10973815

The camera got a full teardown and cleanup since it did have a smudge on the outer lens cover (but was cleaned before the binocular roll). I just developed and scanned some 100 iso film that turned out much better than previous rolls. I then tried doing a wet mount sandwiched between glass plates and the results were amazing. I'm currently working on an adjusted focal height glass plate sandwich and am going to rescan the rolls I have.

all my pictures have been coming out fuzzy, it's not just the binocular attachment. I had one roll developed and printed by blue moon and one developed and scanned myself. The results were pretty close to each other. I think my film has just gone bad so I'm just using it for testing and playing around.

Far from great, but a sample if people are wondering about the binocular attachment. Old ISO 400 Minocolor with a pair of cheap 8x20 compact binoculars. It definitely works, and I'm sure with slower, fresh film and slightly better developing they would be ok. This is the top of a 312 foot (almost 100 meter) theme park ride taken from my car window 500 feet away. One important thing they don't mention and I didn't realize until now is you need to make sure of the camera's orientation when in the viewing position on your eyes, I'm pretty sure that's what produced the angled frames. You'd almost have to look through the lens, then without touching the setup pull it away and check that the camera is straight to your composition.

I made a better tool for it today too. I'm sure they had all kinds of cool jigs and tools to put them together in a flash, the machining jigs must've been like a jewelry workshop. I also wonder what the inspection and testing equipment was like.

After my terrible fight with getting the end screws out of my Minox B I scratched my head on it all weekend and came up with this solution. Using the correct size slotted 4mm hex shank driver bit I found a steel washer slightly undersized to the hex. I tapped the hex bit through the washer making sure the washer had a very tight grip after. This makes a shoulder that can be pressed against with a wrench to give downward pressure on the head and allowing it to turn by the wrench in the confined space. I intended to buy a good 4mm box end wrench but my local electronics store didn't have any so I made one from some steel strip. I can see the same setup being used for any confined space, since the 4mm bits come in a zillion fastener profiles and could even be ground down to a nub for very small spaces.

Last night I did a teardown on a Minox model B I just got on Ebay and I decided to do a video so people can see what getting into one is like firsthand. Camera turned out to have crushed shutter blades. 4 parts, 1 hour total part 1: part 2: part 3: part 4:

I was doing some testing tonight with my minox developing tank to test agitation/flow methods following my color developing experience and the seemingly undeveloped upper shots. I left the lid off and dropped the helix in, raised off the bottom slightly. A piece of white tape was stuck inside the tank in the area where the cassette would sit for visual contrast. I filled the tank with 60cc of water and added 3 drops of food coloring to the fill port. I applied the various methods, running a timer for 3.5 mins (C41 developing time) until I saw the red coloring appear over the white tape. Thermometer pumping: no color appeared after 3.5 minutes 5cc medicine dropper pump: no color after 3.5 mins Setting the tank on a vibrating neck massager on high: after 1:09 a steady bleed of color that continued until 3:30 20cc syringe with long, large needle pumping 10cc: after 2nd pump a burst of red, with a fresh burst after each pump. I then machined 4 1mm deep grooves down each side of the helix and tried again. 20cc pumping 10cc: color burst after 1 pump and steady bursts after 20cc pumping 5cc: same color results as if pumping 10cc without the grooves, but with much less change in tank volume or overflow risk. I didn't try the thermometer or medicine dropper with the grooves since the syringe was working so well and was much easier. I also did not try the massager again since it would be difficult to maintain developing temperature while using it. In the future I may add more grooves and will use the large syringe for my next development, I'm excited to see the results.

Anyone have experience or info on taking out or repairing a light meter in a model B? Mine reacts to light fine but the lock doesn't hold a reading. I tried putting in a drop of lighter fluid and working the button and meter but no dice, though it seemed to get my meter working nicer. Ive gotten into it before, so I'm not unfamiliar with the tiny hardware store inside.

i havent tried another roll yet. http://blargh.wpi.edu/~jski/projects...ox/Repair.html The little cam he refers to falling out from under the knob in his disassembly instructions is what controls the negative spacing. its a pain to get back in because it was spring loaded against the shutter rack finger thing. It was easier the second time but still harrowing. The xray he has at the bottom of his page actually came in handy.

Update: I broke down and took my camera apart again to lube it and check the focus again. The focus ring DOES HAVE A SOLID STOP AT THE 8" MARK. So when reinstalling the focus\film counter button rotate the focus gear at the lens in the direction away from the lens, to the right when viewed from the top. The gear will hit a stop. Then pull out your octopus friend tothelp and drop the button back in place with the proper cam interactions as it goes in.

After having a roll of film developed and most of them being fuzzy I scratched my head and decided the lens needed cleaning. Following the nice guide at http://blargh.wpi.edu/~jski/projects...ox/Repair.html I got it apart, cleaned some old grease and oil, cleaned the shutter blades carefully and got it back together. My question is, in putting the focus/shot counter back in it's quite a struggle and I fear the lens helix may be out of time with the focus knob. He mentions setting the focus to 8" before removing the knob which I did, but I want to know if there is a fixed stop at the *lens* for the focusing mechanism at 8", or is that 8" stop only controlled by a lug on the adjusting wheel? I would hate to run another roll only to find out I missed the correct focus by 2 teeth that shifted during reassembly. Thank you very much for any help.