Viewmaster Camera & Flash

[BAC1967]

Hope this is a useful update:
Things I have learned unrelated to flash:
The 36 exposure rolls are a bit tight when rewinding, causing the clutch to slip near the end of winding (back into the cartridge), so I have to be careful when unloading the camera.

I have noticed tension when winding on mine but have never had any problems with the clutch slipping or tearing sprocket holes. Maybe the camera needs some lubrication. It's a complicated mechanism that I wouldn't try fixing myself but there are repair instructions online if you want to try.

 

[Truzi]

One thing I've noticed on my pre-60s cameras is the mechanisms are very strong and sure - it's hard to feel if something is wrong (compared to my 1980s Sears KS-2).

I have to pay better attention. I think it's my fault and not the camera's.
Do you advance until the counter says 1, take the picture, and reverse? Or do you gently go on until the camera stops advancing, then reverse?

It is a bit strange. The tearing is only when I used bulk-loaded cassettes of FP4+. I learned to remove the film in a changing bag because it hangs and won't let the film rewind. The mechanisms work, but the clutch slips when there is a tear.

With the manufactured Fuji cartridges I did not have any tears, but still used the changing bag to be safe. The film at best still had the leader out when rewinding - rewinding 20 times past the point it should have been in the cartridge.
When I then pulled the cartridge out and tried to finish, the cartridge itself was tight when winding-in by hand.

Now that I think about how the advance/rewind works on this thing - I am tempting fate if I am not sure that I am at the end of the roll, even if its store-bought. A little slack within the cartridge when I start rewinding may result in the sprocket pushing the film in, instead of the spool pulling it in, creating problems with space or tension within the cartridge.

Oh, and I have to remember it's not an SLR - I can't see if my finger is in they way, lol. Out of 5 total rolls I only have 3 or 4 shots of my fingers, so it's not bad, but those were on the slide film and in really nice morning light.

 

[BAC1967]

One thing I've noticed on my pre-60s cameras is the mechanisms are very strong and sure - it's hard to feel if something is wrong (compared to my 1980s Sears KS-2).

I have to pay better attention. I think it's my fault and not the camera's.
Do you advance until the counter says 1, take the picture, and reverse? Or do you gently go on until the camera stops advancing, then reverse?

It is a bit strange. The tearing is only when I used bulk-loaded cassettes of FP4+. I learned to remove the film in a changing bag because it hangs and won't let the film rewind. The mechanisms work, but the clutch slips when there is a tear.

With the manufactured Fuji cartridges I did not have any tears, but still used the changing bag to be safe. The film at best still had the leader out when rewinding - rewinding 20 times past the point it should have been in the cartridge.
When I then pulled the cartridge out and tried to finish, the cartridge itself was tight when winding-in by hand.

Now that I think about how the advance/rewind works on this thing - I am tempting fate if I am not sure that I am at the end of the roll, even if its store-bought. A little slack within the cartridge when I start rewinding may result in the sprocket pushing the film in, instead of the spool pulling it in, creating problems with space or tension within the cartridge.

Oh, and I have to remember it's not an SLR - I can't see if my finger is in they way, lol. Out of 5 total rolls I only have 3 or 4 shots of my fingers, so it's not bad, but those were on the slide film and in really nice morning light.

After I take the shot at 1 I reverse it and wind from there.

My wife has personal ViewMaster reels shot by her grandfather covering 4 decades starting in the mid 1950’s. There are more than a few finger shots in there. It’s a common problem with this camera.

I also have the ViewMaster Mark II Camera that only goes in one direction with the film. It’s an interesting design, the film runs at an angle to the lenses putting one image in the top row and the other in the bottom row. It also allows for electronic flash. You need a differerent cutter because the pairs are lined up differently. I like the traditional ViewMaster camera, it’s better built and gives you more control with shutter speed and iris. The Mark II only gives you one shutter speed depending on the f-stop. I think this was done to simplify things for amature photographers. Plus the traditional camera has that cool shutter sound.

My wife loves the sound of that shutter, it reminds her of her grandfather using his ViewMaster camera. The Mark II was the first one I bought. When I bought the traditional one she didn’t recognize it by how it looked but when she heard the shutter she was pretty excited.

View-Master Stereo Color (Mark II) by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr