georgi_grancharov

Hi, about 10 years ago I started collecting FD/FL lenses, cameras and basically everything photo-related you can think of. I buy a lot of lenses that most people would consider trash - the idea was to create a "lens wall", 8x3 meters in my office however then I started taking them apart, cleaning the elements and realized that a working lens shouldn't be left to die on a wall. Now, there is enough literature and videos on cleaning lens-elements and basically making a lens workable again. Repainting aperture numeration etc is also fairly easy. What I cannot find any reliable information on is however: 1) How to strip (let's say an FD 1.4 aperture ring) a lens from it's (black) color 2) How to polish the now naked metal/aluminum, remove deeper scratches etc 3) How to prime the metal for coloring 2) Which brand of paint, what type of paint etc to use to get it more or less into it's original condition I know a lot of people will say "a scratched lens has character" etc - ok, but please let's keep this thread on topic e.g. let's keep this restauration focused. Any advice (without the common "use a sharpie" answer) would be highly appreciated. Have you tried it? What did you use? I also ordered a lot of different enamel paint, model paint, auto-lack repair paint etc and will conduct experiments which I will share here so there will be at least one clean thread on that topic on the whole www :) Cheers, George

<p>Thank you for all the responses, it really proves again that this forum is the #1 place to go for photography related questions. <br> Unfortunately professional or even entry level negative scanners are starting at about $2k, which is very expensive. I think that the 5D3 has enough resolution to do a "mediocre" scan, but now the question is which lens to use. Did anyone of you had the opportunity to test one of the many canon lenses to scan film? <br> I will be doing mainly black and white and I am very confident that the RB67 is my entry into the analog world - I just fell in love with this (oversized) beauty. <br> A light table is cheap, and I can figure out a setup with some servo motors in order to balance the camera perfectly. <br> Now, that brings me to the next dilemma - There are about 4-6 used RB67's available online, is there anything to look for when buying one? Some are priced at $200-300 going all the way up to $600-800 - They do come with different lenses, from my little research I believe that a lens over 100mm would be more suitable for me (street portraits). Since I am going to order her online, is there anything I should ask beforehand, to make sure it is usable? </p>

<p>Hi,<br> <br />my name is George and I am doing a lot of photography, both professionally and for personal projects. Recently I have been flirting around with a Polaroid and FP-3000b b/w film. Flirting lead to love and I stacked up almost every pack I could find here in China before it became extremely expensive. While the Polaroid is nice, it doesn't give me enough manual control, which is why I have my eyes on a medium format camera, probably the RB67 - earlier models, no electronics. I will mainly use it for for street-portraiture and fine art projects that I have planned - I will still shoot digital for commercial clients. <br> So, my original plan was to set up a dark-room, but that proved very difficult in China, where enlargers are being sold 10x the price they are actually worth, meaning that a mediocre enlarger will set me back at least $2-3k, which I cannot justify at the moment. <br> Now I am reading recently that a lot of people use their digital cameras to scan their negatives, but there is little information on the equipment they use. I do have a 5D3 which I plan to keep, with a 24-70II and a 70-200 lens - would that be enough to produce a high quality print in A3/A2? This is really important to me, because I am planning local exhibitions where I have to do everything on my own. <br> I uploaded some of my personal work so you get a feel of what I do (digitally). I am not expecting to take 'better pictures', but I am sure that going back to analog will make me a better photographer, because fast shutter speeds and 20 images in a row made me very lazy over time. It kind of kills your skills, rinse and repeat until you get the shot you want. That's not a 'digital vs. film' bashing, its just how I feel recently. <br> I have much more to ask, but for now lets start with the scanning question if you don't mind. Thanks a lot for being such a supportive community. <br> George</p> <p><br /><br /></p>