daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 31, 2012 5:21:49 GMT -5
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 31, 2012 5:16:09 GMT -5
We used to have Practical Wireless and Practical Electronics and suchlike. I made one or two fairly straightforward things like a stereo amplifier and a enlarger timer, but never quite got round to making that B/W TV or the oscilloscope that I always fancied doing. They were in the days when there were proper tubes and proper components, such as valves. Now you buy a chip and connect a few wires, and that's it, job done.
Doug. if you get chance post more of these: they are most interesting.
Dave.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 30, 2012 18:53:11 GMT -5
I have just purchased, whether wise or not, a job lot of six cameras on ebay. Therse were advertised as "6 Various vintage cameras all untested and sold for spares."
Minolta Auto Wide Kodak Bantam Colorsnap Kodak Retinette 1A Aires Penta 35 Ilford Sportsman Voigtlander Vito B
From the photograph they don't look too bad. Anyway at about £3.70 each including postage it seemed a reasonable punt. Expected arrival time is in about a week.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 30, 2012 18:18:03 GMT -5
Doug "How to build a home freezer" certainly a home project for the average DIYer. Plastics? I wonder what percentage of the population knew of plastics in 1948.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 30, 2012 1:49:25 GMT -5
Mickey, trust you to hatch a different scenario! ;D
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 29, 2012 20:58:37 GMT -5
The Lark Ascending, Ralph Vaughan Williams,
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 29, 2012 20:04:53 GMT -5
Never mind, for the cost of a few films you can buy a new one.
The one digital camera I've had problems with was an Easyshare. It would work okay, then suddenly die. Switching it off and on again would often bring it back to life, but occasionally, having a mind full of its own, it would stay off - so we stopped using it.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 29, 2012 19:32:57 GMT -5
For 99c you expect it to have a battery cover! I bet someone out there is expecting an Olympus XA, but has ended up with a lens he/she can't use.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 29, 2012 12:46:31 GMT -5
"I woulda sworn I just turned 40." - you mean you are older! Happy Birthday. Dave.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 27, 2012 6:22:02 GMT -5
Absolutely right.....and many of those who do don't know how to turn it off (or the camera won't let them switch it off): witness the number of flashes at such as a sporting event. Their photos are probably saved by the fact the stadium lights are bright enough.
That's another can of worms. The rest of the world, in the main, persists with its lager which is often served too cold for the climate it's being drunk in. It's even difficult to get Guinness served at the proper temperature - and that includes Ireland itself. Real ale is the "thing", served at a cool-room temperature, something in the order of 12oC.
Berndt, I know that you can handle a camera - perhaps especially so when set to video: excellent stuff, your videos.
In terms of exposure metering the Topcon SuperD has a good system, which is easy to over-ride to give + or - 1/2 or 1 stop. In terms of external meters, I did have a selenium meter that fitted on the accessory shoe (don't know what happened to it). Also a hand held CdS meter from Boots (a chain of chemist shops - meter re-badged with their name). We had a Weston II when I was young, and I bought a EuroMaster, with its Invercone, later. Incident light metering is still the best for many situations.
The other hand-held meter I had was a Sixticolor - for determining colour temperature. It is somewhat unnecessary now, especially if shooting RAW.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 27, 2012 1:55:36 GMT -5
Any camera is perfect in what it does, if the photographer is happy to accept its limitations. If all that is being done is photos in decent light then an old box camera with its single fixed speed and its single pre-set f-stop will give good results. There is no need to have such complications as rangefinders as the box camera is focus free, all that has to be done is load and wind on the film. It is capable of trick shots, too, with its ability to double expose any frame.
The next level of sophistication brought several shutter speeds. but only between (say) 1/30 and 1/250 with a standard lens (focal length depending on film format) and front element focussing: still fairly simple, but with enough complications to mean that some thought was necessary. Photographs could be taken in a greater variety of conditions, but limitations were still there.
And so on, with increasing sophistication, to the modern DSLR, which can, never the less, be set manually to remove all that sophistication.
Any one person can get off (the ladder) where he or she is happy, where the camera and lens will give the required results. For me, if I had to have just one camera, it would have to be a modern, (fairly) high-end DSLR. It is the only camera that will cover all the shots, still and moving, that I want to take.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 26, 2012 13:09:44 GMT -5
Casey, I expect you have looked at the manual on Butkus.org and that doesn't show what you need. It, Kalimar c-64, is not really a a camera I know: presumably it didn't sell in Britain under that name.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 26, 2012 12:53:03 GMT -5
Berndt, what you say is only partly true.
In terms of flash sync speeds it is broadly true that the older the camera design the slower will be the flash sync speed.
As far as I am aware the early FP shutters were horizontal. Later on vertical FP shutters allowed X-sync at 1/125 and faster. The Praktica LLC of the early 1970s, for instance, would sync at 1/125.
FP bulbs could be used at all shutter speeds, on horizontal and vertical FP shutters. FP bulbs were slow-burn, the flash would start before the first shutter started to open (M-sync) rather than when fully open (X-sync). (At the back of my mind I seem to recall there was also F-sync - perhaps that was an FP setting, or one manufacturers version?)
The last of the film EOS Canons, certainly at the top end, will sync with speedlights at any shutter speed. My EOS 30 (Elan 7) will (high-speed) sync from 1/30 to 1/4000 sec and from 30sec to 1/125 in normal sync mode.
Dave.
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 26, 2012 3:28:43 GMT -5
"You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pespsodent!"
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daveh
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Post by daveh on Mar 26, 2012 3:19:48 GMT -5
Berndt,
I think the reason why "so few were made" is that CdS cells were becoming available around that time and so were miniature batteries to power the cells. I bet if you look at automatic, leaf shutter rangefinder cameras with CdS cells you will find plenty.
The problem now comes with the demise of mercury cells batteries. I hasn't been too easy for cameras to find batteries that will 1) fit are 2) are the correct voltage. The other thing with voltage is that it needs to be of a consistent voltage output for all its life - unless the circuit designer has really done his or her job really well - otherwise incorrect exposures will result.
Dave.
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