stephen_morgana

<p>Ok... Read up on disassembly...<br> so all set to open it up.. I've read a bit now on how to clean it... many people say cleaning alone can fix the slow speeds... different people recommend different chemicals... the main one being lighter fluid... some say electrical contact cleaner...<br> Also... it will need careful lubrication.. I'm assuming watch oil.. but the manual may specify the right oil...<br> Since the camera is right now being treated for a slight mildew smell on the bellows...it needs to sit a couple days... I might dig in to the shutter before taking any exposures...</p>

<p>Great advice. I also looked up general cleaning advice for naugahyde... I did not have windex but several other sites said for light cleaning a 10 percent solution of dish soap.<br> I very carefully cleaned the outside with a sponge and toweling paper... lots of dirt came off... especially the top. Then followed up with the Lemon Pledge -- that took a bit more dirt off...<br> After cleaning the outside it no longer had the , what I know know is, mildew smell... inside still had a slight smell -so sprayed it with lysol and closed up the ends.<br> I did get to inspect every inch of the bellows and so I also see they are in great shape -- no visible cracks or holes.<br> Thanks!</p>

<p>I just got a Graphic View II -- which looks in good shape, but it has an overall slight musty smell to it. The bellows have fine dust on them, and I'm wondering if I should clean them off...<br> If yes.. what should I use that wont damage the bellows-- I'm guessing they're made of leather..<br> Is there something I can use that might extend their life, or should I just leave well enough alone?<br /><br />Thanks</p>

<p>Hi,<br> I've been lurking around photo.net for about a month now getting lots of questions answered just by reading the forums. Finally, I decided to join and post a question..<br> By way of introduction... I've been having a lot of fun for the last year and a half with a DSLR -- learning/relearning photography... Mainly I've been spending time on composition and started off using the camera in auto modes -- mainly P... eventually progressed to A as I wanted to play with dept of field, and then on M. And thinking about it, I realize I became dependent on three things : I can shoot hundreds of shots at no cost, auto focus, and auto exposure... which are not bad things per se..<br> Through a chain of events that started with someone giving me an old 35mm film camera, I got interested in film ... I also dug out 2 of my old cameras...with a plan to shoot one roll each... I shot a roll of BW film on one of them -- it has a broken meter.. so I used my DLSR meter to get a starting point for speed and aperture and then did guess work... I developed the negatives myself (I learned quickly that its hard to get anyone to process locally -- at least around where I am everyone is geared to take film and produce CDs--- one shop will give you back negatives but it takes days)... Well the negatives came out purple (I've read the threads on that) and in the end I had one good shot -- the main problem was I'm unable to focus by eye.. but that one shot had a look that I know I could not get out of my DSLR without some sort of film simulation... I got hooked...<br> I started by using my flatbed scanner to scan the negatives and bring them to digital... but I also wanted to make prints.... more chains of events led me to cyanotypes... I laser printed 8x10 digital negatives and made what I think are some decent cyanotypes -- hooked again...<br> the next step in the chain was scanning 35mm on a flatbed is generally a problem... So I decided to go larger and arrived at a 4x5 pinhole camera --- no need or way to focus and a great match for contact printing to cyanotype. a pure analog process (I even bought an analog ambient light meter)<br> With the pinhole camera I'm learning about how meters really work, exposure, film reciprocity, handling sheet film in film holders, and how to take the time to compose the image in the camera without even a viewfinder. <br> I realized I'm having way more fun working with 4x5 negatives than 35mm...(and my DSLR is worried) and it got me interested in large format in general... That lead me to buy an old Graphic View II that I know will lead to more fun and more knowledge of photography....</p>

<p>Thanks for all the info... I will be getting into this shutter to see if I can improve it... but with the app I have.. I've been able to measure all the slow speeds so I know how many stops they are off by (1 stop or there abouts)..<br> Since the aperture setting is continuous I should be able to compensate for the speeds being off by setting to fractional aperture settings. At least this way I can get a few exposures on the camera so I can test it for other factors before I take the shutter apart.<br> Greg.. I took a look at your Flickr page... Thanks. What would be helpful is to know what the first step is in even opening the shutter... I took the front lens off -- easy--- but nothing jumped out at me as to how to take the top cover off the shutter... don't want to break it right off the bat...</p>

<p>I will go with happenstance... the speeds are in the ball park of 2x, <br> To check for constancy I downloaded a shutter speed measure app so I could take lots of measurements easilly... I'd say its consistant from try to try.. in this sense...<br> 1/50th is around 1/26.6-1/27.3 and the meter says 3/3 stops but I did get one 1/30th in a run of measurements...</p>

<p>Hi,<br> I'm new to the forum and new to large format.<br> I recently bought a Graphic View II that came with a Kodak Ektar 203 f7.7 lens in a Synchro Compur shutter.<br> The lens looks great... but when I tested the slow speeds of the shutter by ear... it sounded way slow...<br> So I figured I'd start looking in to the shutter to see if I could clean and adjust it (I'm a do it yourselfer, and think its within my skill level)...<br> What I did first was to actually measure the speeds as they are now to see how far off it is...<br> I did this by simply sound recording the shutter in action at each speed, and then loaded that up into my sound editor and made measurements by between the peaks in the waveform.<br> Surprisingly what I found is that for higher speeds 100th 200th 400th are fairly accurate, but all the lower speeds, 1, 1/2 1/10 1/25 1/50 are each very close to being off by a factor of 2 slower..<br> So 1 is 2, 1/2 is 1, 1/10 is 1/5 etc... not exactly but darn close on each of them...<br> It makes me wonder if someone intentionally adjusted the shutter to extend it to allow for a 2 second exposure. at the expense of 1/50th.<br> I figure I can start making exposures knowing actual speeds, but Im looking for any advice or pointers anyone has on this shutter.... Also if anyone has any pointers to disassembly and adjusting...</p> <p>Thanks<br> Stephen</p>