Recent Forum Posts

The first problem is easy to fix, it's just a matter of training yourself to compensate more towards the sky in your framing. The second is likely just needing some fine tuning to get the lens and scale to agree with each other. Looking good so far.

PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:17 pm

The Minolta family is catching up.

Statistics: Posted by LarryD — Wed Apr 24, 2019 9:11 pm

Well, it not the first time and it won't be the last a test roll goes wrong.
Two issues, framing and focus point.
I think I put upside-down the viewfinder glass, I hope this is the problem, other would be about lens/shutter inclination etc... Results are too much ground on the photo and it happened in all the photos.


Test shot.


Kremlin walls.

Focus point I think is before the distance marks, about 50cm-1m my guess.


Gogol.


Two amigas.


Me and the last shot.

Lens is great as I expected, camera is easy to handle and the shutter release is very smooth. Negatives are bigger than any 6x6 I saw so far, about 57x58mm, my homemade holder was not enough for all the image.
When the mirrors for the rangefinder arrive I will address above issues, now it's time to test another camera...

Thank you for watching,
Alex

Statistics: Posted by alexvaras — Wed Apr 24, 2019 12:40 pm

Also, a great many gas stations went out of business during the oil crises of the mid-70s; once shuttered, it took years to replace them in part because of the costs of remediation associated with redevelopment. In Texas, land was cheap enough that it was easier to start fresh somewhere than deal with an old "fillin' station". With sprawl, however, a lot of those old locations were enveloped and eventually reclaimed. Took a surprisingly long time, though.

Robert

Statistics: Posted by Brazile — Wed Apr 24, 2019 6:15 am

Thanks, Alex and Julio. The thing about gas stations is business norms change over time, and most of your "Mom and Pop" operations died out many years ago as they couldn't compete with the corporations, or didn't want to change how they did business. The country store type went away for many reasons at once. Sears took most of their goods business, chain groceries in town took the food sales, then the gasoline sales dried up because vehicles started getting better mileage, and didn't need to make as many stops anymore. Plus, the old country store could not compete on price either.

Some gas stations that converted to doing only vehicle repairs did so because they didn't want to pay for the new required underground tanks that the government was mandating to combat gasoline and diesel leaking into the ground water.

Businesses come and go all the time, and there were probably too many gasoline stations in lots of places. I've seen small operators that last for over fifty years because they have great customer service, and new places that last only a couple of years because the corporation can't squeeze another nickle of profit out of the place to satisfy the hedge fund stockholders. But it's the small town, and country crossroad that suffered the most in any economic downturn, and you can only go through so many cycles of that before giving up. It's just the way it goes.

PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Tue Apr 23, 2019 11:09 pm

Good documents, PF, if a bit sad.

I re-read recently an old favorite, "Little Golden America", a book written in 1935 by two Russian writers, Ilf and Petrov. They crossed the U.S. in a Ford, from New York to California and back, and the book records their impressions. They also took pictures (with a Leica). They were most impressed by gas stations, which they considered the symbol of America. Wonder what they would write if they did the same exercise today.

Statistics: Posted by Julio1fer — Tue Apr 23, 2019 9:32 pm

Thank you, Phil and Santiago, for your compliments.
I just shot a test roll using an external rangefinder, tomorrow I will scan if they are any good and went well.

Statistics: Posted by alexvaras — Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:30 pm

It's a good way to know how things are going over there. I can't compare with any place I have lived, if I came back to my small town the same gas stations in the same place. Topography doesn't allow to create new routes (small valleys).
Thank you, Phil, for sharing these photos and places.

Statistics: Posted by alexvaras — Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:39 pm

Pretty camera!

Statistics: Posted by Santiago Montenegro — Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:09 pm

Some repurposed or abandoned stations in and around the small town of Gretna, VA.

Zorki-6, Jupiter-12, Kodak Tri-X 400


Small Town Glass Shop by P F McFarland, on Flickr



404 Main Street by P F McFarland, on Flickr



Small Town Glass by P F McFarland, on Flickr



Former Country Store and Gas 1 by P F McFarland, on Flickr



Former Country Store and Gas 2 by P F McFarland, on Flickr



Former Country Store and Gas 3 by P F McFarland, on Flickr



Harold's by P F McFarland, on Flickr


PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Tue Apr 23, 2019 10:36 am

I like that double exposure of the Pontiac! and also "Good night storm". The Brick lens is quite decent.

