Roger Hicks
Veteran
Dear Swangga,
Have you any experience in any area of photography? And if so, film or digital? Because I need somewhere to start building from. Take a look at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps basics camera.html for explanations of basic concepts such as aperture/iris diaphragm, then go on from there, as follows.
As others have said, you need a camera that is known to work. Focus while looking through the viewfinder. There will be a rangefinder patch in the middle. When the two images coincide precisely, one on top of the other, the camera is in focus. Check with subjects at different distances -- say, 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 metres (just guess the distances and see if the camera agrees reasonably closely), then something a long way away -- 100+ metres -- which is near enough to infinity for a focusing mount.
When you have a camera that apears to be focusing OK, check the shutter speeds. Looking through the camera, with the back open, make sure the shutter works at all speeds.
Listen to the sound, especially at the slower speeds. These should be a smooth whirr: any hesitation indicates a sticky shutter, but often, just winding it and firing it several times will get it working well enough again. A useful trick is to listen to alternate speeds -- 1 - 1/4 - 1/15 - 1/60 - 1/250, then 1/2 - 1/8 - 1/30 - 1/125 - as the differences between the speeds are easier to hear this way.
Finally, check the diaphragm. Set the shutter to B and hold it open. Move the diaphragm control, marked (usually) 22 - 16 - 11 - 8 - 5.6 - 4 and for the 35mm cameras with smaller numbers Does it open and close? That's all you need. The smaller numbers are the bigger apertures.
With a working camera -- I'd choose 35mm rather than 120 -- load some 400-speed film in to it (just ask for 400-speed at a camera shop: you might even ask them to load it for you). The loading sequence is shown on http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how load 35mm.html. The camera chosen is an SLR but loading is the same.
Out of doors, in sunlight, set the aperture (diaphragm) to 16 and the shutter to 1/250. Focus: take pictures. Indoors, try 1/30 (shutter) at f/1.9 or f/1.7 (diaphragm). On a cloudy day, try 1/125 (shutter) at f/8 (diaphragm). There is lots more about exposure on http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps basics expoguide.html, which also tells you how to use the sort of meter you are likely to find on the cameras you have.
You may also care to look at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps basics box brownie leica.html, 'The Box Brownie Leica', which tells you how to set up any manual camera as if it were a Box Brownie; at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how zone focus.html which is about scale and 'zone' focusing; and at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps focus 1.html which is about focus in general.
By the time you have read this lot, you should be quite well placed. Some of the other advice you have received in this thread is excellent; some is just plain rude (Edit: though the worst of it has now been deleted); and some, I disagree with. For example, I don't think there's much point trying digital, given that you want to try the cameras you have, and I wouldn't really recommend Ansel Adams's The Camera because (in my view) he was a much better photographer than writer, and because the book contains a vast amount that is complerely irrelevant to a beginner.
Cheers,
Roger
Have you any experience in any area of photography? And if so, film or digital? Because I need somewhere to start building from. Take a look at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps basics camera.html for explanations of basic concepts such as aperture/iris diaphragm, then go on from there, as follows.
As others have said, you need a camera that is known to work. Focus while looking through the viewfinder. There will be a rangefinder patch in the middle. When the two images coincide precisely, one on top of the other, the camera is in focus. Check with subjects at different distances -- say, 1, 3, 5, 10 and 20 metres (just guess the distances and see if the camera agrees reasonably closely), then something a long way away -- 100+ metres -- which is near enough to infinity for a focusing mount.
When you have a camera that apears to be focusing OK, check the shutter speeds. Looking through the camera, with the back open, make sure the shutter works at all speeds.
Listen to the sound, especially at the slower speeds. These should be a smooth whirr: any hesitation indicates a sticky shutter, but often, just winding it and firing it several times will get it working well enough again. A useful trick is to listen to alternate speeds -- 1 - 1/4 - 1/15 - 1/60 - 1/250, then 1/2 - 1/8 - 1/30 - 1/125 - as the differences between the speeds are easier to hear this way.
Finally, check the diaphragm. Set the shutter to B and hold it open. Move the diaphragm control, marked (usually) 22 - 16 - 11 - 8 - 5.6 - 4 and for the 35mm cameras with smaller numbers Does it open and close? That's all you need. The smaller numbers are the bigger apertures.
With a working camera -- I'd choose 35mm rather than 120 -- load some 400-speed film in to it (just ask for 400-speed at a camera shop: you might even ask them to load it for you). The loading sequence is shown on http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how load 35mm.html. The camera chosen is an SLR but loading is the same.
Out of doors, in sunlight, set the aperture (diaphragm) to 16 and the shutter to 1/250. Focus: take pictures. Indoors, try 1/30 (shutter) at f/1.9 or f/1.7 (diaphragm). On a cloudy day, try 1/125 (shutter) at f/8 (diaphragm). There is lots more about exposure on http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps basics expoguide.html, which also tells you how to use the sort of meter you are likely to find on the cameras you have.
You may also care to look at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps basics box brownie leica.html, 'The Box Brownie Leica', which tells you how to set up any manual camera as if it were a Box Brownie; at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps how zone focus.html which is about scale and 'zone' focusing; and at http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps focus 1.html which is about focus in general.
By the time you have read this lot, you should be quite well placed. Some of the other advice you have received in this thread is excellent; some is just plain rude (Edit: though the worst of it has now been deleted); and some, I disagree with. For example, I don't think there's much point trying digital, given that you want to try the cameras you have, and I wouldn't really recommend Ansel Adams's The Camera because (in my view) he was a much better photographer than writer, and because the book contains a vast amount that is complerely irrelevant to a beginner.
Cheers,
Roger
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