The mystery box!

Hmmm... it might be some of the contents of the battery has leaked out and is gumming it up? Be careful if that's the case and don't get any on your hands, some old batteries were made of rather nasty stuff! Any photos of it? It might help suggest if there's some sort of knack to opening it, unless you can find a manual for it on the interweb or someone on here used to have one and can explain how to get into it?
 
well I get 0.8m closest focussing for the hi-matic e.
so I suppose that's a start point in discovering whether it focusses at all.
you could devise a plan to create your own focussing scale by marking the barrel and body as you go
it says, on the interweb that only a quarter turn focusses from 0.8m to infinity, so its kinda tight but doable
with the back open, maybe you could offer up some kind of focussing screen in line with the film plane, its about opening the shutter to do that I suppose, if it has bulb you're good to go, otherwise it might be tricky
 
Mr Badger said:
Hmmm... it might be some of the contents of the battery has leaked out and is gumming it up? Be careful if that's the case and don't get any on your hands, some old batteries were made of rather nasty stuff! Any photos of it? It might help suggest if there's some sort of knack to opening it, unless you can find a manual for it on the interweb or someone on here used to have one and can explain how to get into it?
Click to expand...

It takes some lithium ones in a holder. I think it's been dropped as there is a bash mark on the lens. Case cracked when I got the battery door open so it's the first casualty. They're meant to just push off and hinge up but the clipping mechanism looked bent. There was nothing sticky so it's either a bad design or it's been dropped and everything is out of whack. I don't think it would have been any good anyway.
 
joxby said:
well I get 0.8m closest focussing for the hi-matic e.
so I suppose that's a start point in discovering whether it focusses at all.
you could devise a plan to create your own focussing scale by marking the barrel and body as you go
it says, on the interweb that only a quarter turn focusses from 0.8m to infinity, so its kinda tight but doable
with the back open, maybe you could offer up some kind of focussing screen in line with the film plane, its about opening the shutter to do that I suppose, if it has bulb you're good to go, otherwise it might be tricky
Click to expand...

Lens barrel moves. It's just the viewfinder focussing method basically relies on you having a straightish edge in the middle of the frame to tell. It's a very small difference that shows up.
 
Suz.. does the Ful-Vue have a threaded shutter release?

Just pondering if the through-the-viewfinder conversion could enable a digital and film exposure to be produced at the same time using a double release and a digital camera with a threaded shutter (e.g. Fuji).
 
Alastair said:
Suz.. does the Ful-Vue have a threaded shutter release?

Just pondering if the through-the-viewfinder conversion could enable a digital and film exposure to be produced at the same time using a double release and a digital camera with a threaded shutter (e.g. Fuji).
Click to expand...

Nope. It has some leaver type of thing. I'm assuming that's the shutter release as quite honestly it's hard to tell.
 
Flipping mystery box camera has bit me in the arse again. Put some film in the hi-matic. Squelched around a local country park. Thought I had some lovely pics of trees and fungus and other stuff. 36 frames was an effort. Went to rewind the film as the last frame has an awkward wind and it felt funny. The rewind button is also stuck in by the look of it so I'm assuming the crank thingy winds it on rather than winding it back even with the reverse button is useless. I started to rewind it and I felt it snap the film. FFS! If this camera wasn't the rare black version not the silver I'd have just tossed it into the nearest trash can :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::dummy::dummy::dummy::dummy::dummy::facepalm:

Unstuck it myself after trying the really obvious. :eggface::facepalm:
 
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The joys of old cameras! :whistle: Never mind, a hot cup of tea and a large kit-kat for Suz please! :)
 
A roll of vista has now been loaded. Only 24 frames. I won't be using all of them in future!
 
A successful afternoon possibly. 3 rolls of vista shot in 3 different cameras at 3 different locations and none snapped!

Agfa and Minolta AFS have best viewfinders. Don't like the weird film winding on the Agfa as you have to lift the flash, press a button then use the crank to rewind which feels strange. Minolta and olympus zoom thing are all motorised which is great. Olympus has a really crap viewfinder though. AFS also helpfully always leaves the leader slightly out as well. So if I can get one to take decent photos then it becomes a good choice for any home dev camera. The Hi-Matic also has a good rewind as I put a roll in, decided to send it off for a service so wound it back and I could feel when the leader popped off the spool quite easily so that's another potential.

I'm hoping Minolta Dave is going to be able to sort out the HI-Matic as having looked on the flickr groups it does seem to produce good results. When it's not ripping films anyway...

Got the Vivitar EF and the ultra crap compacts left to test.
 
I'll look forward to seeing some of the results, glad the cameras seem to have behaved for you this time. (y)
 
There's plenty of capacity for it to all go Pete Tong :)

Wanged them off to filmdev so I should know soon enough...
 
Still waiting for the Hi-Matic to be returned from Camera Repair workshop. It's supposedly been sent out in time to get here for Monday this week, Wednesday and yesterday but no sign of it as of RM Postie time.
 
Finally got it back. The spacers for the different batteries are a bit of a weak point as they move in the battery compartment.
 
As long as they don't move around, after the batteries are installed, to the extent that it cuts off the power they should the job OK, so unless that happens I wouldn't worry too much. :)
 
They do unfortunately. The check light wasn't lighting until I jiggled them. I've ordered some normal alkaline ones in the correct size as they work well and it's calibrated to 1.5v batteries anyway. The ones in it still worked. Had to order from the US as they were out of stock everywhere else.
 
I don't know what size you needed but I've used this place a couple of times and found them OK https://www.battery-force.co.uk/?gclid=CO279O6Yq9ICFRIo0wod1YcEsA Just ordered three Energiser Lithium 2CR5 batteries for the EOS3 for £13.08 inc postage, which I didn't think was too bad (free postage if you spend over £10). Thought I'd mention it in case it's any use to you in future. Glad you've got it sorted anyway, I'll look forward to seeing some photos from it. (y)
 
I looked on there. They don't have them. They're a rare annoyingly hard to find battery.

On the upside after even just loading a film I can tell the Minolta feels much nicer than it did. The sticky focussing and generally stiff and clacky feel has gone. Feels much smoother to use. Let's hope I don't shred this roll as well...
 
It's the PX640 isn't it? There are several adapters on ebay that allow you to use either LR44s or the PX625/V4626 which are the ones in my Agfa Optima 1035.
 
I don't do ebay really. The small battery company had some but they were silly money. They are the 640s. They're also called LR52. The cr2/N are the same size vertically but they're 3v not 1.5V. The px625 seem to be discontinued as well.
 
My Yashica Electro 35 GX uses two PX640 batteries. I did find some on ebay but once they'd gone I bought a couple of LR44 adapters from a chap in Japan. They arrived about a week later, beautifully machined and about a tenner all in. And I've just managed to find him again - nobbysparrow, a traditional Japanese name, I believe. These are the adapters I bought.
 
I'm just using a 4LR44 and a spring at the moment but the adapter and battery can be bought on ebay for £6.99
 
It wouldn't work for the GX as the batteries sit top-to-tail, not end-to-end so I can't use a longer alternative.
 
Probably just meant they don't stock them any more, after all Maplin probably charged £9.99 each judging by their usual battery prices. Plus they're for older cameras, probably not modern enough.
 
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