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Post by Randy on Jul 4, 2005 23:03:58 GMT -5
Here is another camera rescued from the back room of a camera shop. This one had me wondering if it was worth it.....
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Post by Randy on Jul 4, 2005 23:08:46 GMT -5
Here is how it looks now. It also works like a charm. It makes me feel good to revive what would have been thrown away. Randy Jay
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Post by Just Plain Curt on Jul 5, 2005 18:47:32 GMT -5
Aha, you fix H1a's too, not just Minoltas. You don't even want to see the one I picked up off Evilbay. Huge dent in rear of prism, second curtain drags and jams every few shots, in other words a perfect restoration project if and when I ever I get some spare time. When I get round to working on it, I'll have to see if I can pick your brain if/when I get stuck, LOL.
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Post by Randy on Jul 5, 2005 22:29:04 GMT -5
It's just about the same thing as a Spotmatic, only older. The shutter timers in Pentax cameras leave a little to be desired. Also much harder to take apart than a Minolta.
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Post by GeneW on Jul 11, 2005 10:01:38 GMT -5
Nice restoration! I always get a few goosebumps when I see an H1a. It was the first SLR I ever bought and I used it for several years before moving on to the (then) new Olympus OM-1 system. The H1a was always rock solid and cheap enough for the poor student I was at the time. I remember adding a 28mm cheapo lens from Spiratone -- not a bad optic when stopped down, and I learned how to shoot 28mm with it! Brings back great memories, and I love the TLC you've given this one!
Gene
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PeterW
Lifetime Member
Member has Passed
Posts: 3,804
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Post by PeterW on Jul 12, 2005 17:18:07 GMT -5
The first camera I ever did any serious repair work on was a Pentax SV. This was back in 1964 when I was a journalist with a magazine publisher. The photographer attached to our journal sent his SV body in for repair because it kept jamming and then freeing itself. It came back partly in pieces in a plastic bag from a well-known repair firm who looked after all this publisher's cameras. A note with it said that it was so well used and worn it wasn't worth repairing so they'd saved the firm money by not bothering to put it back together again. It was only 18 months old, but the photographers on those magazines used their cameras hard, in all weathers. On average I'd say they shot around 30 to 40 rolls a week, and two years was about the average life of a Pentax, so the company wrote the SV off as 'no value' and bought the photographer a Canon FX and several lenses in the hope it might last a bit longer than the Pentax. I bought the SV body from the company for the princely sum of one shilling (about 8 cents) just so I had a reciept to take it out the door legally. I stripped it right to the bare body looking to find anything wrong, and found that one of the screws holding the mirror box had come out and was wandering around inside and occasionally jamming the shutter release. There wasn't an internet then to find a repair manual or ask anyone for help, and all I had to guide me was an 'exploded' drawing of an S1 (Honeywell H1) in a Pentax advert. I spent about four evenings putting it all together again, including several false starts, and it worked!! I felt about 10 feet tall, and was forever more hooked on tinkering with old cameras I hadn't got a Pentax lens, and Super Taks at that time were fetching quite a lot of money, so I fitted the SV with a secondhand Meyer Oreston which I bought from a local camera shop for £3 (with a three-year guarantee, would you believe), and gave it to my daughter together with a cheap Japanese hand-held selenium meter. She still has both, and they still perform faultlessly. She took the SV on her honeymoon to Switzerland, and when she and her husband got back they had their Kodachromes processed, and guess what? In some cases they couldn't decide whether some of the slides were shot on the Pentax or on her husband's brand new EOS Canon. She was delighted, and he's still wondering why he spent such a lot of money on the Canon! (That, btw, is also still functioning faultlessly). Peter
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David Silver
Contributing Member
"Will work for antique cameras..."
Posts: 20
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Post by David Silver on Aug 24, 2005 17:35:59 GMT -5
Hey Randy,
I love the fact, despite the beautiful and creative restoration work, that you left the inspection sticker on the back! Now THAT shows incredible restraint! Great job, and thanks for sharing it with us!
Dave
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Post by Randy on Aug 24, 2005 18:49:51 GMT -5
Thanks for the KUDOS Dave! I usually leave the inspection stickers on unless they are really shot. I repaired Lionel Trains and other scale locomotive for 15 years, and that gave me the respect for machinery that I have.
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Post by kiev4a on Oct 5, 2005 16:38:14 GMT -5
My third SLR was an H1A -- found a Pentax SV recently that I picked up just for the memories. My original H1A was part of a set with the 50mm f1.8, 200mm and 35mm 3.6 Takumars. Got it used but in new condition.
I always thought the H1A had a better "feel" than the later Spotmatic but I compared the SV to a Spotmatic the other day and the dimensions of the bodies are virtually identical. Maybe the balance is a little different because the electronics in the Spotmatic. Or maybe it's just my memory playing tricks on me. Everyone who has owned one of the non TTL Pentax SLRS seems to have fond memories of the camera.
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Post by unclebill on Oct 25, 2005 22:33:38 GMT -5
Cool, More Pentax for me to admire.
Bill
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Post by Randy on Oct 26, 2005 5:41:30 GMT -5
Well, I coulda probably put on a leatherette simular to what it had, (it would have cost less) but when I hold that antique camera in my hand and feel the rich, supple, alligator skin, I feel like I'm holding a $500. camera.
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Post by paulatukcamera on Oct 26, 2005 14:15:05 GMT -5
Just a small point here - the restoration of black is always difficult because there are so many shades involved.
Now I think I have solved the problem by buying a range of black auto "touch ups" (the ones in the pencil canisters with a brush) I now have an exact match for most blacks.
I usually keep putting it on at weekly intervals until it is a bit proud and then after leaving it a month or so (to really harden) a rubbing with one of the fibre impregnated silver polishes (Not Brasso, which is coarser) brings it back level.
Paul
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Post by GeneW on Aug 31, 2006 7:08:43 GMT -5
Although it's not identifiable, the camera I'm holding in my sketch avatar is a Pentax H1a. It was my first SLR. Sold it to my brother-in-law when I moved over to OM-1's and he gave it back to me at the time the sketch was made. It was pretty gummed up so I returned it. Already had too many SLR's in my collection (I tend to use RF's more)
Gene
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chrisy
Senior Member
Not another camera! Sorry dear....
Posts: 66
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Post by chrisy on Oct 9, 2006 12:11:57 GMT -5
Yes great camera . I had one for my twenty first birthday many many years ago and it still works well, sort of OK the slow speeds below 1/60th dont work at all probably cos I hardly used them. Also whats a Meyer Oreston? -Ive never heard of them!
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Post by doubs43 on Oct 9, 2006 17:41:49 GMT -5
Yes great camera . I had one for my twenty first birthday many many years ago and it still works well, sort of OK the slow speeds below 1/60th dont work at all probably cos I hardly used them. Also whats a Meyer Oreston? -Ive never heard of them! Chrisy, the 50mm f/1.8 Meyer-Gorlitz Oreston is an old East German lens that was often standard on Praktica and the Exakta RTL-1000 cameras. In later years when the GDR re-aligned their optic's industry and combined a number of makers under the banner "V.E.B. Pentacon", the Oreston was produced with the name "Pentacon" on it. The final version was multi-coated. The good news is that the Oreston was really a quality optic and can be found in M42 mount as the Oreston or Pentacon for little investment. A good example will serve you well. I just today took some comparison pictures with seven different 55 & 50mm lenses on a Pentax *ist-DS DSLR camera that included an Oreston, a Pentacon and Multi-Coated Pentacon. I'll try to post the comparison results under a different thread when I've had a chance to put things together. Walker
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