If you are interested in old cameras and have a bit of money to spend (or just enjoy browsing auctions), there is this absolutely huge antique camera sale on at Ebay right now. Tons of Rolleis plus some really rare large format camera (515 items in total).
Well it has been over a year since I last mentioned this little camera of mine. Back then I promised to take the front shutter mechanism out and attempt to fix it, and have been putting it off ever since.
Well last night I finally decided to do it, and thankfully the fix turned out to be quite easy, without me needed to dismantle the shutter assembly completely. All I had was a jewel screwdriver, a pair of long nose pliers, and a plastic bottle lid to keep the screws in. In addition I used some eclipse cleaning liquid to clean the inner parts of the lens while I had it open. A more complete dismantling of the shutter would probably require a bit more equipment, and a lot more time. All in all, the operation took me 2 hours, though it shouldn’t take me longer than 20 minutes now that I know what to do.
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Samsung has announced the release of their long awaited/rumoured digital SLR, the GX-1S. The camera is essentially a rebranded Pentax *ist DS2, and is compatible with Pentax KAF2, KAF, KA mount lenses. With 6.1 megapixels on a 1.5x crop factor sensor, this camera is aimed squarely at the amateur SLR market, or those with an existing collection of Pentax lenses.
Thought that Canon’s 16 megapixel camera was as larger resolution as you could get in a digital camera? Well think again, Hasselblad have just released their new 39 megapixel digital backs for medium format camera’s, a whopping 17 megapixel increase over their previous 22 megapixel models.
When you first see it, you’d be forgiven for thinking it is yet another brightly coloured, ball shaped, web cam; but it’s designers hope that it is going to become the next big thing in pop digital photography. Read the rest of this entry »
The first camera I ever owned was a Voigtlander Brilliant F/7.7.
No no, I’m not that old. When my parents moved to our new house back in the early 1980’s we found it lying in a pile of junk left by the previous owners. At age 7, I was beginning to pester my father constantly whenever he had his cameras out, so I think he decided this was a great (and cheap) way to get me my own camera. It served me well for a few years, until I hit my teens and forgot all about photography. And if memory serves me correctly I spent many an hour in my fathers darkroom helping develop photos from it, and got at least a few good ones.
Well I was digging around in some old boxes the other day, and under a pile of magazines what should I find, but my old box camera. I pulled it out, blew off a ton of dust, and reminisced about my childhood. Then I sat down at my PC and got down to finding out just how old it really was. Made around 1932 apparently, which makes its condition a bit more understandable. I even found a manual for it online at butkus.org.
A bit rusty and dirty all over, most major parts appear to be okay; though it seems that the shutter speed dial is a bit rusted, and unfortunately the shutter itself appears to be stuck open, only ever closing when you half depress the shutter lever. So I guess I’m going to have to take the front lens mechanism apart and see what I can do. I’ve never done this before; and though this camera does seem to be very simple, I am a bit worried that I won’t be able to get it back together again. So if anyone out there has taken this particular model apart before a little advice would be nice.
