R
ruben
Guest
"Yo quiero una camara manual y que me permita enfocar por un visor en condiciones. El visor es todo. No podemos escatimar por los visores. "
- Beniliam
The above sentence is taken, perhaps out of the broader context, from a prived exchange with our compa Beniliam, and in a very free and perhaps faulty English translation may read something like this:
I want a manual camera enabling me to focus with a good viewfinder. The viewfinder is everything. We cannot spare on the viewfinders
Since I have been making my mind on behalf of street photography, after a long detour, my findings have taken me, within the Cheapo category, to the QL GIII. (No surprise for most of us, but yes to me.)
The first one I bought was absolutely unoperative. The second and the third were all functionally OK. But all the three suffered from the same problem: very pale yellow patch, considering you are going to photograph moving humans. Hereby I will tell what different proceedings I did to improve them, what worked for me and what not.
First of all, since we are talking about old cameras, what exactly do I mean when I say "pale" yellow patch ?. It is very subjective I believe, but I mean a patch that when you raise your camera to make a pic you have first of all start locating where the hell the yellow patch has gone.
The Olesson proceeding
Rick has provided a very interesting way to overcome the problem by adding a small pirate patch on the external glass of the viewfinder protective window. As for the Canonet I was very unsatisfied with Rick's proceeding, as you cannot superimpose the images within the yellow patch, but rather have to superimpose the whole original area of the patch with the area outside the patch. If you are focusing an electricity post - no problem. If you want to focus a human eye or any very small object - unpossible. I have triyed to dimminish the size of the black adhesive patch, and/or make a black patch with a hole within it, but no good news. Perhaps I have not understood Rick Olesson explanations thoroughly.
Buying a new beamsplitter from Edmunds Scientific
I bought one, but encountered two problems. Their beamsplitters are not golden coated but uncolored, and after many trials I recognize I cannot cut the glass without breaking it at the end. If anybody would like to contribute a detailed explanation how to reasonably cut 1mm thick glass - welcome !
Extracting a beamsplitter and cleaning it with home alcohol
Among the three cameras, just the unoperative one had the relatively best yellow patch. As the camera was unoperative I decided to extract the beamsplitter and insert it into one of the other two. This was really painful, as the beamsplitter is glued at both unaccesible extremes, and at the end I broke part of one of the corners. This glass is quite delicate.
Nevertheless after reinserting it in the good camera, prior to gluing, I noticed it still can be used without any noticeable influence on the viewing image.
Now comes the best part. Up to day every time I cleaned any beamsplitter I did it the dray way and very softly. This time I did it with a very wet tip, wetted with home alcohol, and in a rather agressive manner. For my own great surprise the reflective gold coating improved quite dramatically. I do not think it can be termed as a "new" yellow patch, but certainly it became a very easy identifiable yellow patch, allowing quick focusing in all lighting situations.
As I am a surviver of my own provoked RFF oil war, kindly allow me some disclaimers. First and most important I have no serial experience in alcolhol cleaning of beamsplitters. Secondly it can be that in a month or more my QL beamsplitter may deteriorate because of my use of home alcohol. Thirdly, different brand beamsplitters may have a different coating formula, making the use of home alcohol abrassive. Fourthly the formula of my home alcohol may not be yours. Lastly any comerade wanting to warn against the use of alcohol is kindly invited to voice his/her opinion, being my advise this time to listen him/her.
Darkening the whole wiefinder window - the other way around
Now I was left with the second working camera, with the most pale yellow patch. Here, even cleaning its beamsplitter with home alcohol didn't help.
As a Kiev school emigre I asked myself about darkening the whole external viewfinder window.
First I masked it from outside with a cut from those Ilford darkroom celluloid filters, originally designed to increase/decrease contrast when printing. And oops ! some improvement did show. The yellow patch did start to become identifiable. Then I went to select the best working graduation among the different filters until I arrived to the right one. The superimposing images improved a further bit.
