Muggins
Junk magnet
Well, what happen waas...
The first one was in the box of cameras I was given while on holiday. The shutter didn't release, I thought "Can't be that difficult", and dived in. I was wrong... The shutter itself is fairly simple, just three blades and no escapement, but to remove the mechanism you have to remove a rivet from the little haybaler* link beneath the shutter so you can slide the release lever out. On top of that the diaphragm is made of pressed metal and fixed to a ring attached to the adjustment level. That's OK, what isn't is that the blades each have a punched hole in the other end with a very shallow rim that should engage in slots in the back plate of the shutter. Fine, except that there is nothing to hold the bugger in place! You have to slide the next level of the mech on top to get the release arm through its' slot in the shutter housing, then wiggle it into place and tighten up the screws to fix it in place. Meanwhile the diaphragm has popped out of its location...
So I decided to get another camera, unbuggered about with, to use as a spare/pattern. You can see this coming, I'm sure. I put a bid in, then 24 hours later discovered a cheaper one (that didn't unfold properly) and the seller accepted my offer... hoped I'd get outbid on the other, no, I won that as well!
Number two arrives. I consider just swapping shutters, but realise with a little judicious metal bending I can get the thing to open as it should. I opened the shutter up and used it as a pattern to tell me where all the bits I'd forgotten should go (the weird little metal pin turned out to be from the middle of the flash connector). Eventually after what felt like a thousand tries I got the diaphragm in and fixed (counter-intuitively it seemed to work better with it closed rather than open), and the rest was simple with a pattern to check against. I even managed to re-use the rivet.
So I had two identical working cameras. Today the third arrived. Apart from a missing tripod bush cover you guessed, it's identical! And of course it works too, so I have three identical cameras, all working.
I'm going to have to shoot a roll and see what the pics are like as I'd assumed they were cheap shite. In fact, they are the "upmarket" version of the post-WW2 Six-20 Folding 'Brownie', and despite the four speeds (including B & T) shutter the lens is in fact a coated three-element Anastigmat lens. So they could well give quite good results, though I've found the pre-WW2 uncoated versions to be a bit of a contrast-free zone. Info here:Six-20 Folding Brownie Second Model Camera Information | The Brownie Camera Page
*There was a model of haybaler back when oi were a lad which had a drive link to the ram just like this, sticking out of the top, and you could see it moving back and forth as it baled. I think it was red, so MF or IH.
Triplets with triplets 3 by gray1720, on Flickr
Triplets with triplets 2 by gray1720, on Flickr
Triplets with triplets 1 by gray1720, on Flickr
The first one was in the box of cameras I was given while on holiday. The shutter didn't release, I thought "Can't be that difficult", and dived in. I was wrong... The shutter itself is fairly simple, just three blades and no escapement, but to remove the mechanism you have to remove a rivet from the little haybaler* link beneath the shutter so you can slide the release lever out. On top of that the diaphragm is made of pressed metal and fixed to a ring attached to the adjustment level. That's OK, what isn't is that the blades each have a punched hole in the other end with a very shallow rim that should engage in slots in the back plate of the shutter. Fine, except that there is nothing to hold the bugger in place! You have to slide the next level of the mech on top to get the release arm through its' slot in the shutter housing, then wiggle it into place and tighten up the screws to fix it in place. Meanwhile the diaphragm has popped out of its location...
So I decided to get another camera, unbuggered about with, to use as a spare/pattern. You can see this coming, I'm sure. I put a bid in, then 24 hours later discovered a cheaper one (that didn't unfold properly) and the seller accepted my offer... hoped I'd get outbid on the other, no, I won that as well!
Number two arrives. I consider just swapping shutters, but realise with a little judicious metal bending I can get the thing to open as it should. I opened the shutter up and used it as a pattern to tell me where all the bits I'd forgotten should go (the weird little metal pin turned out to be from the middle of the flash connector). Eventually after what felt like a thousand tries I got the diaphragm in and fixed (counter-intuitively it seemed to work better with it closed rather than open), and the rest was simple with a pattern to check against. I even managed to re-use the rivet.
So I had two identical working cameras. Today the third arrived. Apart from a missing tripod bush cover you guessed, it's identical! And of course it works too, so I have three identical cameras, all working.
I'm going to have to shoot a roll and see what the pics are like as I'd assumed they were cheap shite. In fact, they are the "upmarket" version of the post-WW2 Six-20 Folding 'Brownie', and despite the four speeds (including B & T) shutter the lens is in fact a coated three-element Anastigmat lens. So they could well give quite good results, though I've found the pre-WW2 uncoated versions to be a bit of a contrast-free zone. Info here:Six-20 Folding Brownie Second Model Camera Information | The Brownie Camera Page
*There was a model of haybaler back when oi were a lad which had a drive link to the ram just like this, sticking out of the top, and you could see it moving back and forth as it baled. I think it was red, so MF or IH.
Triplets with triplets 3 by gray1720, on FlickrTriplets with triplets 2 by gray1720, on FlickrTriplets with triplets 1 by gray1720, on Flickr
AlwaysOnAuto
Well-known
Congrats on getting them all working!
I read threads like this and congratulate myself on my self restraint from buying things I'd like to play with. I go thru the Goodwill site every day looking at things I'd like to buy camera wise. I copy the url's and paste them into an email to myself so I can go back the next day to see if my imaginary bid would have won the item. It's something to do while eating breakfast at the computer. So far I've scored some pretty nice stuff but sometimes it's months between purchases.
