George, Can't wait to see your results. These folding cameras really are marvels. I had a Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 6x9cm that folded so flat it fit in my front shirt pocket, and it had a great lens 105mm Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. I pulled it out of the trash as a kid, and fixed the bellows light leak. Hardest part for me was getting good focus. When I disassembled the lens/shutter to clean it - I was never sure if the front element was screwed on the correct number of turns during reassembly. Pretty sure it was 4.5 turns, but things like what side of the set screw/stop to markings - where and in what position did you start threading the front element back on - taught me to be very careful during disassembly. Focusing by windage is frustrating, because the lens barrel markings never seem to be accurate. (I had a handful of folding cameras - Kodak Retina IIIc, Agfa Isolette, and others) The 127 (4.6 x 6cm) film format was very popular even through the 1950s. My mom had multiple Bake-o-lite Kodak 127 Brownies from the late 1930s-mid 1940s) I had a client bring me glass 4x5 negatives in a wooden box that the camera that took them had been shipped. I asked to see the camera, and it was a box camera from 1895 the held 10 plates. It had an ingenious lever that flipped the exposed plate to the back while simultaneously loading an unexposed glass plate. It had a thin metal shutter that flipped over either a tiny lens or a hole in the box (the hole was less than 0.125"), but it took great sharp photos. Imagine going from roughly a shoe box sized camera to a folding camera - it was revolutionary. A link to the results from my 6x9 below
The history of these old cameras are just amazing and what they could do at the time with something we consider so basic.
When I reassembled this one, I was able to hold some ground glass to the back of the bellows where the film would be and did the focus "eye check". So it at least looked good on the glass. Will see
Also, I love that 6x9 shot you linked. The motion blur on the kids feet are perfect
James Markus wrote:
George, Can't wait to see your results. These folding cameras really are marvels. I had a Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 6x9cm that folded so flat it fit in my front shirt pocket, and it had a great lens 105mm Carl Zeiss Tessar lens. I pulled it out of the trash as a kid, and fixed the bellows light leak. Hardest part for me was getting good focus. When I disassembled the lens/shutter to clean it - I was never sure if the front element was screwed on the correct number of turns during reassembly. Pretty sure it was 4.5 turns, but things like what side of the set screw/stop to markings - where and in what position did you start threading the front element back on - taught me to be very careful during disassembly. Focusing by windage is frustrating, because the lens barrel markings never seem to be accurate. (I had a handful of folding cameras - Kodak Retina IIIc, Agfa Isolette, and others) The 127 (4.6 x 6cm) film format was very popular even through the 1950s. My mom had multiple Bake-o-lite Kodak 127 Brownies from the late 1930s-mid 1940s) I had a client bring me glass 4x5 negatives in a wooden box that the camera that took them had been shipped. I asked to see the camera, and it was a box camera from 1895 the held 10 plates. It had an ingenious lever that flipped the exposed plate to the back while simultaneously loading an unexposed glass plate. It had a thin metal shutter that flipped over either a tiny lens or a hole in the box (the hole was less than 0.125"), but it took great sharp photos. Imagine going from roughly a shoe box sized camera to a folding camera - it was revolutionary. A link to the results from my 6x9 below
George - you are a talented craftsman!
With all these restoration projects when do you find the time to do actual work?
Are you one of those people who can get by on 5-6 hours sleep per day?
DeltaSigma wrote:
George - you are a talented craftsman!
With all these restoration projects when do you find the time to do actual work?
Are you one of those people who can get by on 5-6 hours sleep per day?
It is something I look forward doing 3 or 4 nights a week. Or on days like today when I am burning a vacation day getting ready to travel this weekend.
Once the last two cameras that were "donated" to me are field tested, I am making them available to anyone in the local club who wants to shoot with them. Keep them in the local family
SiMuMe wrote:
George, your middle name is Magic hands. I admire your restoration work, a lot. Looking forward to the pictures.
GeorgeBo wrote:
12 hours is too long without a post
Last month I gave a presentation to our local photo club about the history of photography, displayed some old gear, film, rangefinder, 4x5 etc and discussed some of the restoration efforts I have had in the past. Anyway... a couple weeks ago, I was contacted by the founding member of our club. Said he had something for me if I wanted it. He is not able to attend the meetings any longer so I went to pay him a visit.
He had a Vest Pocket Autographic Kodak camera (aka the Soldiers camera) that his father had in World War I. Wanted to make sure it went to someone who would take care of it. I was humbled.
The serial number correlates to being made in 1917.
This camera shoots 127 format film, has 4 shutter settings. 1/25, B, T and 1/50. Has 4 aperture settings Near View Portrait, Average View, Distant View, and Clouds/Marine. From what I have been able to search that roughly correlates to f/11, 16, 22, 32. The film was very slow and before the ISO/ASA standards were set. But the original Kodak 127 was around ISO 25/50.
