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

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Well Steven old farts like me regret not keeping that old motorcycle, dinky toys etc...and biggest regret not buying a house for £7,500 in London (worth a million now).

I have a 1992 Range Rover Vogue classic car (3.9 V8 manual); it was bought new by my father who subsequently decided, after keeping it for several years, to downsize to a BMW. Despite it being in immaculate condition and having less than 30,000 miles on the clock he'd have got about £3k for it in part-ex at the time; plus he had two friends who both said they wanted it, so he'd have ended up upsetting one of them if he sold it to the other! I had a chat with him about it and we decided to keep it in the family instead so he gave it to me to keep as a future classic. Not a bad decision, it's insured for £20,000 now and appreciating in value each year. So it does sometimes pay to hang on to something rather than let it go for a song, and old cameras are a bit smaller and cheaper to keep than a car! (y)

IMG_0051 by J White, on Flickr
 
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There's no point buying Vista to sell on ebay, as the postage and fees wipe out any profit. If you were to buy a roll for a quid and then stick it on ebay for £5 with free postage, then you'd make 23p profit... Even if you charged for postage you'd have to be selling it for £3 + P&P just to net a pound, and no one is going to pay almost £6 a roll delivered. The only way to make it work is to sell it in bulk, like 5 or 10 rolls at a time I think, but it's a lot of effort for very little gain.

Well yes you would have to sell it in bulk, but the point is it only cost one £1 a roll, in two or three years time when Portra, Superia etc has increased in price the more money you could make selling it and they still buy OOD film on the bay IMO at silly prices h'mm even call it lomo if you want:rolleyes:
The completed listings for say Fuji superia 200 are a revelation when 4 or 5 years ago I bought 100 for £33 on the bay(y)
 
Cheers Chris, it's always good to get a recommendation! I'd love to go visit them but it's a 10 hour round trip :LOL: The only camera shop even close to me is Mifsuds which is about an hour and a half away :(

I also visited Mifsuds once, that's quite an Aladdin's cave there, too. Got a great bargain on the Vivitar 35-70 lens, which is highly rated.
 
Tee hee..........

Go on you know you want to. ;)
 
I'm off to Yorkshire tomorrow - I'm intending to get along to West Yorkshire Cameras :). I'm sure they'll have something I need...
 
Well the first of my two bargains arrived today. I have always had a soft spot for the Oly Trip 35 so I managed to snare one for a mere £15.
All working and in excellent condition bar needing the seals replaced which is no big deal.
 
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I'm still hankering after on OM1 one has just popped up at what seem t be a good price its a little dneted according to the ad but the little lever on the film rewind knob is missing (the ad doesn't mention this I spotted it in the photos) is it possible to rrplace this and if so is it easy to do?
 
I'm still hankering after on OM1 one has just popped up at what seem t be a good price its a little dneted according to the ad but the little lever on the film rewind knob is missing (the ad doesn't mention this I spotted it in the photos) is it possible to rrplace this and if so is it easy to do?
You cannot buy spares anymore! To replace this, you would need another OM1 to take the part from. Better to look for a complete camera in the first place. They are not at all rare.
 
You cannot buy spares anymore! To replace this, you would need another OM1 to take the part from. Better to look for a complete camera in the first place. They are not at all rare.

Thanks John thats what I thought to be honest I've bid on a few a missed out.

Will wait for the right one to come up not desprate as I have quite a few others to play with!
 
With most of the 'commoner' vintage and classic SLR and TLR cameras it's not so much the availability of spare parts, as a dead donor camera can often be picked up for reasonable money, it's the cost of having them repaired. Unless it's a simple fix such as unscrewing a bottom plate and fitting a replacement, it's usually going to need a trip to a specialist camera mechanic, and the cost of stripping the donor camera down and fitting the parts to the broken one will usually equal or outstrip the cost of buying a good one in the first place.

Some people may be able to carry out their own repairs but I think it takes a certain talent, a keen eye and a very steady hand to do this, as it's like trying to work on a 3 dimensional Swiss watch, often with old and fragile electronic parts to contend with too in post-1950s cameras. There are various 'how I stripped and fixed a camera or lens' type videos and illustrated tutorials on the internet, but I doubt there will be many 'how I made a pig's ear of it and totally ruined it' type videos or confessions on the internet to balance this! If people did post this sort of confession then I suspect those videos would outnumber the 'how I DIY fixed it' type ones! ;)
 
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Is it too much of a shoehorn to mention that Cartier-Bresson's 'The Decisive Moment' landed on my doormat yesterday morning? It's the 2014 reprint.
 
You cannot buy spares anymore! To replace this, you would need another OM1 to take the part from. Better to look for a complete camera in the first place. They are not at all rare.

If it's only the lift up arm on the rewind knob that's missing it ould be a simple replacement (one screw in the centre of the rewind knob) I haven't compared the lever with one from an OM10 (for example) but I'd be surprised if they weren't interchangeable from a donor. Worst case, just take the entire rewind knob off an OM and use that. might not be original but it would do the job!
 
I just happen to have my OM1 in front of me :0)

View attachment 118172

To remove the central screw, just open the camera and place something across the film spool holder to keep it in place (screwdriver or wooden rod etc) then unscrew the retaining screw from the top.

