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Monthly Archives: June 2023
Yet another job ticked off…
Yet another job ticked off, the Canon A-1 camera bodies had both developed a squeak & the battered one ceased to work, a quick clean up with a fibreglass contact cleaner & the battered A-1 started working, but with the squeak in all of its glory. One advantage of the A series is that the shutter speeds are electronically governed, so there are fewer issues with mechanical failures due to dirt & old lubricant than with the Old F1, FTBs and the such like.
Continue readingYet another bloody job
Yet another bloody job I didn’t ever expect to have to do, certainly one I never wanted to do. So I fished my 85mm F1.2L lens out of the bag the other day and the rear of the lens felt horribly sticky, so gave it a wipe down, but the stickiness remains. Canon have used a “soft touch” coating on the rear part of the lens body, which much like the soft touch material on VW dashboards/doors etc from the 1990s goes off & breaks down, leaving a sticky mess.
Continue readingToo Many Tripods?
Can you have too many tripods? I am starting to think so, however this one will probably only be mine for the short term. It’s a Benbo One and it is in dire need of a service, the head won’t lock on to the Tripod itself and is prone to rotating even when fully locked. The Ball head is sticky and the legs have a foot that needs replacing as it is cracked & has been glued back together very poorly & also glued to the leg itself. So I have ordered replacement feet, I have stripped the bent bolt mechanism and cleaned & re-lubricated, now all that remains is to strip down the head.
Next Project…..Updated
And the next project, seeing as I am going to keep the LPL 5×4 enlarger is to refurbish the RRB 12×16 enlarging easel. I love the design of these things and so much more substantial than the LPL easels that I used back in the day. First up will be a thorough clean, I have already ordered replacement knobs, as it was acquired with two different knobs, one original & the other a completely different & wrong sized knob. I may replace both as even though it would remove the branding, it would look better.
Continue readingA couple of Enlargers For Sale
First up an LPL C6700, dichroic colour enlarger with 35mm negative carrier, in great working order, only signs of use are a slight loss of paint on the base of the post, has been CLA’d as the old lubricant had dried out, now works like new. More photos below. Click on the photos to see a larger version.
Continue readingIllumitran journey continues….
So having designed & had printed an uncut film holder for the Illumitran, which arrived on Thursday, I finally got a chance to sit down & have a play. I have successfully scanned mount transparencies without to much of an issue, so the next step was uncut transparencies & colour & B&W negatives. So after a trip out to buy yet another enlarger, primarily for the bits that it came with, I sat down and started.
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The ramblings of a press photographer 