I read threads like this and congratulate myself on my self restraint from buying things I'd like to play with. I go thru the Goodwill site every day looking at things I'd like to buy camera wise. I copy the url's and paste them into an email to myself so I can go back the next day to see if my imaginary bid would have won the item. It's something to do while eating breakfast at the computer. So far I've scored some pretty nice stuff but sometimes it's months between purchases.
Timmyjoe
Veteran
I love those old folders and some have really nice lenses. The issue I've usually had is the bellow are cracked and light-leaking.
Best,
-Tim
Best,
-Tim
Muggins
Junk magnet
I like that!Tim, all 3 of these seem OK - though I must test with a flashgun. For some reason Kodak bellows seem to largely be OK, and the ones that aren't are so bad you don't need to check!
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boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
Well, what happen waas...
The first one was in the box of cameras I was given while on holiday. The shutter didn't release, I thought "Can't be that difficult", and dived in. I was wrong... The shutter itself is fairly simple, just three blades and no escapement, but to remove the mechanism you have to remove a rivet from the little haybaler* link beneath the shutter so you can slide the release lever out. On top of that the diaphragm is made of pressed metal and fixed to a ring attached to the adjustment level. That's OK, what isn't is that the blades each have a punched hole in the other end with a very shallow rim that should engage in slots in the back plate of the shutter. Fine, except that there is nothing to hold the bugger in place! You have to slide the next level of the mech on top to get the release arm through its' slot in the shutter housing, then wiggle it into place and tighten up the screws to fix it in place. Meanwhile the diaphragm has popped out of its location...
So I decided to get another camera, unbuggered about with, to use as a spare/pattern. You can see this coming, I'm sure. I put a bid in, then 24 hours later discovered a cheaper one (that didn't unfold properly) and the seller accepted my offer... hoped I'd get outbid on the other, no, I won that as well!
Number two arrives. I consider just swapping shutters, but realise with a little judicious metal bending I can get the thing to open as it should. I opened the shutter up and used it as a pattern to tell me where all the bits I'd forgotten should go (the weird little metal pin turned out to be from the middle of the flash connector). Eventually after what felt like a thousand tries I got the diaphragm in and fixed (counter-intuitively it seemed to work better with it closed rather than open), and the rest was simple with a pattern to check against. I even managed to re-use the rivet.
So I had two identical working cameras. Today the third arrived. Apart from a missing tripod bush cover you guessed, it's identical! And of course it works too, so I have three identical cameras, all working.
I'm going to have to shoot a roll and see what the pics are like as I'd assumed they were cheap shite. In fact, they are the "upmarket" version of the post-WW2 Six-20 Folding 'Brownie', and despite the four speeds (including B & T) shutter the lens is in fact a coated three-element Anastigmat lens. So they could well give quite good results, though I've found the pre-WW2 uncoated versions to be a bit of a contrast-free zone. Info here:Six-20 Folding Brownie Second Model Camera Information | The Brownie Camera Page
*There was a model of haybaler back when oi were a lad which had a drive link to the ram just like this, sticking out of the top, and you could see it moving back and forth as it baled. I think it was red, so MF or IH.
Put 'em close together and see if they get in a family way.
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Godfrey
somewhat colored
In a similar way, I now have three, coming up on four Kodak Retina IIc cameras... Funny how these things happen.
But, eh? Who cares? Good luck with the Brownies! Make photographs and enjoy!
G
But, eh? Who cares? Good luck with the Brownies! Make photographs and enjoy!
G
DownUnder
Nikon Nomad
I tried this with two Rolleiflex TLRs. No babies, but it motivated me to adopt two more!!
Obviously I should have taken the F&H Rollei family planning course...
Memories. Dakon shutters, two fast speeds (not counting B and T, which many photographers used back then along with those funny old three-legged things one had to put the camera on to cope with the slow films of the day - and f/6.3 lenses. Oh, the horror, the horror.
Seriously -many of those Kodak 'amateur' cameras from the 1940s and 1950s were no slouches in the quality league IF one knew how to use them properly. Sadly, by the 1960s Kodak had gravitated to cheaper all-plastic cameras that did everything for the photographer and in so doing eliminated the intelligent application factor we had to apply to the earlier models. And made lousy negatives in turn processed into lousy prints, but let's not go there.
Now we have digital P&S - my personal definition of those intials I try to keep entirely to myself, other than to say that it would not get out of the 'WC'... Or as my late friend who had a small film lab in Melbourne used to say, "those Crappy Snaps are awful, but they pay the bills."
Muggins
Junk magnet
Absolutely! I'm sure the association of Kodak with cheap crap is an Instamatic and later thing. When I started getting into vintage cameras, box Brownies were my gateway drug and I was surprised by how good an image you could get from a 1920s tin box (No2 Model F is definitely the prize winner here). Even if we ignore the Retinas as a Stuttgart side project, Kodak made some very good stuff - first coupled rangefinder sold in 1916, automatic exposure in 1939 - and the point of much of the lower-end stuff was that *anyone could get an image*.
The sad thing about the 1950s was that standardisation finally arrived, the art-deco touches vanish, and you lose the bewildering variety of lenses, shutters, and so on that make connecting 1930s Kodaks a never-ending feast.
I've got a 1930s equivalent which I'll post about later, which shows what I mean nicely.