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Post by John Parry on Feb 23, 2007 15:44:45 GMT -5
I've always wanted a Praktica VLC - the star of their M42 range. I spotted one on eBay, and had a good look. The seller had inserted those fatal words "As seen", and nobody else bid!.
The reason he'd said that, was that the battery had rotted inside it's compartment (always remember folks), and he'd scraped it out and replaced it with the similar sized 'AA' cell. Needless to say, the meter didn't work. Therefore - "As seen"
This is probably the second best looking M42 Praktica I've ever seen. Almost pristine. Came with it's own 50mm Pentacon 'Electric', a Steinheil 100 - 200 4.5 zoom, and a nice looking 'Polar' 28mm. Everything works except the meter.
So all I need to do is cook up a battery from a tube, a spring, and 3 x SR44's and see if that will come to life. There was also an ERC and three flash units (none of them with variable power unfortunately Rick!). All for £10 (~$20). With everything else that's going wrong, at least I've had two bits of luck in the last few weeks!
Regards - John
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Post by byuphoto on Feb 24, 2007 13:23:35 GMT -5
Congrats. Sounds like love at first sight.
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Post by doubs43 on Feb 24, 2007 15:55:33 GMT -5
I've always wanted a Praktica VLC - the star of their M42 range. I spotted one on eBay, and had a good look. The seller had inserted those fatal words "As seen", and nobody else bid!. The reason he'd said that, was that the battery had rotted inside it's compartment (always remember folks), and he'd scraped it out and replaced it with the similar sized 'AA' cell. Needless to say, the meter didn't work. Therefore - "As seen" This is probably the second best looking M42 Praktica I've ever seen. Almost pristine. Came with it's own 50mm Pentacon 'Electric', a Steinheil 100 - 200 4.5 zoom, and a nice looking 'Polar' 28mm. Everything works except the meter. So all I need to do is cook up a battery from a tube, a spring, and 3 x SR44's and see if that will come to life. There was also an ERC and three flash units (none of them with variable power unfortunately Rick!). All for £10 (~$20). With everything else that's going wrong, at least I've had two bits of luck in the last few weeks! Regards - John John, believe it or not, the meter WILL work with an "AA" battery if the contact is good in the battery well. While the correct battery (PX-21) is 4.5V, the meter circuit is such that 1.5V will activate it. At least I've seen the meter on other Prakticas that use the PX-21 work with an "AA". I also own a VLC with a bad meter. I bought it as a "parts" camera for the finder that also fits the Exakta RTL-1000. The shutter would stick so I soaked it with denatured alcohol and it came to life again. The Prakticas aren't a Pentax or even a Ricoh but they are capable cameras and I like mine. The shutters seem to work quite reliably. If there's a weak point, it's the plastic film advance sprocket that sometimes breaks inside and spins freely. It's not an easy piece to replace. Walker |
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Post by John Parry on Feb 24, 2007 17:17:33 GMT -5
Hi Walker
I'll get the baseplate off and give it a good clean. Not too concerned about the meter, but it would be the icing on the cake.
Very true about the film sprocket. It sometimes disentegrates and jams up too. I've given up buying mechanical Prakticas, because I think that the plastic degrades with time, and they are past their sell-by date now. The older models don't have the plastic component, so they tend to still be going strong. Not sure whether the VLC falls into that category or not?? (I have a PLC2 that is doing OK). But there was no way I could resist the VLC!
Regards - John
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Post by John Parry on Feb 28, 2007 16:00:53 GMT -5
Walker - you're right! Once I'd cleaned the gunge off the contacts, the meter is responding with the AA in there. Not sure how much I can trust it though - it's working at a third of the voltage, but as you say, if there's a bridge circuit in there, it must respond and compensate.
Had a waist-level viewfinder on there as well today. All systems go! 2 out of 4 good ones on eBay this month. I count myself ahead!
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PeterW
Lifetime Member
Member has Passed
Posts: 3,804
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Post by PeterW on Feb 28, 2007 16:26:45 GMT -5
John,
I've got a VLC, and the meter on that also worked OK with an AA battery except that with a new battery it consistently gave readings half to one stop less than did the meter on my Canon A1, which I trust. Maybe 1.5 volts, less any contact resistances, is right on the point of balance for the bridge?
My VLC with Pancolor lens took very nice pictures, good colour saturation on Fuji transparency film. I've had the camera about eight years with no problems but about a fortnight ago the shutter went sticky and jammed halfway through a roll (curses!!) and I haven't yet had time to go inside and find out why.
I notice that Walker also had a sticky shutter on a VLC, so may be as a palliative I'll try his denatured alcohol dodge but at the moment I've put the VLC on the back burner for the time being because I've got two other Prakticas, a Nova and a Nova B, half disassembled for fixing.
Robert (Toolmaker) on the Praktica forum has just sent me a lot of info on Praktica repair, so maybe I'll get those two up and running first. Otherwise I'll have too many cameras in pieces, and start losing bits!.
PeterW
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Post by doubs43 on Feb 28, 2007 16:45:11 GMT -5
Walker - you're right! Once I'd cleaned the gunge off the contacts, the meter is responding with the AA in there. Not sure how much I can trust it though - it's working at a third of the voltage, but as you say, if there's a bridge circuit in there, it must respond and compensate. Had a waist-level viewfinder on there as well today. All systems go! 2 out of 4 good ones on eBay this month. I count myself ahead! John, that's great. The correct PX-21 battery should be available there as it serves numerous purposes including long-term computer BIOS life support. They can cost from $6.95 ~ $12 each here depending upon who I buy them from. They last a long time though. Peter, I used a syringe to flush the shutter with denatured alcohol and then used a rubber bulb to dry things. It worked in my case and I hope it'll work for you too. The Praktica metal shutters seem to be very reliable and I like their accuracy. It's too bad that they used such poor plastic in the film advance system. Metal would have been much preferred. The film lead capture system can also be a problem if the wires are bent but works very nicely when all is correct. I'd really like to own a better example of the VLC and I need to be more attentive to ebay ads. I do like the "L" series Prakticas in spite of the plastic parts. Walker |
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Post by John Parry on Feb 28, 2007 17:17:42 GMT -5
Peter - Toolmaker should machine the plastic parts out of stainless steel - he's brilliant at the mechanical side, and (as I remember), doesn't want to know about the electrical. He'd have a steady trade anyway!
I binned a Nova not too long ago - lazy shutter (about 5 seconds at every speed) but I have another beauty. That and the VF are immune to the disintegrating plastic component syndrome!
Walker - the tube, spring and 3 x SR44s really works - or it does on the PLC2 anyway. Much cheaper than trying to get hold of the original.
Nice feling when you actually get one that's nice - especially when you didn't think it was going to be!
Regards - John
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