lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 23, 2012 16:02:28 GMT -5
NEX C3 ? They are around secondhand for bargain prices. Less features than the 5 but I think they have the aluminium chassis, and they have the bonus of the 16mp sensor, compared to the 5's 14mp. A lot of the people who bought the C3 have upgraded, there's a lot about. The Olympus is excellent, it has a deservedly good reputation, but for me the difference in sensor size - 23.4 x 15.6mm (APS-C size) to the 4/3 size of 18 mm × 13.5 mm is enough reason to go for the NEX - or something like the Samsung NX200 ( there are others in the range ) with the same size sensor. It might just make a difference when you get that fabulous image that you want to print at a large size.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 23, 2012 14:12:18 GMT -5
I use a NEX 5 with adapters for M42, PK, MD, OM, QBM, and M39. The NEX is now my camera of choice - for digital. I have a Pentax K10 which I like a lot as well, but with legacy lenses the NEX is king. The focus peaking, and magnifying the live view make it so easy to use. And the sensor size is the same as most DSLR's so the quality of enlargements is good. I also like the ergonomics of it, the tilting screen makes it a hand held camera rather than a traditional eye level camera, and that is very liberating, you can place the camera at ground level, hold it above your head or at arms length and see the viewfinder screen. It does take some getting used to, but the key is - forget everything about SLR's, the NEX is a different animal altogether, and once the user gets used to that it really is a joy to use. All the useful things are there as well such as bracketing and exposure compensation, and many many other things that most 'photographers' might never use. But I love the sweep panorama function, which works better with a manual focus lens. I got my NEX from the QVC television shopping channel returns shop, brand new and unused in the box, for £250, Jessops had it for £360. I bought the NEX while my K10 was away for repair ( long story ) with the intention of re selling it. That's never going to happen, it's the best camera I've ever owned. Edit And...some of the NEX range, the 5 is one, have a die cast aluminium chassis rather than polycarbonate. I use lenses like the Tair 300 on my NEX, which does have its own tripod lug. but I've used other heavy lenses on the NEX with the NEX mounted on the tripod, and it's rigid, despite its tiny size. With a big lens you really have to change the way you handle the whole thing and treat it as a lens with a camera and not a camera with a lens - if that makes sense. Like I say, it's a joy to use.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 22, 2012 13:15:23 GMT -5
it might be an old post, but the links still work and I found a lot of great information on the lovely OM1 that I hadn't seen before. ;D
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lloydy
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Posts: 506
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Post by lloydy on Dec 21, 2012 11:20:13 GMT -5
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lloydy
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Posts: 506
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Post by lloydy on Dec 21, 2012 11:15:50 GMT -5
I have a FED 2 with no flash sync. The only earlier variant, I think, is the one with a square rather than round viewfinder window. They fetch a sizable sum and don't come up for sale very often. Saw one on Ebay once but I was suspicious is was a modified later variant. The time for getting a well-made and reliable Soviet camera was to find one built in the middle of the month in the middle of a week. That's when the plant was likely to have the necessary materials on hand so they didn't have to hurry and in the middle of the week most workers had recovered from the previous weekend drinking and hadn't started working on the next weekend. W. I had a Lada Niva 4x4 for a long time, one of the best cars I've ever had. But that was also a prize example of the Russian way of doing things. The heater fan stopped working so I tried to fix it, and I'm good with cars and had the factory manual, so it shouldn't have been a problem. There was a pink wire from the switch, the manual said it should be blue. I looked around under the fascia some more, I saw lots of pink wires, some went to the fuse board, some went to earth! I guess they ran out of the other colours and just used whatever they had. ;D
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 18, 2012 18:36:40 GMT -5
Purma Special by Mudplugga, on Flickr Purma Special Cased by Mudplugga, on Flickr Purma with cap by Mudplugga, on Flickr I might as well share some pictures of this wonderful camera. I might just get the cigar cutter out and chop a roll of 120 down to size, I really would like to try it. That shutter is a thing of beauty. As indeed the whole camera is, the design is so good, lovely clean lines and very tactile.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 18, 2012 11:14:13 GMT -5
I just picked one up today, with a great condition leather case. I haven't had a chance to look at it closely yet, but the camera looks very good, I love charity shops!
