What I do is set the camera up on a tripod at night in a room that can be
made completely dark; extend the bellows fully; get a small light bulb;
turn out the lights and let my eyes get adjusted to the dark. Then put the
bulb inside the bellows and move it around. Look from the outside to see if
any light is coming through.
Fred Picker said he had a Chinese-made camera to test out once. He did this
and the camera bellows lit up like a Chinese lantern. Not just a few
pinholes, the whole thing!
Zack
On Tue, Apr 9, 2019 at 11:58 PM <mark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Well the camera arrived today. My first impressions are positive. First,
and my biggest concern is that it does not appear to be the original
bellows. That is the good thing. The bad news is that I am not sure what
material is used in its construction. I think its leather, but its so thin
I am not totally sure. What would be the indicator.
IF its leather, it probably should be conditioned. My first two options,
and there may be others, would be either mink oil or neetsfoot oil, both of
which I think I have on hand. The concern is too much of a good thing can
be just as bad as none at times. What's the best way to apply and remove
excess on something that is pleated? Have no idea how fragile this stuff
might be, but it doesn't seem like it will fall apart in my hand. If its
something else I need, then its not a problem.
I am going to check for pinhole leaks tomorrow night. My first plan is to
take a bore scope with a light on the end of a camera. Not only will I be
able to see the light, if any goes through the bellows, the camera on the
end, should give me a good look at the insides.. If there is a better way,
please respond.
The extra lens board I bought for the wrong size shutter has an
interesting possibility I had in the back of my mind. By covering it with
a piece of paper, cardboard or maybe even very thin plywood or sheet metal,
I could turn that lensboard into a pin hole camera. Anyone ever done that?
For the record, the lensboard does have an indexing notch. That should be
easy enough to handle, but there is a circle in it that appears to be a
part of some sort of light trap around the lens mechanism. If I used flat
sheet metal, would it still work without damaging the camera? I actually
could probably machine the circle in the metal IF its important, but it
would be a genuine pain in the posterior. Unless its needed and worth the
effort, I would pass.
As far as overall impression of the camera, those that said it was heavy,
they were right. It's a bit heavier than expected, but definitely
workable. Seems to be built like a tank. In the age of constant
advancement, its also nice to see something that is as old as I am that
still functions much as it did decades ago. What I am also in marvel of is
guys that used these to cover press assignments.
Last thing is a bit of a hassle for a while. Once a sheet of film is
exposed, I used to always just put it back in the box from which it came
till I was ready to process it. Trouble is I have too many holders and too
few boxes. Is there something else that is both light tight, ideally light
and simple to use that will work? Ideally it would be cheap too, but cheap
and Large format don't go hand in hand very often.[image: Embarassed]
Id be interested to know what year and more about the camera I actually
got. A serial number may be on here somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.
Thanks again for any help
Mark 73
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you
subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.
