OFFICIAL I HAVE A NEW (FILM RELATED) TOY THREAD!!

I'm not sure this qualifies as a 'Toy' but I've just bought an old copy of Amateur Photographer Magazine from 1980 and had some good fun reading through it. It's quite a bit thicker than AP is today... weighing in at almost 200 pages for the 12th July 1980 edition. Mind you, most of it is adverts, but when they are old adverts from long-lost names you remember as a kid, that's a good thing! So if you want to know how much your classic camera, Vivitar lens or Slik 88 Tripod cost in 1980 then just ask! Here's a bit of a taster (with the phone number removed just in case it's been reissued to someone!):

 
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£129.90 for a silver MX with 50/1.7 lens! You could easily pay that now!!!!
 
Mr Badger said:
Yes, but that was back in the days when £129.90 was about 5 weeks wages for a 16 year old apprentice!
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I think I paid about A$240 duty free for my Pentax ME with the 50/1.7 in 1978 or so, about consistent with those prices! And yes, it was a lot more money then.
 
stevelmx5 said:
Aaargh, spoke too soon! There's a drive cog with a few broken teeth so it works sometimes but then stalls when trying to eject film. I've just stripped it down but needed to go further to get to the gear so I'll leave that for another day!
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Well, I couldn't let it beat me so I've just stripped it down again and got the gearbox open to get to the broken gear;

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After getting the gear out I went through my boxes of spares and found that Fuji use the same diameter gear in the Mini 10 I disassembled for the InsTLR back :0)

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The spare gear I have was about 2mm thicker than the broken one so I had to sand it down to make it fit inside the gearbox housing. I also then discovered that Fuji changed the gear ratios slightly and my spare has 19 teeth whereas the broken one has (had!) 20 so it's not an exact replacement. I fitted it anyway and the gearbox meshed nicely. After re-assembling it, and only getting 53 shocks from the capacitor, I've put a film cartridge in and it's ejecting nicely :0)
 
Just picked up the Olympus gear. The long lenses are rather on the heavy side! Got 2 50mm, one 28mm, a 300mm and a 28-200, the om10, a om 20, motorwinder, 2 flashes and a small pile of OOD film. Which is handy as the stash of OOD film I thought I had I can't find.

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Off to Butkus again....
 
Mr Badger said:
I'm not sure this qualifies as a 'Toy' but I've just bought an old copy of Amateur Photographer Magazine from 1980 and had some good fun reading through it. It's quite a bit thicker than AP is today... weighing in at almost 200 pages for the 12th July 1980 edition. Mind you, most of it is adverts, but when they are old adverts from long-lost names you remember as a kid, that's a good thing! So if you want to know how much your classic camera, Vivitar lens or Slik 88 Tripod cost in 1980 then just ask! Here's a bit of a taster (with the phone number removed just in case it's been reissued to someone!):

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I still have loads of those from the 80's when I used to buy it and wish I could win the pools (pre-lottery days these) so I could afford an Canon EOS 650. A couple of years back I bought one for 99p.
 
Mr Badger said:
Here's a bit of a taster ....
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I hankered after a Nikon FM about that time but couldn't stretch to it, so I got a Pentax MX. A neat design, but its build quality was a disaster in several ways. Some years later I did manage a Nikon (by then the FM2) and gave the Pentax away.
 
I bought an MX and it had the mirror issue, I now have an FM with no problems. Though my FE can be a bit erratic sometimes.
 
droj said:
I hankered after a Nikon FM about that time but couldn't stretch to it, so I got a Pentax MX. A neat design, but its build quality was a disaster in several ways. Some years later I did manage a Nikon (by then the FM2) and gave the Pentax away.
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Manwithacam said:
I bought an MX and it had the mirror issue, I now have an FM with no problems. Though my FE can be a bit erratic sometimes.
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You're both philistines, the MX is perfect in every way... except the shutter speed dial, of course! :D
 
Mr Badger said:
I'm not sure this qualifies as a 'Toy' but I've just bought an old copy of Amateur Photographer Magazine from 1980 and had some good fun reading through it. It's quite a bit thicker than AP is today... weighing in at almost 200 pages for the 12th July 1980 edition. Mind you, most of it is adverts, but when they are old adverts from long-lost names you remember as a kid, that's a good thing! So if you want to know how much your classic camera, Vivitar lens or Slik 88 Tripod cost in 1980 then just ask! Here's a bit of a taster (with the phone number removed just in case it's been reissued to someone!):