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lloydy
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Newtown
Dec 16, 2012 18:50:44 GMT -5
Post by lloydy on Dec 16, 2012 18:50:44 GMT -5
As the days go by and the media delivers stories of the individual children and families the whole sad episode just gets worse.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 11, 2012 16:49:50 GMT -5
Fascinating history, I found it particularly interesting as I worked as Quality Control Foreman for AMF Venner for a while back in the early 1970's when they were making mechanical time switches and everyone's favorite - the parking meter. Both using mass produced precision small parts and gears. Components such as the pillars that separated the two plates of a clock mechanism were being spat out of automatic lathes at the rate of one a second, it was pretty much impossible for the inspector to keep up when he had maybe 20 lathes running. So they just made the posts, sent them for assembly and the girl on the line would just try each one and if it didn't fit it went into a big bin. And there was a lot of operations where that happened, it was actually quicker and cheaper to sort the out of tolerance parts at assembly. But a lot got through, the undersize parts ! Back then volume precision, price and quality were vastly different things which often didn't happen together, as Stephan points out.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 10, 2012 16:28:14 GMT -5
That's a nice looking camera, I love the material they used to cover the cameras instead of leather / leatherette, my Zorki and some Zenits have it and I like the look of it. That's a great job on the hood as well, do you turn them from billet?
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 10, 2012 16:19:39 GMT -5
That's a good looking camera, very stylish. It might be terrible, but hey, it looks good. And I'm sure it'll be better for some care and attention. It's good to see these old cameras rescued.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Dec 3, 2012 19:00:02 GMT -5
That's a great, and cheap, alternative Wayne. The flat bar is big enough to span the lens mount and keep it all square.
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lloydy
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Posts: 506
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Post by lloydy on Dec 3, 2012 18:33:46 GMT -5
cccp.alien-planet.net/maizenberg-cameras1.pdfI stumbled across this tonight, and it looks very helpful. Not being critical of Stephen's expertise, but I don't like to use a vernier caliper for measuring the register distance, there's too much chance of error if the vernier is not kept perfectly square to the lens mount. Having been a hands on engineer all my working life, many years in quality control, and using verniers and measuring tools almost daily I only use the depth gauge part for measuring a step where the 'tail' can be rested against one surface. The end face of the vernier is too small to keep square without some support and very little inclination can introduce an error. I tried to set my Zorki with an expensive digital Mitutoyu vernier and failed dismally, even with the camera held solidly on a tripod head / clamp leaving my hands free. As I went around the lens mount flange and noted the readings I kept getting different readings from the same position. Then I got off my butt and went and got a proper depth micrometer from my workshop and I found that my efforts with the vernier were nearly 0.15mm different on four points around the lens flange. The depth micrometer has a larger base and sits squarely, and the friction thimble ensures greater consistency. But it was definitely a job worth doing, and simple enough get correct with paper shims.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Nov 29, 2012 18:30:01 GMT -5
My Zorki 4K register distance was 0.2 mm out. And when I took the lens mount off to shim it it was obvious that it had always been that way. There were no signs that the fixing screws had ever been removed and there were no unequal shims under the mount to get it level. It's no wonder the camera showed no signs of wear, it was unusable from the factory. But now it's level the camera is a joy.
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lloydy
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Post by lloydy on Nov 27, 2012 16:47:06 GMT -5
I've seen a lot of very nice cine camera's over the last 12 months or so, most in excellent condition and dirt cheap. I resist buying them as I have enough still cameras and lenses and my wife would almost certainly carry out the slow and painful death threats she makes every time I'm caught smuggling stuff into the house! ;D There is obviously a lot of quality stuff out there in the charity shops and junk shops, it just needs rescuing - but not by me!
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