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What did you fix today? (part 2)

Re-foamed a pair of Nikons (an F2AS and an F2w/DE1) with kits from Jon Goodman. So, two more cameras to rotate into use this year.
 
Due to an unfortunate encounter with the laws of gravity, my small paper cutter found itself to be in two parts, neither of which was capable of doing the job on its own. With a little bit of wood and some screws, I am back to happily trimming paper negatives for my 5x7 project.

Cheers,
Tom
 
Lens cap for a recently acquired Artar, plus a quickie plywood lens board. The cap was made from a 2" ABS pipe cap, turned on a micro lathe and lined with some self adhesive velvet. The cap will also serve as a shutter. The boarded was made from a scrap of 1/2" Struct 1 plywood which I planed down to 3/8" thus giving the plywood a smooth finish and consistent thickness. I then cut the rabbets and bottom edge chamfer with my table saw. No flange for the lens, it just threads directly into the lens board. All my fears about this type of mounting have been aliviated now that the lens is frozen in the board. On the plus side the front element which was frozen is now free thanks to efforts to remove the lens from the board. Guess the lens is now dedicated to the 2D until I decide to destroy the board.

Roger

 
I finished up my holga tilt lens (for shooting video on my Canon DSLR, and stills on some old Nikon film bodies) Pretty groovy! I do a lot of video so I built it on a rail mount.

Then I cleaned the mirror and screen on my wife's old Canon FTQL - big difference. I have developed a strange affinity for that camera. It's become kinda gorgeous in my eyes, and feels great in my hands. Just ordered a wide lens on eBay for it - $15 bucks!
 
Not really a fix but last night I upgraded my LPL 670xl by swapping out the focusing wheel to the fine focusing wheel. It's a geared 5:1 ratio focusing wheel that's standard on the 4x5 machines but an optional accessory on the 6x7 machines. It's a very nice upgrade and I like it already.

Also I taped up and fitted some foam into a lens cap for the viewing eye piece on my micromega peak grain focuser. It had cracked and was quite loose fitting. Now the cap is snug and protecting the eye piece.
 
I've got a couple of lenses mounted this way. (but not a 10" ) Don't yo just love when you accidentally fix something?
 
Well I just fixed my AW-1 autowinder for my Nikon EL2 by stripping it down and replacing the motor gear with a brass one. It works a treat! Wonderful noise too - very old school.
 
A black Olympus om4t, my first one in this color! Got it used, everything was ok besides a broken led illuminator light and a really stiff shutter speed ring. I cleaned up a bit of green gunk under the lens mount and shutter speed ring and decided to replace the the worn and scratched lens mount, internally worn shutter speed ring(worn from the ball bearing click stops over time), and the toothed ring(which is what attaches to the shutter speed ring and is what actually adjusts the gear on the bottom of the mirror box to change the shutter speed) all from a parts body I've been using up. I didn't attempt the illuminator light swap as my parts body has messed up circuits and my electronics skills are not the best. It will have to do for now, an i will use another body if I will be expecting to need it. Test roll of 400 speed film seems to have been fine and is hanging to dry now. Has anyone done the illuminator light fix?
 
A jammed Arca-Swiss B1 with RRS QR clamp. Protip: remove the rubber grip before putting the strap wrench onto the friction knob... Once I did that, I had it unlocked within a couple seconds or so.

-J
 
After 20+ rolls through my Canonet QL17 with no problems...until the last frame of a 36 exp roll. When reaching the end of this roll the advance lever jammed at max stroke. After trying a few things, push this, turn that, I removed the bottom plate. What I found was the film transport indicator "red striped decal" had lost it's adhesion and had fallen off sometime before I owned the camera , making its way down through the body of the camera. When on the bottom plate it became lodged in the teeth of the two gears of the film advance linkage. I straightened out the decal and glued it back on to it's "little flag" under the top cover. I am happy to have found the problem. This "poor man's Leica" is a joy to use. If you have one, check to make sure the indicator is still visible behind the small window.
 