Click to expand...
I wish that I still had some of my old APs but they went in the bin a long time ago. I don't remember Comet selling cameras but they certainly weren't the "lowest prices" in the business. I fished out the receipt for my Canon A1/1.8 which I bought in 1981 from MacKinnon's on the Edgware Rd for £209.90. When I left London, there were no interesting shops left in that area anymore; MacKinnon's, Henry's Radio and The Modern Book Company on Praed Street were all long gone.
 
I bought my Canon A1 from Comet in November 1980 (first thing I saved up for when I started work), MacKinnon's were indeed advertising the A1 cheaper than Comet at the time (£219.90 with 50mm f1.8) but Comet had that 'We beat any genuine advertised price' thing going so I showed them the MacKinnon's advert! After a bit of frowning, the manager made a phone call to head office to check, and after a couple of minutes discussion they told me they'd do it (I think they knocked the 90p off to beat MacKinnon's price)! :D

I'd got the Capital Cameras Crawley advert (£229.95) handy just in case, as I didn't know whether or not MacKinnon's was a 'grey importer' (I still don't know), and thought Comet might have refused to price match them if they were, but fair play to them, they were good to their advertised word. I still have the A1 (just had the light seals replaced, and it's still going strong! :) I rather miss Comet though. :(
 
ChrisR said:
You're both philistines, the MX is perfect in every way... except the shutter speed dial, of course! :D
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Have you seen there's one for sale in the classifieds?
 
RaglanSurf said:
Have you seen there's one for sale in the classifieds?
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Hadn't... but I've got two that appear to be in working order, and both of those lenses, plus a recently acquired LX. Plus, IMHO that's a bit steep!
 
ChrisR said:
Hadn't... but I've got two that appear to be in working order, and both of those lenses, plus a recently acquired LX. Plus, IMHO that's a bit steep!
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Thought it looked a little pricey but my knowledge of Pentax gear is quite limited.
 
Steven001 said:
Just bought this to see what it's like in camparison to my Praktica MTL 50 and pentacon 50mm. Excited to try it :)
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Better for posing ;)...the Pentax lens should be a bit more sharper than Pentacon, but like most VG lenses for film cameras you have to have a VG scanner to see the difference in results and nowadays high quality digi cameras are used to show the difference in sharpness and distortion....but what a digi camera can't do is show the "magic" of old lenses and film combo (y)
 
excalibur2 said:
Better for posing ;)...the Pentax lens should be a bit more sharper than Pentacon, but like most VG lenses for film cameras you have to have a VG scanner to see the difference in results and nowadays high quality digi cameras are used to show the difference in sharpness and distortion....but what a digi camera can't do is show the "magic" of old lenses and film combo (y)
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I was hoping the lens would be a bit sharper, I paid £36 for it which I thought was okay. I'm hoping the light meter works because the one in my Praktica doesn't work. I've just started shooting film so I send my film away rather than scanning myself.

I wasn't sure whether to go ft the SMC 50 1.7 or the S 55mm 1.8, they both seem to get mixed reviews as to which is best.
 
Well in my collection of lenses any lens that is not sharp, I give or throw it away but it goes on from there as there is the choice of lens that gives a better OOF background or more chance of getting pop (the look of 3d in depth)......the SMC 50 1.7 IMO is a bit sharper compared to the screw lens 55mm f1.8, but I prefer the 55mm f1.8 as for me it seems to give more chance of pop and not so "clinical" and I like the results....maybe it's because of the thorium (radioactive) glass used and it turning slightly yellow if not used in sunlight (need UV light to clear it) o_O
Info about thorium glass in old lenses https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums...on/137774-how-radioactive-super-takumars.html
 
In the past week I have come across three lenses with adapters attached. The first, a Hanimex 80-210mm had an FD to M4/3 adapter, one I don't already have, so even more of a bargain at £5.

The second is a Vivitar 35-200mm f3.0-4.5 PK-A mount lens which has an EOS adapter with focus confirmation. That was £6.40, I guess it was reduced from £8 by 20%.