That's the one I'm tempted as the camera has a 50mm 1.8 and 28 mm 2.8 lens with it
 
A Chinon Bellami camera. Only had it an hour or so but so far very impressed. Test film over the weekend - it is far too dark today!
View attachment 117716
Not good news. All the shots are seriously under-exposed. They look like dusk shots but were taken around midday. Strangely, the indoor shot from the mall in Peterborough is the best of the lot. Batteries are the correct type and are new. Could be a stiff shutter, but could equally a stiff diaphragm or nearly dead meter. Pity, as I like the camera.
bellami indoor.jpgbellami Peterborough.jpg Bellami Witham.jpg
 
Thanks John thats what I thought to be honest I've bid on a few a missed out.

Will wait for the right one to come up not desprate as I have quite a few others to play with!

Well if you can pick up an OM1 at a bargain price that has say a rewind knob missing, I have a complete spare OM2 and the rewind knob looks the same. (y)
 
Cheap acquisition No. 2. This is a great looking little camera but it does come with one flaw, The meter is dead bar a tiny twitch when you hit the shutter. I have checked with a spare cell but nothing and I have taken the bottom off and checked the wires on the battery compartment and they are fine. So its either a bad wire somewhere else or a broken connection at the meter.
I will do some investigation to see if it can be fixed as I would love to keep it alongside the Oly Trip 35
 
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Cheap acquisition No. 2. This is a great looking little camera but it does come with one flaw, The meter is dead bar a tiny twitch when you hit the shutter. I have checked with a spare cell but nothing and I have taken the bottom off and checked the wires on the battery compartment and they are fine. So its either a bad wire somewhere else or a broken connection at the meter.

The C35 is very prone to light meter/battery issues. This blog post is very good and may shed some light (no pun intended!): http://wp.ki-online.net/konica-c35-rangefinder-camera-repair-light-meter-soldering/#
 
Cheap acquisition No. 2. This is a great looking little camera but it does come with one flaw, The meter is dead bar a tiny twitch when you hit the shutter. I have checked with a spare cell but nothing and I have taken the bottom off and checked the wires on the battery compartment and they are fine. So its either a bad wire somewhere else or a broken connection at the meter.
I will do some investigation to see if it can be fixed as I would love to keep it alongside the Oly Trip 35

Konica C35 by Stuart Pardue, on Flickr

Well I had an early model like yours and it has a very good lens.....but all that erm focus controls\features confused me (like other rangefinders) and couldn't be bothered to work it out so only used it a few times.
 
Well I had an early model like yours and it has a very good lens.....but all that erm focus controls\features confused me (like other rangefinders) and couldn't be bothered to work it out so only used it a few times.
...all that focus control? It’s a rangefinder.
 
Today I have been mainly buying faulty cameras. I bought a Zenit B that the shutter doesn't cock, a Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL with no wind on lever a box Brownie no. 2 (Canadian) with no lens (but a film) £13 for the lot.

In working condition are a Braun Paxette Ib and an Agfa folder.
 
Rangefinder cameras can take many lenses . . .

erm shouldn't it be "some" and how many lenses can it use for those that can. Anyway it people want to use rangefinder cameras that's their choice but it's just not for me.
 
Success with the Konica C35!!!!!

Before I stripped it down for a 2nd time I decided to rule out the PX675 battery that came with the camera. The closest I could find in the house was an LR44, not ideal but to purely test the light meter it would suffice for 2 mins.
Bingo the light meter came alive!

So all I need to do to is get a new battery and fit some new light seals to this and the Trip and I am good to go!
 
The PX675 is a mercury battery and so must be many years old. It was never likely to be a good one! Before chasing for a 1.35 volt replacement, I would use the LR44 at 1.5 volts and compare with a modern meter in digital camera. I doubt it would be too far off - the voltage compensating for aging in the meter circuits.
 
The PX675 is a mercury battery and so must be many years old. It was never likely to be a good one! Before chasing for a 1.35 volt replacement, I would use the LR44 at 1.5 volts and compare with a modern meter in digital camera. I doubt it would be too far off - the voltage compensating for aging in the meter circuits.
A quick test of the same scene between the Konica and the Olympus EM10 mk2 came up as follows

Konica C35 metred the scene at F4 1/125
Olympus EM10 metred the scene 1/60

So if my calcs are correct the extra voltage in the Konica is 1 stop faster. So i presume a 1.35v battery would even it out again.
 
A quick test of the same scene between the Konica and the Olympus EM10 mk2 came up as follows

Konica C35 metred the scene at F4 1/125
Olympus EM10 metred the scene 1/60

So if my calcs are correct the extra voltage in the Konica is 1 stop faster. So i presume a 1.35v battery would even it out again.
You can buy adapters that change the voltage. This page sells one that actually reduces the voltage http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_mr9_adapter.htm but somewhat expensive. Some of the ones sold on ebay don't reduce voltage.

Don't bother with the weincells as they only last a few months once opened, whether you use them or not.
 
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A quick test of the same scene between the Konica and the Olympus EM10 mk2 came up as follows

Konica C35 metred the scene at F4 1/125
Olympus EM10 metred the scene 1/60

So if my calcs are correct the extra voltage in the Konica is 1 stop faster. So i presume a 1.35v battery would even it out again.
One stop is neither here nor there really - well within the latitude of film. I would stick with the LR44 batteries.
 
One stop is neither here nor there really - well within the latitude of film. I would stick with the LR44 batteries.
My thoughts too.
So with the two roles of film i have (100 and 800 asa) would i set the camera at 50 and 400 respectively?
 
My thoughts too.
So with the two roles of film i have (100 and 800 asa) would i set the camera at 50 and 400 respectively?
Yes, as the meter is going to underexpose.
 
Thanks for letting us know, not that I need anything much really; it's just time to use the cameras I've got that I could do with... and some brighter weather too.
 
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