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Post by raybar on Sept 6, 2016 14:31:12 GMT -5
After seeing this post, I searched for "vintage retro" on eBay without specifying a category and got 736,865 hits. I scrolled very quickly through the first five pages (set at 200 items per page) and saw 999 listings for ladies dresses and one for eyeglasses. Searching in "Camera & Photo" gave 1123 hits - everything from photo albums to darkroom trays to cameras. Then I googled "vintage retro" and got "about 51,800,000 results." You'd think they could be more specific Evidently, "vintage retro," or using both words separately in a description, is a common strategy to generate more views when potential customers search than would result from only using one such word. Next we will probably see a long string of synonyms for "old" being used in description, like "Old, Vintage, Retro, Antique, Collectable, Classic Thingy."
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Post by raybar on Sept 4, 2016 13:17:47 GMT -5
At my house, H is for Holga. Here's one in combat dress: Holgas give that dreamy soft focus Holga look but, like most toy cameras, lack exposure controls. Solution #1 = get a Holga lens for your real camera (made for Canon and Nikon): HC is for Holga lens on a Canon: Solution #2 = put a Holga lens on something with a focal plane shutter: HG is for Holga lens on a Speed Graphic (home-made recessed lens board): Solution #3 (which I have seen but not done myself) = mount a Holga lens on a "between the lens" shutter.
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Post by raybar on Sept 1, 2016 17:15:37 GMT -5
I have "unstuck" aperture blades on old Canon R-series lenses this way, using "mineral sprits" (aka petroleum distillates or paint thinner) as my solvent. This would be chemically similar to naphtha, although exactly what it contains is not listed on the label.
I moisten a cotton swab with solvent (just damp, not dripping liquid) and very gently apply it to the blades. The solvent is clear and colorless, and the cotton is white. But as oil is dissolved in the solvent the cotton turns yellow. Once it's yellow, that swab is finished because I don't want to re-deposit the oil it has absorbed back onto the aperture blades. Also, I don't want to use a particular swab very long because cotton fibers can separate from the swab and find their way into places they don't belong. Used swabs go in a fireproof container (an ancient skillet) where they can completely dry before disposal.
I repeat this as many times as necessary to get the blades clean, typically using many swabs over a couple days. It can seem as if it's taking forever, but it's easy and avoids disassembling the lens beyond unscrewing the front elements.
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Post by raybar on Aug 22, 2016 10:41:26 GMT -5
These cameras used (I'm reasonable certain) standard 16mm motion picture film. 100 foot loads, I think. You will need to contact labs in your area, tell them what you have, and see if anyone is willing to attempt developing film that may be decades old and of an unknown emulsion. Good luck.
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Post by raybar on Aug 21, 2016 16:47:27 GMT -5
In addition to the Pellix (1966), both the original "F-1 High Speed Motor Drive Camera" (1972, 9 frames/second -- "approx" it said), and the "New F-1 High Speed Motor Drive Camera" (1984, 14 frames/second) also use a fixed semi-silvered mirror. global.canon/en/c-museum/index.htmlAnd I have a nagging suspicion that they used it somewhere else too, but I'm having a memory failure moment.
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Post by raybar on Aug 19, 2016 11:35:43 GMT -5
Some of the "grainy high contrast look" was intentional but a lot of it was the result of incorrect exposure and/or poor darkroom technique, and especially the use of condenser enlargers. Collimated light is scattered much more when passing through high density areas of negatives than through low density areas, resulting in increased contrast in the print compared to what's really on the negative and accentuating graininess and dust.
Ansel Adams, The Print, Morgan & Morgan, 1968, page 42-43
Fred Picker, Zone VI Workshop, Amphora, 1974, page 62
My prints were dramatically and effortlessly improved the moment I removed the condenser head from my enlarger and installed a diffuse "cold light" head. I had previously done film speed and development time tests. I was producing good Zone System negatives that made lovely contact prints, with Zone 1 printing just a bit lighter than clear film printed for Zone 0 and Zone 8 printing just a bit darker than the Zone 9 white of unexposed paper. But enlarging was a nightmare until I switched to diffused light. Suddenly the tonal range of my prints matched what I saw on my contact sheets. I quit wasting time and paper making "test strips" like all the "how to print" books suggested and (after doing tests to establish exposure time and f/stop for each print size on normal contrast paper) just made a test print at my standard settings.
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Post by raybar on Aug 18, 2016 13:09:01 GMT -5
I'm hoping for Eastman House but I think she has secret plans for me to disappear in Algonquin Park somewhere near the Portage Store.
