A Pleasant Sunday Morning

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The Sun was out for a change and I have been waiting to try out some of the many old lenses. I grabbed the VPK meniscus and the 1A Autographic lenses and headed out to a local private garden. Every day there are new displays and the flowers are usually rotated from one place to another to vary groupings, as a bonus the building is painted a bright orange and they sell a whole line of home supply items. I pulled right into a spot up front and proceeded to snap away for about thirty minutes.

Then I went to a local Erie Canal Park and took a couple quick shots with the 1A Autographic lens to get a feel for it.

The meniscus shots are on the VPK Meniscus 002 page and the page named 1A Autographic has the others.

A Couple From The Fleamarket

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This morning I visited the local Sunday flea market. After walking through the whole area, I went around again to check on recent arrivals. I had seen a couple of old 35mm cameras that were made of 24K gold and priced accordingly and one platinum MF 120 film camera. As I was almost ready to throw my coffee cup away and leave I spotted a seller just setting up. On his table was a Brownie Target Six-16 and a No2 Folding Cartridge Hawk-Eye Model C. Each with a price tag of $7. I picked each one up for a quick look over and he offered them at $5 each or $7 for both. They are sitting next to my keyboard. Both are in extremely good condition and I have not determined their fate.

The Hawk-Eye has the rotary aperture with four perfect circles of f8-f32 range. Hmmmmmmmm ……… It also has a mechanical aperture choke, the same as the VPK Meniscus. Hmmmmmmmmm again – this lens could certainly be a keeper.

Kodak Bimat Lens Is Finally Mounted and New Pinhole Lens Almost Done

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It took longer than anticipated due to my midstream change to using a bellows for future mounting of old lenses to my Canon XTi.

The original method I was using involved purchasing an old lens, then removing all the optics, then getting the focal length set correctly, then taking the optics out of the old lens, and mounting the old optics. This was very time consuming.

Now I have a M42 screw type bellows mounted to the XTi via a focus confirming adapter (soon to be replaced with one of the new custom settings version). Then all that is needed is to directly glue the lens to an M42 screw type macro tube. Then screw on the lens to the bellows and shoot. Much easier and cheaper. As a bonus the lens is not harmed except for the glue used in the mounting.

Today I have finished the old M42 135mm mount for the pinhole project. All that is left is a quick visit to Mr Pinhole’s Website to get the dimension for the pinhole itself and then just get it mounted to try it out. I hope to be able to use this for Pinhole Day 2009.

Photos will follow when the Sun comes out (sometime in June I believe).

Canon DSLR on 4×5 Camera

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This morning I happened to remember something that happened over two years ago and I thought I might share it.

I had just purchased a 4×5 monorail camera with all the adjustments. The idea was to have a nice landscape camera and attempt all those neat things the camera was capable of. After getting a couple of LF/MF lenses and making lens boards to fit the camera, I realized that I was not at the time able to do B&W chemistry in my basement. 

On eBay I found a source in Hong Kong for a film holder with an EOS attachment. Wow ! All I had to do was connect the camera to the film holder, attach it to the camera and I was golden ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! Wrong ! I wish I had simply done the math ahead of time. As I remember, the adapter was +$100USD plus shipping.

I first tried out the 400mm MF lens with my Rebel 300D DSLR with a crop factor of 1.6 versus a normal 35mm film camera. After realizing that what I was seeing was a super telephoto image, I sort of sat back and tried to figure out what was going on.

4×5″ = 12827 square mm area. 22×15mm APSC sensor = 330 square mm. 12827 divided by 330 = 39. Thus the area of the image captured by the APSC sensor is 1/39th the size of the image for a 4×5″ negative. So, the 400mm lens would equate to a 15,600mm lens. Not exactly a winning image size unless I was going to work for the CIA. Even if I used an EOS film camera the factor would be 1/15th, not as bad, but still not readily usable.

If the images were spot on – tack sharp I could have had some jollies with it. Unfortunately, the need to step the lens down in order to get some depth of field caused the images to be dark. Secondly, they were never sharp as I would like, I believe this was a combination of the mirage effect of the air and the inability to pin the camera down with no movement short of parking my car on it. The angle of view of a Sigma 400mm lens according to their website is 6.2 degrees. Divide this by 39 and you get .1589 degrees, so any movement of the object or the camera will show.  

Needless to say, the adapter has been sitting in a drawer since that first day. Even if one were to take a 40mm MF lens, it would still be equivalent to a 1,560mm lens. Perhaps, I will someday find a need for such a combination, and be glad I have the ability…… maybe …..

Disclaimer: All the math is done with the intention of showing understandable comparisons with no attempt to nit pick over super accuracy.

CLICK HERE FOR FURTHER ADAPTER INFORMATION ON MY BLOG

Update on the Duaflex IV Part2

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The shutter on the Duaflex stopped working during the night. I perhaps should have left the punch and hammer on the workbench nearby.