Digital to 4x5 Large Format

I have just recently jumped back into photography as a hobby. Photography was a large part of my life for about 20+ years
Then children and responsibilities took over. My 12x14 foot darkroom became more of a storeroom rather than a place to
develop film. Anyhow, I was looking through You tube, and there was a gent attaching a digital camera to a 4x5 field camera.
I was hooked! Even though this was put together badly, I knew that I could do on better. Not to mention the fact that I had two 4x5's and a vintage 8x10 field camera that was begging for a new life. So I did my homework, and found as much as
I could about the subject ( of which there is not that much ) I made a prototype to mount my newly acquired Nikon D3100
digital camera to my Calumet Wood Field 4x5 camera. I put the hole thing together, and it looks great. Now the hard part starts. How to make an image? I have been working with film for what seems like forever, but the new technology of digital cameras with all there buttons and bells---Frankly I'm lost. Included are picture's of my project. I need some pointers on the mechanics on getting a image on my camera. Any information would be greatly welcomed . Feel free to pass this along to other members that might have some information that they could share. My thanks to all the groups, and for the information that I have picked up that could never be matched. Thanks again, R delung ( from Seattle Washington ) where gray days are common.
 

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Considering the many meanings of the English word "fix", I have been waiting for someone to post a reply such as "I really fixed my ex-wife today." Such posts would have improved what is essentially a rather boring thread.
 
Yesterday morning (Wednesday morning, since it's now Thursday as I type this):

Swapped the AI conversion ring from my somewhat beat up 50/2 Nikkor-H to a much cleaner specimen that I've had about as long as the beater. Also put a period correct prong onto the 200/4 Nikkor-Q which had the AI style prong on it, received when it got converted to AI. Later yesterday, I decided to figure out why the MD-2/MB-1 on my F2AS wasn't receiving power. Discovered that the contacts in one of the MS-1's were severely corroded. So much so, that the only way I could get them clean was to take a screwdriver and scrape the crud off. Works much better now.

-J
 
Gerald C Koch said:
Considering the many meanings of the English word "fix", I have been waiting for someone to post a reply such as "I really fixed my ex-wife today." Such posts would have improved what is essentially a rather boring thread.
Click to expand...

I fixed a new old thermometer to the wall about a week ago.
 
A very stiff Helios 44M6. This is just about everything I had to strip off to remove excess dry vaseline from the helicoid. Focusing is a lot smoother now, it rattles now though.
 
I fixed a Canon T-50 with a stuck shutter so it will never EVER be able to be used again--I dismantled it for parts.
 
Converted my 135/3.5 to AI spec, using the ring from a donor that I received from evilBay. Did the job in the car at the PO. 5 minute job.

-J
 
A 1936 Silvertone table radio. But I was thinking about photography while I was doing it.
 
Fixed the "rangefinder" on a Polaroid 104 and converted it to take two AAA batteries as the original contacts had corroded to the point of no return. Also cleaned up a pre-1920's Brownie 3 and a Brownie 2A.
 
Made one nice Nikomat FTn out of four beater FTn's. Also tested a couple FT2's that KEH said had dead meters - not so... Both had perfectly functioning meters. Passed one onto Ralph J., along with a Tamron 28/2.5 Adaptall-2. The other is currently in the shop to be refoamed. When it comes back, a roll of Ektar 100 will be loaded, and it will be tag teaming with my black FT2, which recently received a full overhaul, for that roll. I will be sending the FTn in for a meter recal, a refoam, and to have the shutter cocking mechanism cleaned and relubed. Sometimes is a bit sticky. In a month or two, I hope to send one of my F2AS bodies to the UK for a full Soverization. Once that camera's back, then the other goes in for the same thing. Want to have two F2AS bodies that function better than they did when they came out of their boxes.

-J
 
Now have a properly working FTn... Replaced the linkage that cocks the shutter and mirror box, since the advance lever was slow to return to the normal standoff position. Now returns quickly, like it should.

-J
 
I'm not sure whether to put this in the Fixed or Broke thread. It all started (doctor) when I thought I'd attempt to get my Voigtlander Brillant TLR to focus easier. I pulled the WLF off and the mirror was awful. Took a bit of lens tissue, gave it a very, very soft wipe, and all the silver came off w/ that one wipe. OK, that didn't work. Tried to cover it w/ tinfoil. Put it back together, couldn't see a thing. Next, I cut down an old 'cord mirror I'd replaced some time ago. Got it in fine after the trim, but now the focus was WAY off. Turns out that the mirror is nearly twice as thick as the original. Pulled it out, again, and flipped the mirror so that the silvered side was now on the bottom. This got the focus closer, but I had to take the WLF off about 10 more times, and keep adding strips of tape to the bottom to get the focus right. It's OK now, but that mirror is not that great, so I will probably have to do this all over again once I find another mirror.
 
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