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Post by raybar on Aug 17, 2016 19:58:53 GMT -5
No cameras in the bathroom? Me neither -- until today. I just put a waterproof Canon Elph Sport among the bottles of soap and shampoo beside my wife's bathtub. No film (Advantix) and no battery installed, but she won't know that. I'm expecting a scream in the morning and perhaps a letter from an attorney in the afternoon.
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Post by raybar on Aug 17, 2016 9:41:10 GMT -5
The Fairchild cameras I have seen all opened like this one:
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Post by raybar on Aug 8, 2016 21:48:30 GMT -5
... What were their designers thinking? ... The designers may have thinking that they could bring an "improved" model to market on the cheap by cobbling a rangefinder onto an existing model. Or maybe their patent attorneys insisted that they make something no one would want to copy. (image from Wikipedia)
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Post by raybar on Aug 8, 2016 19:19:25 GMT -5
None of the above for me. I bought a Canon F-1 in June 1972. Still have it. And a few lenses. How did a Vivitar macro get in there? And what's on the bellows?
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Post by raybar on Aug 5, 2016 22:11:32 GMT -5
I load Patterson tanks and reels in a changing bag without difficulty. But not just any changing bag. The main problem using a changing bag is the bag itself. The fabric is always in the way, always against your hands, against the reel, against the film. Very frustrating. Particularly in hot weather. The solution is any device or method to keep the bag open and out of the way. An inexpensive trick is to put a box in the bag, which keeps the fabric out of the way, but then the box might be in the way. The excellent but expensive solution is a changing tent. I "inherited" one from some movie or TV show I worked on years ago, and it was part of my assistant cameraman kit on many shows thereafter. I doubt I would ever have purchased one myself, as the box in the bag solution works well enough, and the tent costs as much as some cameras. The same model, and some even larger ones, are still on the market: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/172897-REG/Harrison_1001_Standard_Film_Changing_Tent.html
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Post by raybar on Aug 4, 2016 18:52:14 GMT -5
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Post by raybar on Aug 3, 2016 14:39:30 GMT -5
I really don't want to display every camera and lens and accessory I have. Too much of a good thing, you might say. And "she who must be obeyed" wouldn't stand for it anyway. Presently there are cameras in front of books on bookshelves and scattered around in convenient spots that aren't already taken by her crap .... I mean treasures. Here in Los Angeles -- earthquake country -- I'm nervous about everything falling to the floor at any moment. So I'm considering something like this from Ikea which provides both display space with doors to minimize dust and drawers for storing things that don't need to be seen all the time. I don't know what I'll actually do, or if I will get anything from Ikea or not, but it's likely to be something like this. Need more than one. Whatever it is will be fastened to the wall to prevent it tipping over and I will add secure latches to the doors and perhaps fix things in place somehow. That may all sound excessive to anyone who has never experienced an earthquake, but it's just a sensible and relentlessly recommended precaution here.
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Post by raybar on Aug 1, 2016 12:32:28 GMT -5
There are some vintage Popular Photography magazines available for free at books.google.com Nothing approaching a complete library, unfortunately.
The old articles are fun to see, but from a collecting point of view, the equipment ads are of particular interest. A month-by-month history of what was available in the U.S. over the years.
On a personal note, the May 1947 issue, the month I was born, had ads for
New York Stores -- - Minifilm Camera Exchange where I bought my first Canon F-1 with a 50/1.8 and a used 135/2.5 (still have them, F-1 use a CLA) - Olden Camera where I never bought anything because they quoted me a good price for a slide projector on the phone without mentioning that there was no lens included until I got to the store. - Spiratone where I bought a bunch of junk -- I mean economically prices items - in my destitute student days. Still have a some of it, including 400/6.3 and 105/2.5 presets, a paper trimmer, and half a box of unused 35mm slide mounts. - Willoughby's where I bought my first enlarger (an Omega medium format model to which I soon added a cold-light head).
Cameras -- - A 16mm version of the 35mm Mitchell movie cameras that were still in use (a little) when I got into the Hollywood industry in 1980. I "pulled focus" on a couple low budget jobs with these aging beasts (required giant sound blimp), but mostly worked with Panavision. - Pacemaker Speed and Crown Graphics -- "The Great New Graphics Are Here" -- Just coming onto the market. 4x5, 3x4, 2x3. Detailed article in this issue as well. - The twin-lens Kodak Reflex Camera (620 film) which didn't last long in competition with Rollei for some reason. - The Argus 21 camera (35mm) -- the "First and only Candid Camera with war-born Markfinder" - Bolex 16mm movie cameras - I had and used a beat up old one in film school. Sold it after graduation.
And many more ...
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