A Funny story About the Konicas Built In Hoods

R

ruben

Guest
Some of you know the start, as I have already written, that with my first Konica Auto S2 I went mad to find where is the damn acclaimed built in hood. That Konica, at least cosmetically was hard to beat.

At that time I didn't know that not all Konicas come with the damn built in attachment and hood, either because this way they left the factory, or because the previous user dismounted it from the camera.

I went so crazy trying to extract the built in hood from a non-existant built in hood, that I broke some inside pin in charge that the front metering cell disk will not turn when you turn the speed ring.

Alongside this damage, I lost the light metering connections reaching the front cell. The wires are there to soldier, but are so thin and short that it will be a messy job to start. So the camera works without auto. Fine.

Recently I purchased three Konicas, one of them still in transit, but the other two came with the damn built in hood. Personally I find a pleasure to manipulate these biggie cameras. I have black masked all of the front upper crome side and added softies for more conspicuous finger joint firing.

It is also a great pleasure to have these shiny black cases. Everything looks ok, but the built in hoods:

a) They are too short to really take advantage of the relative narrowness of field of the 45mm lens even at f/1.8. They may fit a 28mm lens, but are a waist in foreign light prevention for a 45mm lens taking into account the lens size.

b) Due to the screw attaching the lower case to the body, when you lean the camera on a table, without the upper case, the camera "falls" on its nose, i,e, on the damn buit in hood, that can be when it is extended or recessed and in both cases I get a bad feeling. Ceirtanly it is not the confidence exuding metal Hoya hood.

c) Most of the times I forget to extend outwards the damn built in hood, and when I do it, it has a natural tendency to go back inwards, leaving the lens unprotected.

c1) Btw, when this happens my fingers may touch the front lens surface, as I am absolutely used to metal hoods. Fixed metald hoods.

So, obviously I am going to dismount these damn built in hoods, and use these cameras like any other camera, with permanent hoods when uncased and hood unscrewed and over the lens when the upper case is on place.

C'est la vie

and for Spanish speaking folks - a slight variation: Se la vi, y no me gusto

Cheers,
Ruben
 
Damn KAS2 :)

In fact, somewhere in threads is buried similar observation from me. I guess, they are shorter not to cause vignetting when filters are used. I'm also not happy with tendency to slip back. But this my only camera with built-in hood, so I don't care much.

Softie, indeed, is a must with KAS/KAS2. Without softie, I would just resell it no matter how good lens, VF and feeling from use are.
 
The only lens I have with a 'damn built in hood' is a Zuiko which needs it because the front element is pretty much flush with the front of the lens barrel.

Technically the lens hood isn't 'damn built in'; it's just there as a semi-permanent fixture and a bit of a bore to take off and put back on every time.

But it does mean putting a lens cap on that lens is tricky. Near impossible even.

And if I leave that Olympus SLR without a lens cap on the batteries go flat in a very short time.

'Damn lens hood' indeed.

Keep the jokes coming, Ruben.
 
In a more serious tone, if fred can sit back, when we look at fixed lens rangefinders from their nose, we have very different spacings between the on the lens light metering cell, and the small rangefinder window at the center of the top casting. Each brand with its space.

This difference will indicate if we can use an external hood or not. Thus for example, precisely in the Konicas Auto S(2) the distance is very generous and the hood will not interfere with the yellow patch lower part.

On the contrary the Canonets are a disgrace in this sole respect as in all models, older and new, the viewfinder small window is very low, condemning you to use either the flat specialized Canonet hood, or.... what I have had to do, first a step DOWN ring 48~46, and then a 46mm hood. I remind here that standard hoods are smaller at the screw basis and large at their outer side.

Accordingly the outer border of my 46mm hood on the Canonets doesn't interfere with the yellow patch, while the step down ring plus the screw in part of the hood does interfere a little, obstructing a bit the upper circle of the cell. For this I have filed a bit the corresponding internal border of the hood, where it matches the cell.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
No matter what you do, over time these damn fixed lenshoods will develop tendency to slip backwards. Have only two lens with such lenshood, the Pentacon 135MC and some obscure 70-205mm zoom in M42. The Pentacon's hood rested in place but begins to develop slipping now. The zoom's hood slipped ever since I got it (used).
Any ideas of fixing this slipping?

Eugen
 
I guess renewing strip of that black felt inside hood, which provides tension, should work.
 
I was born with a built-in hood, but it was removed by a doctor soon after my birth, so I don't remember it. I'm not sure if it would have caused me to tip over or not.
 
I think I've shot half the number of photos through my KAS2 without the hood extendend. And I find it has really very little influence, probably due to the way I shoot with the light behind me most of the time.

Ruben, how are you going to spare the battery if you can not cover up the light-sensor on the lens with this new permanent hood attached? Take it out every time you put the camera down?

As for my troubles with my KAS2, it had a jammed shutter when I got it and I had a hard time removing the front lens element to get at the shutter blades. Of course I broke the wires to the sensor too. It works fine now though.
 
Ruben/bmattock - c'mon guys, two gut busters in one post? Too much laughing and my wife will be in here.
 
Mr_Flibble said:
....
Ruben, how are you going to spare the battery if you can not cover up the light-sensor on the lens with this new permanent hood attached? Take it out every time you put the camera down?....

........
Click to expand...


The damn hoods were taken out and translated to other family of cameras. Now my several Konicas are caped with metal flat screw in caps and loose reversed 55 mm metal hoods.

Sort of parking position. When duty calls I will move with my bag, so only the camera in use will be uncaped.

Farshteisht ?

Cheers,
Ruben



Bill: was it you ?
(The following violent scene may not suit everyone, and it's said to have been censored from the "Killing Bill" movie)

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=78969&ppuser=1179
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This seems to follow my Rule of Threads: the more seemingly-trivial the subject, the more likely it is to be neatly turned on its head past a certain number of replies. ;)


- Barrett
 
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