henry_finley1

Nobody asked me to chime in, but anything after the F2 was of no interest to me. It was not only their best, but every other camera manufacturer's also. It had no peer or equal.

Ever since the discontinuation of Microdol-X developer, which I always favored 1:3, I've been using this homemade stuff from ebay ingredients that has seemed to work as far as actually obtaining a printable negative. The best formula my computer research has led me to is supposedly pre-Microdol-X. 5g metol, 100g sulfite, 30g kosher salt. for 1L of water. The true formula of Microdol-X is in the graves of the chemists. So be it. Although I question the "grainlessness" of this formula I've been using. Back in the 70's I could shoot Tri-X 35mm and Kodak Microdol-X 1:3 at 400 ASA, and got full speed and grainless negatives. An 8x10 would look perfect. Now it seems like a 5x7 is as grainy as you would expect from most any other "moderately fine grain" Kodak developer like D-76. It seems D-23 was always about the same grain as D-76. And since D-23 is the same formula with 2.5g more metol, and no NaCL, I wonder what the heck I'm doing. Does the salt really do anything, or is this a fools errand? Has anybody out there tried my homemade Microdol?

Remember, Weegee was a newspaperman, in a time when the media had some credibility. Now the curtain has been pulled back on these fiends. Go with your own style the best as you can. It's not even the same America you will be photographing anyway. That has been totally shot to heck for good.

I've never seen one at a grocery store.

Well I broke a very longstanding promise tonight that I wasn't EVER going to let this thermometer get broken. It was about the 4th one I've owned in my 49 years of developing. my prized Kodak Color Thermometer, also called Kodak Darkroom Thermometer. The one that comes in the long round black tube, about 10 inches long, blue liquid, very accurate. And very fragile. It's gone. I don't want some ebay replacement--most of them are not accurate. I would have thought it would be easy to find some cheap Chinese digital one, because I'm tired of worrying about breaking glass thermometers. Besides, I can't buy one now anyway. It's August. The mailman would put it in the outdoor metal PO boxes, which are like an oven. It would explode sitting in there. I've already lost 2 glass thermometers that got too hot and broke. And I don't like dial thermometers, like the old Weston. They aren't accurate worth a toot. Ideas? Thank you.

My camera is a cropped sensor one. If yours is a full frame camera, ignore what I said.

The post about the slotted screws in the FTN is correct, although the standard is the same. You'll still need the JIS driver set, as the slotted drivers in that set will fit the slots. Commonly available cheap sets usually need to be filed to fit. Remember, you only get one chance to "break" the screw free. One slip and the screw is ruined, turning the job into a nightmare.

Unfortunately it's all there is, aside from buying a Nikkor or going to a 12-24 Tamron, which won't be nearly wide enough for things like real estate photography or whatever. In fact the 10mm minimum on the Sigma really needs to be an 8 for that kind of work. The buyer made the best choice he could for the money, being the only choice. You have to be very careful buying it on ebay. I bought the same one and the ad said Nikon mount. But it wasn't. Send it back.

What has happened is that there is a lubrication problem. A set of small JIS screwdrivers will need to be ordered. The cheap sets at the Family Dollar or whatever, are not JIS and they will not properly fit the screws, causing them to be chewed out. The bottom cover will need to be removed. Beware to keep the camera turned upside down or the rewind button will just fall out and you won't know which way it went if you don't study it. Having done that, a wee bit of watch or clock oil applied to a few places will rectify the wind lever not returning. The works under there are actually quite simple and with a little bit of studying how everything works will lead you to logically decide where oil is needed. Having done that, the camera may return to proper operation. If the shutter trip button still won't go down, then this is a problem under the top cover which I have pictured in my mind but cannot talk you through it.

I'm an accidental unwilling Nikkormat repair expert. PM me and send me postage money and I'll let you have the last 2 of my project FTn cameras. As far as I know, they're still working perfectly from when I buttoned them up 2 years ago. All you need is foam kits for them. I'm pretty sure I already cleaned up and prepped them for new foam, but didn't want to fritter away any more money. I was the biggest Nikkormat fan of all till I discovered what a pitiful percentage of negative area shows in the finder. They're tough as an anvil otherwise. just more junk out of my house, and I don't have the heart to just throw them in the dumpster. I'm sticking with my F2. No more Nikkormats for me. Even though i can take them apart and put them back together in 30 minutes with one eye tied behind my back.

Thank you Ed. That was very clear and now I'm happy. It was just about the way I was figuring it (for the most part). So all I really have to do is get some fresh new high quality caps in there to cut out the fear of leaky old ones bleeding down my batteries.