Today I got a Fujinon 55mm f2.2 with a circular polariser and the Canon lens mount converter P for m42 to FD/FL for £8. Not bad for less than £20 for the lot.
 
skysh4rk said:
I have managed to adapt another lens to my Rolleiflex SL66E; this time an Argus 4" f/2.8 projections lens. The nice thing about adapting lenses to this system is that I still have the full range of tilt even at infinity, which is not possible with any of the native lenses.

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Are we going to have to ask the mods to change the section name to Film, conventional and unconventional?
 
RaglanSurf said:
Are we going to have to ask the mods to change the section name to Film, conventional and unconventional?
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Maybe. I'm trying to find a lens that gives me all kinds of vignetting, swirling, and that really early 20th century look. Unfortunately, everything I pick up seems to be too sharp and too good for my tastes, so I may soon need to get even more unconventional. :)
 
skysh4rk said:
Maybe. I'm trying to find a lens that gives me all kinds of vignetting, swirling, and that really early 20th century look. Unfortunately, everything I pick up seems to be too sharp and too good for my tastes, so I may soon need to get even more unconventional. :)
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Just clean the front element with sand...
 
OM1N that I won off ebay for £13.50 has just arrived. Sold as jammed & meter not working. Have cleared the jam. The self timer had been engaged. Meter does work but is umpteen stops slow. Am a very happy bunny for what I paid for it & will be sending it off to Miles Whitehead for a CLA & diode mod.
 
DNH said:
OM1N that I won off ebay for £13.50 has just arrived. Sold as jammed & meter not working. Have cleared the jam. The self timer had been engaged. Meter does work but is umpteen stops slow. Am a very happy bunny for what I paid for it & will be sending it off to Miles Whitehead for a CLA & diode mod.
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Bargain, just out of interest what does Miles charge for the diode mod?
 
12 to 18 months back he did a CLA & diode mod on my other OM1 & that was around £50.
 
DNH said:
12 to 18 months back he did a CLA & diode mod on my other OM1 & that was around £50.
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Thanks, that's pretty much the same as a CLA on it's own.
 
I finally ended up winning one of these on eBay after wanting one for a long while. It had been listed as spares or repair but apart from degraded light seals and a broken self timer lever it seems to be alright. It came with a crusty battery inside that had thankfully not soiled the battery compartment bit still had enough life left in it to power the auto mode. I can't wait to get out and use it once I've replaced the light seals. Not bad for just over £20 including postage.

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FishyFish said:
After my phone battery died leaving me with no light meter app for the second time the other day, I decided to get something more reliable.

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I lost my first one but bought another as they are such a perfect little light meter.
 
A quick question on how to use it to measure incident light... this is my first physical light meter so please excuse my noobiness...

If I want to take an incident reading and the light is the same at the camera as it is at the subject, e.g. full sunshine on both, how do I hold the meter? I know to slide the invercone into place, but do I point it at the subject in the same way as I would if taking a reflective reading; towards the camera; or does it make no difference in this situation?

Thanks.
 
FishyFish said:
A quick question on how to use it to measure incident light... this is my first physical light meter so please excuse my noobiness...

If I want to take an incident reading and the light is the same at the camera as it is at the subject, e.g. full sunshine on both, how do I hold the meter? I know to slide the invercone into place, but do I point it at the subject in the same way as I would if taking a reflective reading; towards the camera; or does it make no difference in this situation?

Thanks.
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To take an incident reading you hold the light meter with the invercone facing towards the camera lens.
 
Has anyone heard from @Asha lately? I was just looking at the FPOTY table and noticed he hasn't entered for a few months, and his last post was almost 2 months ago. Hopefully he's ok.

Although his last post said he's outta here, so perhaps he's just taking a break from the forum for a bit!
 
Carl Hall said:
Has anyone heard from @Asha lately? I was just looking at the FPOTY table and noticed he hasn't entered for a few months, and his last post was almost 2 months ago. Hopefully he's ok.

Although his last post said he's outta here, so perhaps he's just taking a break from the forum for a bit!
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Come on Asha come clean what upset you....you could always email one of us if personal\private or whatever to keep stumm.
 
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