses 620 film but if your not to fussed about respooling 120 to 620 then it can produce very good images. Its 100mm Ektar lens is one of the best. Kodak Medalist II Review

A couple of images this week. The film started in my Nicca III Leica copy. After a few shots the camera didn't sound right and a look into the body revealed one of the curtains had become detached. Another one to the repair inbox. I loaded the rest of the film into my F90 which produced a couple of shots. Lucky SHD 100, F90, Ilfosol 3, Epson V800. 1949 Morris 8/40 series E An Anchor.

The Zinc air cell used to come in packs of six or so. I don't think they are very expensive. I peel the sticker off the cell to activate it, then put the sticker back on with only one air hole exposed. Increases the life of the cell. Dennis, The Yashica Electro uses a very different metering method, which operates correctly regardless of cell voltage. The favoured method is to use a sleeve and spacer which fits into the battery compartment, no schottky diode needed. I have heard, but cannot verify, that the smaller battery cell runs out of grunt during very long exposures. Cheers

Indeed it is. I think a lot of us have done battle with the dreaded green grease.

Here are some more photos from the same roll of Adox CMS 20 that I used last week. This is a very slow film by modern standards, but it does give a nice tonal range when developed in its AdoxTech developer. Nikon F90 Nikkor 28-85, Adox CMS 20 II, Adotech II developer, Epson V800 with Viewscan software. Bulk Grain Loader One and All Cheap Barbers Jetty

Thanks John & kmac for your replies. I put a strip of Adox CMS20 in the middle strip. The results are as predicted. Position 4 being the sharpest. Thanks for the heads up about the ANR plastic. I will take care of the holder to prevent any scratches. None so far. Yes those sliders do move around just loading and unloading, so I have gotten into the habit of checking before each scan. It has been said that a film scanner will out perform a flatbed scanner. I scanned the same frames in my Nikon Coolscan IV. Its streets ahead.

Thanks for your reply Linus. I don't see a lot of difference between the settings. I'm not doing anything critical, just scanning happy snappies from before scanners were cheap enough and good enough to scan negs. I leave the settings on the default second from right (the setting next to the arrow mark). If I were to critically scan I would take the time to compare the settings at a much higher resolution. In the interest of time saving I am now using the non-adjustable V750 4 strip neg holder. Cheers

Does anyone here have an Epson V800 scanner with the "new" 3 Row adjustable glass negative holders. Have you found any difference between the steps on the adjustable sliders? I would be interested in your experiences. Cheers Greg