cameracravings

Greetings. My 5-year-old Canon EF L USM 24-125mm f/4 II has loose front element -- it has has a lot of play. I am wondering if anybody repaired this lens before and can give me an advice. So I thought some screws must be loose inside, i thought if I opened the lens and tightened the screws the wobbliness of front element wod go away. So I did -- stripped the lens down to telwcsopic barrell and found all screws to be tight. I am thinking now that maybe the 3 guides for zoom barrel P/N - YF2-2027-000 are worn out causing front elelement loose? I am trying to figure out that this might be the case before buying these guides at $12 apiece on ebay. Any suggestions will be most welcomed!

My Pentax Spotmatic with Super-Multicoated Takumar 50 1.4 and 2 filters attached ND4 + Circular Polarizer produced this strange light leak 2 times in a single roll and I was wondering about the reason for this. Did anybody seen a leak like this? Maybe this is mirror doing something? Thanks!

Hi Dave, I completely tore down my Spotmatic, took out curtains, cleaned and re-lubed drum shafts, pinion shafts, cleaned all mechanisms, mirror cage and re-lubed everything that needs to be lubed. I agree with you, I have seen it, when there is grease on selector gears or on curtain pinions the same shutter speed would be all over the place.

Answering my own question it seems this is shutter capping the slit is closed or too narrow when the curtains start to travel and then widens.

Hi need some help. Has anybody seen on Spotmatic, SPII or SP F a straight or a diagonal underexposed band running by the edge of the negative that is on the side of speed selector (where curtains begin to travel)? This only happens at 1/1000. Please check my photos attached. Apart from that one underexposed band the rest of the negative exposed evenly. I am wondering what may this be? It is clear that one of the curtains does something at the beginning of its travel. I recently overhauled this Spotmatic and I deliberately overlapped curtains bymore than 1 bar (let's say 1 and a half bar) in an attempt to get fastest shutter speeds p erform closer to spec. Thanks for all suggestions! Alex

I just looked at K1000 on ebay. Pentax K1000 SLR Camera w/ Pentax-M 50mm f/2 Lens 27075045002 | eBay Rewind knob, shutter speed dial and the cover for frame counter look identical to Spotmatic. Even though advance crank looks different I bet it would mount just the same on Spotmatic

It looks like the leak comes from emulsion side, thus from the front. Check the foam light seal on the bottom edge of the front plate located below lens mount. Also check aroumd viewfinder. Maybe light leak is making its way from around viewfinder down through speed selection mechanism?

As far as meter concerned on k1000 2 things may go bad there. Ammeter -- moving needle in the viewfinder. I have seen these fail a lot and the only way to replace them is from a donor camera. I believe if you can get a Spotmatic F body with working ammeter cheap, you have the part to repair yours. Second part that could fail and I've seen this a lot, is one of the CdS photo resistors. These are much easier to harvest than the ammeter. So I am hoping you don't have to replace the ammeter. Also a wire may broke off somewhere.

Not sure 100% it will, but K1000 is basically Spotmatic F with K buonet. I saw service manual for k1000 once, so all mechanical repairs were described based on Spotmatic

Hi Rick_van_Nooij and @hunter_compton and John Seaman shot test roll today. I must say it produces rather flat images compared to Carl Zeiss optics on Hasselblad, but I am very happy I was able to turn a piece of junk into fully functional apparatus. And it does function pretty well including range finder! Thanks again for your input!

Thank you Rick, first roll of film is developing now. Looking at the pages I see I will have to open range finder again and re-adjust it because one of the halves is out of focus and also part of the split image is missing. Thanks again great help! Alecs

Thanks Hunter! I just calibrated the rangefinder. Everything checks up at 15ft, 10ft, 5ft and infinity. The screw you described actually has to do with adjusting the distance dial itself. It does not calibrate the split field (or maybe it does a little). Cam follower as seen in the photo below with adjustment screw in it calibrates the rangefinder itself. So thanks again! I am off to respooling 120 film!

Thanks John, I appreciate your input. Will leave my Metalist as is. I actually prefer yarn over foam because over time foam will become either sticky or dry stiff. Thanks again!

Greetings! I noticed that my Medalist II does not have any leftovers of lights seals around the rear door. Does the camera need light seals or should I leave it be? Thanks

I just bought Medalist II, and I am currently overhauling it. Shutter blades were sticky so I had to tear down the shutter to clean it up. Then lubed and re-assembled. 1/400 sec works as 1/250 and for some reason 1/100sec fires as 1/150 other than that shutter works well. The only problem left is rangefinder is off. I am trying to figure out how to adjust it. Looking forward to put a roll of film into my Medalist.

