Other collecting activities?

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun Apr 18 15:23:47 2004

> >Put it this way : I am sure a good 1950's or 1960's camera will give
> >better resolution than a consumer-grade digitial thing!
>
> While the older 2D cameras are often very good (my one Nikon lense is
> older than I am, and the body itself is fairly old), the same can't
> be said for the 3D cameras that I have experience with.

Alas many of the 3D cameras _were_ consumer-grade P&S's. I think the
better quality cameras took the prism attachments I mentioned (I've seen
one for the Contaflex (couldn't afford it, though), I think Leica may
have made one at one time).

>
> As for the quality of consumer grade digital cameras, some of them
> are surprisingly good. Though they all seem to insist on recording
> the images as JPEGs :^( As long as all you want is a 3x5 photo, the

That's smaller than the _film_ size I want to use. Seriously, I have a
few 5*4" sheet film cameras. Perhaps that's why I don't think digital
cameras have even marginally useable resolution.
 
> Kodak 3.1-Megapixel model we have with the Kodak photo printer
> actually produces results that are about as good as film based!

Kodak cammeas had better have improved since the ones I've worked on,
then. I can't think of a single Kodak -- including the Retina and Retina
Reflex -- that's well built.

I can well believe that a Kodak digital camera produces results about as
good as a Kodak P&S, but I will not believe that a 3M pixel camera can
produce results as good as a _good_ 35mm camera (Leica, Nikon, old
Contax, etc), let alone medium or large format film cameras.
 
> Though the same couldn't be said if you wanted a larger picture. On

I've enlarged a slide from a cheap-ish 35mm SLR up to 24*16, and it still
looks pretty respectable....
 
> >It shouldn't be that hard to make one. What about the focussing slide
> >from the bottom of a set of close-up bellows, suitably modified (I can't
> >be the only person who digs in the junk box at camera shops looking for
> >items to mofify...)
>
> Junk boxes?!?! I wish! Around here a camera stores are junk, I'm

You need to find a real camera shop... Perhaps I'm lucky, but I know of 4
in the local area that sell second-hand stuff, and even non-working
second-hand stuff. The latter is just what I want, as it provides useful
bits at a low price. There must be others like me, since I've
occasionally not bought some total wreck, decided I should have done,
gone back, and found it has been sold.

> they actually have a website, they still sell used equipment and do
> repairs! I definitely think I'm going to have to check them out next

FWIW, doing your own camera repairs is not that hard, and great fun. Keep
away from electronic cameras (I speak as somebody who's not normally put
off by electroics!) -- they're all custom chips on flexible PCBs, and are
painful to work on. But the tools needed to fix old mechanical cameras
are not difficult to get or expensive, and if you like tinkering with
fine machienry, you'll actually enjoy assembling a leaf shutter (yes, I
have done this...)

I would recomend reading the 6 books by Thomas Tomosy. I don't agree with
everything he says or does, but when you'd read them and practiced on a
few cameras [1], then you'll know what you should be doing. Maizenberg's
book 'All you need to know about the design and repair of Russian cameras'
is worth reading too -- it has the clearest explanation of the Kiev (and
therefore Contax II) shutter I have ever read.

[1] Note that working on really cheap cameras -- like Kodak Instamatics --
is a painful expeerience. THe parts do not fit well, there are no proper
adjustments, etc. Working on better-quality cameras (just about _any_
35mm SLR, for example) is a lot easier. THere may be more parts, but they
fit in placer properly.

> weekend!

-tony
Received on Sun Apr 18 2004 - 15:23:47 BST