casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Apr 3, 2013 20:55:20 GMT -5
I haven't been actively adding to the collection for the past few years. I have been searching Craigslist hoping to find some cash desperate individuals looking to sell off their Canon L series EOS lenses for me to use on my new DSLR. In the process I came across this last week. The Canon FP was introduced in the fall of 1964. It was Canon's second "FL" mount camera, after the FX which was introduced in the spring of that year. The FP was the economy model, with no light meter built into the body. An optional meter was offered. It fit into the accessory shoe and coupled to the shutter speed knob. Apparently, the FP was not a great seller and is relatively uncommon. In this case, the major impetus for for whipping out my wallet and shaking loose a few dead presidents was the lenses that came with it. The 50mm/1.4 is the six element first version introduced in 1965. A Canon FL 100-200mm f-5.6 was also included in the lot along with the FP instruction booklet and lens catalog (ca. 1964). It's not my first FP. My other was purchased without lens and not warranted to work properly. It does function but very erratically. The attraction of the first was the Bell & Howell/Canon logo. The B&H logo was applied to early USA FX and FP and maybe, some early Pellix models. It wears the first version 50/1.8 introduced with the FX. Both bodies are early production with October and November 1964 date stamps. The Canon branded body wears the <E-P> mark of a camera sold through the U.S. Military PX system, thus not wearing the added logo of Canon's official US distributor of the day. Both cameras show signs of hard use. Both have had their rewind knobs replaced. Maybe Canon refrained from loc-tite or lockwashers! Later Pellix, FT and TL models would sell in far greater numbers but it was the FP and meter equipped FX that started Canon down the path of success after foundering with their quirky Canonflex models.
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Mar 23, 2013 20:46:27 GMT -5
I'll give you twice what you paid! I actually have a couple of Canon RFs on which to use them. Great find!
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Mar 23, 2013 20:42:08 GMT -5
I picked up another one for 2.50 I'm in the process of restoring it. It's in good working condition, but the lens has a ding that needs to be fixed. Doug That's my kind of price! The Chinon manual cameras are fairly easy to tinker with. I haven't opened my L/ES (Sears 2000 ES) to see what's different.
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Mar 1, 2013 20:38:22 GMT -5
Picked up one of these attached to an old EOS Rebel film body several weeks ago. Seems the lens did a face plant while attached to the camera and focus no workie! Found excellent instructions and video of disassembly via Google and You Tube. Upon following the tutorial I found the focus ring pegs that engage a slot in the optical block were both broken off by the force of the fall. The focus ring turned but the lens wasn't being driven back and forth. nis-lab.is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~ybando/rgb_filter/disassembly.pdfI was able to re-attach the pegs using two part epoxy. Excess epoxy had to be trimmed and filed off so the focus ring would turn smoothly within the body of the lens. Getting the lens back together correctly was the tricky part. There are two thin metal rings that look very much alike that hold the repaired assembly in the body. Both are the same diameter and have notches for a one way only fit inside the lens body. Look at them closely and you'll see one is thicker and the other has slightly longer notches on the outside diameter. This is the part that fooled me at first. Since the thicker of the two came out last, it went back in first. I stacked the second ring atop it then installed the electronic/optic assembly. The assembly promptly came back out of the barrel... After several more attempts it was clear these two ring locked the assembly into the barrel, but how? What I missed involved the thicker ring. Install it first then turn it clockwise a few degrees until it locks in under the locating lugs in the housing. Place the second ring atop the first and slide the optical assembly into the barrel and rotate the focus ring slightly counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise for those who speak the Queen's English). Lugs on the focus ring will lock in behind the thick ring and hold everything together. Continue reassembly per the instructions. I now have a working "Nifty Fifty" for my EOS DSLR.
|
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Oct 27, 2011 9:54:19 GMT -5
A belated Happy Birthday, Rachel. I'll deliver a birthday cake if you're not too far from Berkshire!
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Oct 19, 2011 18:31:22 GMT -5
I'll be in the Ascot/Bracknell/Wokingham area soon. Anyone close enough to get together over a pint?
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Oct 19, 2011 18:28:59 GMT -5
I'll jump in, late, as usual. Happy Birthday, Peter!
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Oct 19, 2011 18:15:25 GMT -5
Happy Birthday Randy!
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Sept 2, 2011 16:44:15 GMT -5
Yes. someone probably could. Don't underestimate a determined Vermonter!
As late as 20 to 25 years ago there was still an individual building covered bridges without steel or nails and hauling them into place with a team of oxen.
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Aug 31, 2011 16:32:34 GMT -5
There's an old Vermont comedy routine with the punchline, "Ya cain't get theyuh from heyuh". In the Queen's english that translates as "You can not get there from here".
A friend today forwarded a Vermont Dept. of Transportation map that shows the closed state and US highways. The joke has become fact.
I crossed that bridge many times. Chokes me up to think I can not cross it again.
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Aug 30, 2011 17:58:13 GMT -5
Timing coincides with my nephews' school holiday. My sister has lived in the UK since the late 80s. Last trip was Christmas '06. Not exactly sunny and warm then, either! I'll be in Ascot/Bracknell/Wokingham area of Berkshire.
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Aug 30, 2011 6:47:06 GMT -5
The word on the second covered bridge is that it is still intact and on it's abutments. Both bridges were built by the same individual aboout the same time, 1870.
Green Mtn #405 is the darling of its owners and just about all fans of US locomotives. It is an ALCO (America Locomotive COmpany) RS-1 (Road Switcher, model 1). Built in Schehectady, NY, about two hours drive from the photo location, it was delivered to the Rutland RR, the Green Mtn's predecessor.
I'll be in the UK in about 60 days. Hope to do a little railfanning and planes potting while I'm there. Along with a pub crawl or two, of course!
Bill
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Aug 29, 2011 22:40:50 GMT -5
The Lower Bartonsville covered bridge is no more. Washed down the swollen Williams River by the floodwaters of tropical storm Irene. Here, the Green Mountain RR excursion slows for tourists to snap pictures in September, 2003.
|
|
casualcollector
Lifetime Member
In Search of "R" Serial Soligors
Posts: 619
|
Post by casualcollector on Aug 29, 2011 20:07:07 GMT -5
Very sad to see many places I know well so hard hit. I think more bad news will be coming from Vermont in the next day or two. The Lower Bartonsville covered bridge was washed away. A somewhat iconic location to fans of the old Rutland RR. Rail photographer Jim Shaughnessy made a well know image there.
|
|