The lens is fixed focus, single element meniscus. When I first got the camera I thought it was missing a front element since the aperture and shutter are exposed from the front
The camera was in rough shape. The shutter would not fire and the aperture was hard to move. The shutter is a ball bearing shutter. Really tiny ball bearings The bellows are brittle and full of pin holes but otherwise it is very structurally sound.
Since the front of the camera is open to the shutter, it was full of dust and lint. After disassembly I was able to clean it out and able to get it functional again. The meniscus lens element cleaned up perfectly as well as the tiny optical viewfinder. I was able to find a person in UK who custom makes bellows for this camera. While they are being made, I was able to make the existing bellows light tight with some very thin 3M polyester tape.
You can actually find 127 film at B&H. So I am going to go out and shoot a 107 year old camera this weekend
Thought you all would find this interesting.
Have a good weekend. Long one if you are in the US
I did that with frosted drafting mylar, but it was the near shots that I could never get right using the inscribed lens scale. Beyond 10-12 feet worked good.
EDIT
Found it - my brain isn't completely gone. I thought the company was called Vive, and here are similar models. The "Tourist" sounds about right, but I think it had "Vive No.5 Pat. 1895" burned into the wood crate.
GeorgeBo wrote:
The history of these old cameras are just amazing and what they could do at the time with something we consider so basic.
When I reassembled this one, I was able to hold some ground glass to the back of the bellows where the film would be and did the focus "eye check". So it at least looked good on the glass. Will see
Also, I love that 6x9 shot you linked. The motion blur on the kids feet are perfect
leighton w wrote:
Thanks Buddy. Good of you to drop in and see the old folks.
I certainly do
Even though I have a lot of stuff keeping me busy these days, I still like manual focus Nikkor lenses more then any other kind of lens I could buy, and the fine folk here using them I appreciate just as much, if not more.
I just sent my Nikon F3 off for CLA and a small fix.
That said, I also found a ncie use for some scraps of wood and mammoth ivory in making guitar picks out of those
Even though I have a lot of stuff keeping me busy these days, I still like manual focus Nikkor lenses more then any other kind of lens I could buy, and the fine folk here using them I appreciate just as much, if not more.
I just sent my Nikon F3 off for CLA and a small fix.
That said, I also found a ncie use for some scraps of wood and mammoth ivory in making guitar picks out of those
How do you shape the beautiful ironwood pick - a grinder?
the solitaire wrote:
I certainly do
Even though I have a lot of stuff keeping me busy these days, I still like manual focus Nikkor lenses more then any other kind of lens I could buy, and the fine folk here using them I appreciate just as much, if not more.
I just sent my Nikon F3 off for CLA and a small fix.
That said, I also found a ncie use for some scraps of wood and mammoth ivory in making guitar picks out of those
Beautiful picks Buddy! Such unique material. Do you sell those or are they for you to use?
George
the solitaire wrote:
I certainly do
Even though I have a lot of stuff keeping me busy these days, I still like manual focus Nikkor lenses more then any other kind of lens I could buy, and the fine folk here using them I appreciate just as much, if not more.
I just sent my Nikon F3 off for CLA and a small fix.
That said, I also found a ncie use for some scraps of wood and mammoth ivory in making guitar picks out of those
Everything is growing so fast this year. Plants flower, and are done in just a few days. I checked out my honeysuckle yesterday and the vines are loaded with blossoms. When I went to use the EL-Nikkor 135mm f5.6 I discovered a tiny dent in the outer filter ring. This is a beefy thick ring, and I had missed it in the online ad. However, it does explain the great price. I need that ring for a lens shade to increase contrast, and prevent stray light causing a veiling flare. I straightened it out, and used a Nikon lens shade to re-align the threads. Here is the results from last night. D850 and PB-4
I put together a holy trinity of sorts: ais 28mm f2.8, ais 50mm f1.4 and ais 105mm f2.5. I bought them as a set to walk around with. I just got the 105mm in the mail today and took a few shots in the backyard. I'm digging the bokeh.
NIKON D8100 mm f/-- lens105mmf/2.81/500s64 ISO0.0 EV
NIKON D8100 mm f/-- lens105mmf/2.51/1250s64 ISO0.0 EV
NIKON D8100 mm f/-- lens105mmf/2.81/1000s64 ISO-0.3 EV
Most of it is actually good oldfashioned sandpaper work, starting with a 150 grit, going to 400, 600, 1200, 3000 and then polishing with 6000 grit equivalent in beeswax
James Markus wrote:
How do you shape the beautiful ironwood pick - a grinder?
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