I figured it was time for disassembly of the winding mechanism and shutter button by removing the side cover. It always looks simple, just remove two screws and voila! , there it is all neat and pretty, just waiting for you to quietly and slowly begin the examination. NOT! As usual in these things, as soon as the second screw was loosened, parts started shifting and by the time the cover was lifted there were parts all over the workbench. Gratefully, it all went back together with a minimum of fuss and bother, I put a couple of small drops of sewing machine oil on the plastic springs, pivot points, etc and re-assembled. 

At this point it is time for Murphy’s Law to come forth. It did. The shutter would still not work correctly (please remember that at this juncture both lenses and the aperture wheel are gone, and a new pinhole has been cemented in place.), then, out of nowhere an oblong hole near the inside bottom of the camera appeared. I know what you think – it was there all the time – I know better – it manifested itself. Anyways- a small drop of oil on the pivot point inside freed up the shutter instantly. Whether or not the last one drop of oil would have been all that was needed I don’t know. But, it would be a good place to start if you find yourself with a sticky shutter Duaflex IV and, of course, if that oblong hole is already there.

Use that old 620/616 camera

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In my constant quest for the different, I ran across this item at an auction site. It is an adapter to let you use 35mm film in the old 620 and 616 format cameras and also available for the 120 format. It costs $10USD! Finally, someone who knows how to merchandise! Instead of selling it for $49.99 and not getting any takers, it is priced in the LOMO style – cheap and fun. 

The images show the sprocket wheel holes as the entire width of the film is exposed and the format is panoramic. There are pictures on their Flickr site, the addy is on their website.

See the website below for information. Now I have to CLA the Kodak Duaflex IV that is in the drawer, the shutter is very sticky.

I had a hard time deciding whether to place this post  here or on my other blog where I have information using unmodified equipment, as this is not an invasive modification. Since the idea of sprocket holes appearing as an integral part of an image is more in keeping with this blog- well, here it will be.

Sprocket Information

Update: I received the package from the website. It is simply a pair of wooden dowels modified to be press fit on the 35mm canister and then placed into the camera. I figure it would take me a couple of hours of fiddling around to copy it, so the price is reasonable. Now, if I could only find the package – hope it didn’t drop in the trash can. Further Update – It is March 2009 and the package is still missing – I’ll probably have to re-order.

A Second Yashica A

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This weekend I ran across an online auction for a Yashica A that needed CLA (clean,lubricate,adjust) with just an hour + left to run. The bid was around $10USD. I put in a bid of $13.98 on a whim and won it for just over $11. With S&H it came to ~$18USD. 

So, I will be doing the modification to a second Yashica A as I have covered on my photographyhacks.org website and in the pages to the right under the same name. The website has a couple of pictures that I didn’t carry over.

This modification was the most gratifying so far in that to a casual looker, it appears to be an original camera. The only difference being the lower lens is now a pinhole. That plus the aperture and shutter still work afterwards. The photographs taken so far are  above my other cameras in detail. Do a tag search on Yashica for the original post with photo.

Update March 2009: The camera still sits here. The ‘leather’ is flaking off, so it will be a project for outside to cut down on the mess of complete removal. Maybe I’ll go to Tandy Leather and get something neat to re-cover it.

A Website Very Much Worth The Time To Visit

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If I could only do 10% of what he has done, I would be satisfied.

Old cameras, old lenses on new cameras, pinhole, etc.

Update: 03/16/2009 I have started to copy some of the techniques found on this website. Do a blog search here for VPK.

GO LOOK !

Galactinus

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Double Slit Camera 4

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The super lens cap is finished, tested and a new page containing photographs has been created.

Double Slit Camera 3

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This morning I got what I needed together for this project. As I mentioned before, I have turned aside a bit from making a whole camera in order to determine something of the physical characteristics needed. This will be a lens cap on steroids, so to speak. I am using a set of macro rings as the basic structure, single edge injector razor blades for the slit edges, black core foam for the blade holders and information I have gleaned from the internet. If the findings are OK, I will then turn to making it in a 4×5 MF wooden camera with a Graflex roll film back using 6×7 negatives.

A few words here on the internet information – there are many references to slit cameras, however, most are related to either cameras used to determine finish line winners or the very interesting experiments on quantum physics showing how light travels as both waves and particles depending on whether they are being observed or not – real SG1 tech talk, huh ? Try this for a starting point – you will start wondering when the Asgard are going to beam you aboard – I hope you have on clean undies – LOL.   http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=usTOM8vffB4 or search the internet for>> Dr Quantum <<

 Further, the little related to what I am doing is mainly of the sort “I am going to make a double slit camera and I am all ready to make it, and it is going to be neat. Can anybody give me information on how to do it?”, or, “Here is a link to (pictures, information, guidelines, etc)”; a vast majority are either dead or not having anything related to the subject. The three places I did find that had needed information are enough to get going, I will either place the information or the links on my www.photographyhacks.org website after I actually determine if they are worthy.

So, here I am saying I am going to do it AND post pictures yadda, yadda, yadda ……….  Well, I do have good intentions of doing just that and you can determine if I follow through by checking back here for updates. Below is a quick picture of my worktable all set to start.