Here is the circuit. The more posts I read, the more confused I get. I'm a radio man KN4SMF, and you would think I would have brains enough to understand this circuit. But I don't. For one thing, we're dealing with 45 volts worth of batteries. But look at that resistor. That would almost cause me to believe the solenoid itself is not a 45V solenoid, but something far less. Now post 24 above tells me that the solenoid has no need of capacitors to "kick "it. THAT'S what I always thought. i don't know of any solenoid I ever saw to need capacitors to fire it. The more I look at this the confuser I get. I can't even figure out which legs of A, B, and C to go the flash. In my case a Honeywell Strobonar 682S.

Back in the olden days, these were photoflash batteries. Being 63 in 2020, I remember them. I don't know when they quite making them. I suppose it's been nigh on to 50 years.

I was talking about consumer non-rechargeables. Of course the nicads could pour out the juice, but because of the lower voltage, would also require recalibration of the solenoid timing om Speeds and Crowns. Remember, I'm discussing the subject in terms of what was commonly available at the time of the particular cameras design and marketing. In 1955, there was no alkaline, AAA was brand new, no 9V, no transistor batteries, and nicads were practically unheard of. Back then there was C, D, 22 1/2 and lantern batteries of various kinds. Anything else was pretty exotic and not likely to be found in a drug store or dime store regularly. And buy the time the AAA was invented, the Super Graphic was moving on from the drawing board into production. For a long time i wondered why they made the dadgum camera to take 2-22.5 V batteries. But when you put the matter into the context of the age, it make perfect sense. In 1957, 22.5V batteries were probably as common as pipe tobacco, cigarettes, film, and flashbulbs. And probably very economical. At the time, it was a very dependable design for a PROFESSIONAL camera. Now, it seems archaic and absurd, without that context of the era to explain it. What I am seeking is a good way to make use of that same red button to trip the camera, WITHOUT modifying (ruining) the camera with drilled holes and knucklehead filing and the like.

Ever since I was a kid in the flashbulb days, I always remembered reading what I wrote above. Further, I build model rockets, and Estes always said photoflash batteries were needed in their launchers. I found it to be true myself. The best interpretation I can relay is that photoflash batteries were capable of pouring out the juice in large quantities quickly compared to regular carbon-zinc. As an aside, they corroded like crazy. Now we're discussing capacitors in the shutter trip circuit of Super Graphics. So everything adds up. So far as the above post, I would think that solenoid timing consistency could be very related to battery condition.

Now you hit on something. Back then the Graflite flash unit on the regular Speed/Crown cameras was used to trip off the lensboard mounted solenoid, which was 6V plus or minus. Graflite had no capacitors that I am aware of. So instead, the special Photoflash batteries provided that kick. Back then there was ordinary carbon-zinc flashlight batteries, and Photoflash batteries. Everybody knew carbon-zinc was unsatisfactory. You HAD TO HAVE "Photoflash batteries". That was the only thing that provided enough kick to set off a flashbulb. And probably the only thing that would trip the solenoid. The 22 1/2V catteries were NOT photoflash batteries. Without capacitors, they would have been too undependable to reliably kick the solenoid to trip the shutter. The Super Graphic was totally new camera technology at the time. Now, in 2020, there is no such thing as a Photoflash Battery. Nothing made today can give that kick. Modern batteries simply can't unload their juice in a big enough kick. So Graflex decided on 45V plus a capacitor when they designed the camera. Back then every drugstore has 22 1/2 V batteries and tons of 4x5 film to boot. And there was no such thing as AAA batteries. So a 6V system was not feasible, given the space available in designing the camera. And 9V was only just being invented. I believe that's why they did the 2 x 22.5 + capacitor system. Dependability, capacity, and "kick".

Thank you for these answers. This is a project that I worked at approx 3 or 4 years ago and put aside, leaving the camera in complete working condition as it was. Some of these ideas have refreshed my memory. I DID order a Chinese made circuit board, but when it got here, I saw it was too big to fit the space available. So I abandoned that idea and bought a used solenoid from an ordinary Speed Graphic lensboard. The idea was to convert the Super Graphic over to the old style Speed system. The solenoid was a hair too big to fit in the space where the Super Graphic solenoid is. But with a small amount of grinding on the lower part of the solenoid, I could make it fit. This is where the project was put aside. But the idea was to bypass or remove the original Super Graphic electronics and simply solder up an Eneloop pack of AAA's for 6V and go straight through the red button on the camera to the solenoid, with no electronic parts at all. Obviously with 4 AAAs I would have very little capacity, but at least I could recharge. I never planned on a full day of negative shooting. Now ready to pick up where I left off, I believe I recall my original question that I never sought an answer for. "Why does the Super Graphic have capacitors" With that question answered, I can proceed or abandon the idea. Are the capacitors there to give a big kick of juice to the solenoid to insure its dependability? Or, are they there to simply at as a switch to keep the batteries from being bled down? Remember, the red shutter trip button is NOT on the battery side of the capacitors. It is on the other side of them. This means that good strong non-leaking caps are all this camera has to keep from bleeding down batteries.

