Camera and Coffee

I use one, or an Adler, Olympia, Hermes or Olivetti, every day. A film camera for images and a typewriter for thought processing. No distractions with either.

Nice. I just started collecting typewriters last year. I think I'm up to 16, which includes several Olivettis, 4 Olympias, a few Smith Coronas, and some Royals, my oldest being from the 20s.
 
Vince,

Any particular reason you had Frank do the work instead of the "usual suspects" often mentioned here for repairs?

Yes -- I’ve been dealing with Frank for over 20 years and he’s always provided me with top-notch, reliable work, no matter what I send him (and I’ve sent him some pretty nutty things over the years, not just Leica). He is of course the Camera Wiz (I believe he has been doing camera repairs for 47 years) as well as a very good friend. He's helped out of a bind several times with my Nikon equipment that I use for work when I needed a quick turnaround (like a 1-day turnaround!). To me he is the best of the best.

I have no particular interest in the ‘usual suspects’, though I’m sure they do fine work. Having said all this, I did just buy my Camcraft Z-Housing from Don Goldberg a few weeks ago - very nice guy to deal with.
 
Yes -- I’ve been dealing with Frank for over 20 years and he’s always provided me with top-notch, reliable work, no matter what I send him (and I’ve sent him some pretty nutty things over the years, not just Leica). He is of course the Camera Wiz (I believe he has been doing camera repairs for 47 years) as well as a very good friend. He's helped out of a bind several times with my Nikon equipment that I use for work when I needed a quick turnaround (like a 1-day turnaround!). To me he is the best of the best.

I have no particular interest in the ‘usual suspects’, though I’m sure they do fine work. Having said all this, I did just buy my Camcraft Z-Housing from Don Goldberg a few weeks ago - very nice guy to deal with.

Thanks for that info; I have a Leica basket case that I'm interested in having diagnosed and it's nice to have a new person to contact.
 
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Nice. I just started collecting typewriters last year. I think I'm up to 16, which includes several Olivettis, 4 Olympias, a few Smith Coronas, and some Royals, my oldest being from the 20s.

Sounds a lot like my "collection." I have 21 thought processors starting with a 1922 Corona 3 and ending with a 1970 Olympia SM9.
 
Any Blickensderfers in your collection?

No Blickers as of now. I really like more "modern" machines that I can use. Most of mine were made in the 40's, 50's and 60's and are portables or ultraportables. My oldest typewriter is a 1922 Corona Model 3 folding portable.

All of them function and while working on them the most important thing I've learned is how to find small screws that I've dropped on the floor.
 
leica IIIg, 35mm Summaron, 35mm finder and coffee:D
 

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Early morning Nespresso in my favourite cup -- got it at the Sunday morning market in L'isle-sur-la-Sorgue, France in 1993.

Of course I had to have it alongside my latest favourite combo -- Leica M-D 262, Camcraft Z-Housing with Leitz vertical finder, Leitz 14116 filter turret and a 12.5cm f/2.5 Hektor. Yum!


Camera and Coffee 2019
by Vince Lupo, on Flickr
 
What a fun looking thing Vince - could you explain what it is and how it works, many thanks!

Yes thanks -- The Camcraft Z-Housing is a Norman Goldberg (Don's Dad) modification of a Visoflex III, circa mid-1960s. What Norman did was to replace the moving mirror assembly and the shutter release arm with a fixed pellicle mirror. So the image passes through the mirror and to the film (or sensor in this case) yet you can still focus on the mirror through the viewfinder. Very little (if any) image degradation, though you do lose about 1-stop of light. Norman initially made these with a beamsplitting prism (with the Visoflex II, and in conjunction with his development of the motorized M2 camera), but when the Visoflex III came out he switched to the pellicle mirror. Don told me that he made less than 50 of these, and less than 10 with the pellicle mirror. It's a joy to use -- no mirror blackout, no vibration, and certainly makes using Visoflex lenses a whole lot easier (whether with film or digital).

The filter turret holds three 43mm or Series VI filters (with the adapters), and you can rotate through them with that ribbed chrome ring. It's meant to replace the OUBIO mount that's used by certain Visoflex lenses (12.5cm, 135mm, 200mm, 280mm and 400mm lenses). Downside is that the 12.5cm lens is the shortest focal length you can use with it. On the positive side, you can use all these different lenses yet still use one set of filters.

Finally is the 12.5cm f/2.5 Hektor lens -- they only made about 3300 of them, and it's a beautiful lens. Just had it serviced by Frank Marshman -- among other things, a previous service person had installed the rear element backwards!

And of course the Leica M-D 262 -- love this camera.

One of the side-benefits of this combo is that it’s great for building up your bicep muscles :)
 
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