Sad to see the 442 in the junkyard line.

Statistics: Posted by Julio1fer — Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:34 pm

Congratulations for your growing Nikon family!

Statistics: Posted by Julio1fer — Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:30 pm

Those frames are not bad at all! Good job!

As for development: your Tri-X 320 expired 1984 is 35 years old. Film fogs with age because of background radiation. If it was kept in the cold, the most important defect would be fog. Higher ISO film fogs faster. In my experience the limit for good images with ISO 400 film is about 10-15 years expired. After that age, quality goes down quickly.

From your images it seems that the negatives are pretty dense, probably too much even for a good scanner. 50 ISO seems too low from my limited experience with similar film (mostly old HP5). I'd suggest trying ISO 200 or even box speed.

If you shoot at 50 ISO, which could be good to defeat fog, you should use a very short development time, best found by trial and error. For 50, I'd start at half the recommended development time for ISO 320.

HC-110 as concentrated as you can should be a good recipe to minimize fog, but fog it will have, a lot of it if you compare to fresh film.

Statistics: Posted by Julio1fer — Mon Apr 22, 2019 9:28 pm

It aught to work fine after you get the new mirrors attached and adjusted. It looks like a fairly robust construction.

PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Sun Apr 21, 2019 9:55 pm

Hi all,

I got inside the rangefinder of this camera, mirrors are not good, I already asked replacement to Martin Seelig, in about 3 weeks I will get them hopefully.
Some photos explaining how to get inside the rangefinder how it works.


Fixed mirror.


Rangefinder how-to.

This rangefinder works only with 2 mirrors, one is higher (left) and the other is shorter so when looking through the rangefinder the image is split in two halves, upper is the real image, lower is the images coming from the mirrors, matching both images and the focusing is done.

About how it works, the blue line is connected to the helicoid where you focus, the right mirror moves according to this as well.
For adjusting the rangefinder... still learning from it but I think the yellow arrow does vertical alignment and the red horizontal alignment, I can be wrong coz barely I can see anything with such mirrors, when the replacements come I will go further.

Thank you for watching,
Alex

Statistics: Posted by alexvaras — Sun Apr 21, 2019 2:46 pm

Finally got my films from last year all developed and scanned, and this is the latest installment.

Argust Day is that time when the day date in August matches the year date, such as last year it was August 18, 2018. The numbering convention works until after 2031, then who knows what the Yahoo Argus Group will come up with, if any of them are still around. Heck, maybe Yahoo won't be around then either.

Anyhoo, I took an Argus C3 "Brick" with the 50mm f3.5 lens, and loaded it with Ilford Delta 100 for the extra contrast as it was going to be a cloudy day with rain breaking out later on. Managed to shoot up the whole roll by driving ahead of the incoming weather, then got some shots of the back side of the storms later that evening. The camera performed very well, with good speeds, and the lens was nice and clear. I did have to clean out the view and rangefinder windows though before it could be used, but that is normal.

There will be some vignetting due to the Series IV hood I used (it came with the camera). Some creative cropping took care of most of it. I need to see if I have a wide-angle version.


Daybreak by P F McFarland, on Flickr


Tails by P F McFarland, on Flickr


Pontiac Chief by P F McFarland, on Flickr


Goodnight, Storm by P F McFarland, on Flickr

The culprit:

Kodak Series IV Hood by P F McFarland, on Flickr

See all the photos at https://flic.kr/s/aHsmCzDFpX

PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Fri Apr 19, 2019 7:06 pm

I haven't had much luck with the 2000, mainly because when I was looking for them, I always wound up with one that had battery corrosion like crazy. Hope to rectify that situation in the future.

Have fun with your new toys, Larry.

PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:43 pm

Most folks I know that own a Certo Dolly are quite happy with them. I've seen some really good work done with them. With your talent, Alex, I expect to see some more.

PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:36 pm

I don't know if the mirror finders were ever meant to be accurate, Alex, as they have so much distortion no matter the brand. I usually just make sure there is plenty to work with around the edges for when I have to straighten horizons, or crop to size.

PF

Statistics: Posted by PFMcFarland — Fri Apr 19, 2019 6:32 pm

I had a 6006 a long time ago. Good camera, but slow as hell autofocus.

Statistics: Posted by Captain Slack — Thu Apr 18, 2019 12:20 pm