"Intrepid radio amateur". That's a good one. Actually I am very good with radios. I can restore them and get them in fine working order. and you ought to see my reel to reel tape recorder work. But alas, I am not trained and can't do something as rinky-dink as designing a new replacement for the original electronics of this camera. For one thing, since it takes 2 batteries at 22 1/2 V, I would assume it is a 45V solenoid. But why would Graflex have put in a 45V solenoid when ordinary Graphics just had a 6V one on the lensboard? And it didn't even have capacitors. It just took the 6V from the batteries straight to the solenoid. Why are those capacitors even there at all? All those questions aside, I have experimented and discovered that the Super Graphic battery compartment can hold 4 AAA batteries in the same space that the 2- 22.5V ones occupy. So, why can't i just solder up a little Eneloop pack with 4 AAA's? Then all I'd have to do is design a little op-amp circuit or somesuch that would kick up to 45v. If I took the original guts out of the body, certainly such a circuit could be fit in that space. But I have's a clue as to how to design one. Of course I'd still need a switch. But with some little pieces of wood from my RC airplane parts, I could fashion another battery compartment cover with a little slide switch of some kind mounted in it. But back to the circuit. And i'm clueless how to design it.

Thank you. Now that we've covered the 2 replies I knew I'd get, hopefully there will be more posters. 1) taking batteries out or installing a switch is not something I'd be interested in. 2)The batteries have nothing to do with flash. They power the shutter trip solenoid only. Thank you.

My question has to do mostly with battery life. The Super Graphic has no on/off switch. So that means it is entirely dependent on capacitor quality to keep the batteries from being bled down in a short time. Speaking as a radio hobbyist, I don't believe I've ever seen a capacitor I would trust to have zero leakage. I have cut electrolytic caps open. I understand their construction of 2 rolled up foils separated by paper. I understand all that. But capacitors leak anyway, even brand new. All that said, I would very much like to order a set off 22 1/2 V batteries for my Graphic, but I don't want to install them, just to use the camera occasionally and have them to be dead the next time. I'm perfectly willing to open up the camera and install brand new capacitors. But what good would it do? As soon as I put 2 new batteries in the camera, the caps will charge up and bleed down slowly till the batteries are dead. That's my thinking. Unless someone would care to enlighten me. Thank you.

I had bought a few parts for my Beseler 45M enlarger. In the batch that arrived was this (as pictured) . Since it obviously doesn't have the registration peg layout of my 45M I do not know what it is. Though you can't see the film slots from either of these views, it appears to have been made to pull a roll of film through it. Does anybody have an idea of what this is? And while I'm at it, if anybody wants it for free, speak up. It goes against my grain to just chunk it. Thank you.

Enclosed is a photo of one of my monolites I'm trying to make more portable for real estate work. It's just a Chinese cheapo, but it's actually pretty good. The downside is that as far as I know, no schematic paperwork is available on it. So even though I am a ham a radio man, I'm not sure enough about the circuitry on this flash where I can tap in and modify it for a battery pack. So, I wonder if there is a portable battery-to-AC inverter I can hook it up to. I wonder about how many watts this would draw. (It's a 600W/S flash). Certainly there must be a small inverter with self-contained batteries I can hang off the lightstand when going on location. I wouldn't need very many flashes out of it on one job. Thank you.

On both my Win XP and Win & machines, Adobe Bridge won't operate because of a box that says "This application failed to start because libagluc28.dll was not found". I've tried doing an internet search for that file, but seem to have turned up only false positives or apparent scams wanting me to run installers. I've had missing CMAP files before and it was enough to find that file somewhere and simply drag it into the appropriate directory. I wonder where I can find the missing file above so I can do likewise. Thank you.

Thank you for the advice. I'm not shooting enough for that yet. I haven't made my first dime.

As background I am proficient at the CD2 Creative Suite Programs, but no experience in Lightroom. Here's what I will be doing as a real estate photographer. Shooting a half-dozen shots at various flash and ambient light levels to be stacked. I have seen a video on how the files are brought into lightroom as individual shots, which are quite a clutter. Like magic, all the similar scenes are stacked up all at once and the clutter is reduced to the stacked files. At least that's what I think I'm seeing. I've downloaded several freeware programs trying to achieve the same thing, but either I'm ignorant, or these other programs fall way short. I have worked with a program called Hugin, and had pretty fair results, but it's one scene at the time. I'll be delivering upwards of 30 final shots to my agents. I can't sit at the computer stacking 1 at the time. Any help would be greatly appreciated.