Thanks Rick! I need to calibrate rangefinder now. Can you look at the repair manual and suggest how I am to approach this job? Thanks! Alecs

Thanks guys! Really appreciate help! I kinda figured it out. Since I realized the camera was in a complete disarray, jammed in all possible places, etc. The only good it has is the looks. So I tore it down for a big restoration job. Now it's clicking and ticking all cleaned up and lubricated. This was my first experience restoring Medalist, and I am very happy how easy it is to work on this camera. One more thing. I need to calibrate rangefinder, it is completely off. Can anybody give me pages or info from repair manual concerning rangefinder adjustment? Thanks a lot!

Hello, I need help figuring out the position of one of the prisms in Kodak Medalist II rangefinder. I just bought this camera in good shape visually but totally non-functional. Rangefinder window was dark. I opened rangefinder and realized that one of the prisms was loose inside rangefinder housing. I found the photo suggesting the location of the prism in question, but I cannot be sure 100% how it is supposed to be positioned and affixed. Can someone shed the light please? thank you!

Hi thanks for your input! Unfortunately I don't like the way 500elx looks although it seems it has new mirror system, so I will need to fix my 500cm :) Do you know more about three foam pads between the mirror and its housing? Do you know the thickness? Thanks!

When I removed focusing screen I noticed that the mirror in the up position has uneven spacing on the sides. While on the left side (top picture) the space is even, on the right side (bottom picture) I notice that the space is wider towards the back and narrower towards the front of the camera. And I guess mirror damper is shot too!

Thanks Ed I will try your suggestions! Don't remember dropping my camera. It's been sitting in my closet for 5 years though -- can't remember too well what happened 5 years ago. The screen is placed correctly prism facing the lens. Now, I have a question about your comments on focusing -- Ok so when I am focusing I should make sure I am mentally aware of the visible properties of the focusing screen such as the grid etc and make sure I am factoring them in when focusing? Thanks

Also I am a little confused about flange focal distance for 500c/m -- I believe it to be 71.4mm but some of the sources on the internet report it to be 74.9mm. I guess the latter is wrong.

I forgot to mention instant film back that I have is NPC Polaroid back.

Hi I just joined the forum in hopes that someone really can help me with advice so that I can put my Hasselbad 500c/m back in service :smile: My Hassy was taking perfect, sharp photos and then one day something happened and it started taking very out-of-focus photos. I don't have the 'Hasselblad' tools and I don't have the money to service it. So I have to do it myself using regular tools that I have. If I fail the first time, I will just keep coming at it. Some time ago I had to put away my Hasselblad 500c/m until I can afford to repair it because it developed focus problem. The last roll of film I shot was out of focus pretty bad. Today I tried to evaluate the scope of the problem. I mounted Polaroid back and used ground glass pressed against picture plane of the Polaroid back and a magnifier glass to compare focus through waist-level finder vs. through the lens. For this used 50mm f/4, 80mm f/2.8 and 150mm f/4 Zeiss lenses. While all lenses showed good focus at infinity (except for 80mm which came up short) they all performed differently at the close distance of approximately 1.5-1.7 meters. 150mm showed the least discrepancy, and the 50mm showed the most discrepancy. Photos show my blue marker markings labeled 'W' for the viewfinder and 'L' for through-the-lens. Please note that my markings have no relation to the distance scale of the lenses. I set the camera on a tripod and only changed the lenses. For each lens, I first established sharp focus through the viewfinder and then checked it through the lens. I found that the camera was back-focusing through the lens. I think this suggests that the flange to the ground glass distance (viewfinder) is shorter than the flange focal distance. I thought it is probably not the mirror / deteriorated mirror cushion issue, for, if the mirror sogged, the flange to ground glass distance would be longer, right? At this point, I only know that the camera's focal distance is adjusted by moving the chassis against the outer body shell. Next, I decided to check the camera's flange focal distance using depth gage with the wide base. I do realize that my method may be fundamentally flawed as I was not entirely sure what points I should measure to and from. So I would welcome any suggestions on this! I mounted a lens and placed calibrated depth gauge with the wide base on the picture frame of the open Polaroid back, and measured the distance to the back side of the mounted lens. Here's what I measured: top left corner 2.8" or 71.12mm top right corner 2.797" or 71.04mm bottom left corner 2.797" or 71.04mm bottom right corner 2.796" or 71.03mm I know that the flange focal distance for Hasselblad 500c/m is 71.4mm +- 0.03mm, so my camera is outside the tolerances by at least 0.3mm. Does this agree with my camera back-focusing through the lens? Can this error dramatically affect focus at close distance and be less noticeable at infinity? If not, then I should probably check camera back. ANY SUGGESTIONS TO IMPROVE MY MEASUREMENT? Once I am able to verify my measurements I will start figuring out how to adjust the camera. Thanks, everybody for your input! Really appreciate it! Alex