BUT I was left with two problems. The celluloid filter somewhat diffused the sharpness of the image outside the yellow patch, and the overall magenta coloration of the image was unpleasant, like wearing magenta glasses.
As for the image sharpness I tryied a different way. Instead of locating the filter at the outside or inside of the top casting protective glass, I moved it behind the refractive (?) lens of the viewing window. The image became sharp again. But still magentish
So I thought about cutting to size a polarizer filter. Disaster again with cutting glass. But I had an ND4 plastic filter from the Sunpak flash set, easy to cut with the proper cutter. Dramatic improvement again, but only for indoors. At sunlight the yellow patch becomes easily identifiable too, but the intensity of the two images to superimpose is quite contradictory. One very visible, the other a slight shadow. So identifying the yellow patch with ease is just the start of wisdom, the superimposing images within the yellow patch must be of close intensity. Yet inside the different lightings of my salon, the result of this proceeding is almost perfect.
As I use two cameras with different ISO, one for indoors or poor light, the other for bright outdoors, this solution does work.
Lastly I asked myself if the ND4 filter could further improve the camera with the good yellow patch, brighter after the alcohol cleaning. No, it didn't, again because of the opposed intensity of of the two images to superimpose within the yellow patch. One very strong, the other very weak. Perhaps if playing with different ND intensities a good balance may be obtained. But for this triyal I have to learn how to cut glass.
Any way, with two good-viewfindered QLs, I am spared so far from a CLE. For the time being.
Cheers,
Ruben
- Beniliam
The above sentence is taken, perhaps out of the broader context, from a prived exchange with our compa Beniliam, and in a very free and perhaps faulty English translation may read something like this:
I want a manual camera enabling me to focus with a good viewfinder. The viewfinder is everything. We cannot spare on the viewfinders
Since I have been making my mind on behalf of street photography, after a long detour, my findings have taken me, within the Cheapo category, to the QL GIII. (No surprise for most of us, but yes to me.)
The first one I bought was absolutely unoperative. The second and the third were all functionally OK. But all the three suffered from the same problem: very pale yellow patch, considering you are going to photograph moving humans. Hereby I will tell what different proceedings I did to improve them, what worked for me and what not.
First of all, since we are talking about old cameras, what exactly do I mean when I say "pale" yellow patch ?. It is very subjective I believe, but I mean a patch that when you raise your camera to make a pic you have first of all start locating where the hell the yellow patch has gone.
The Olesson proceeding
Rick has provided a very interesting way to overcome the problem by adding a small pirate patch on the external glass of the viewfinder protective window. As for the Canonet I was very unsatisfied with Rick's proceeding, as you cannot superimpose the images within the yellow patch, but rather have to superimpose the whole original area of the patch with the area outside the patch. If you are focusing an electricity post - no problem. If you want to focus a human eye or any very small object - unpossible. I have triyed to dimminish the size of the black adhesive patch, and/or make a black patch with a hole within it, but no good news. Perhaps I have not understood Rick Olesson explanations thoroughly.
Buying a new beamsplitter from Edmunds Scientific
I bought one, but encountered two problems. Their beamsplitters are not golden coated but uncolored, and after many trials I recognize I cannot cut the glass without breaking it at the end. If anybody would like to contribute a detailed explanation how to reasonably cut 1mm thick glass - welcome !
Extracting a beamsplitter and cleaning it with home alcohol
Among the three cameras, just the unoperative one had the relatively best yellow patch. As the camera was unoperative I decided to extract the beamsplitter and insert it into one of the other two. This was really painful, as the beamsplitter is glued at both unaccesible extremes, and at the end I broke part of one of the corners. This glass is quite delicate.
Nevertheless after reinserting it in the good camera, prior to gluing, I noticed it still can be used without any noticeable influence on the viewing image.
Now comes the best part. Up to day every time I cleaned any beamsplitter I did it the dray way and very softly. This time I did it with a very wet tip, wetted with home alcohol, and in a rather agressive manner. For my own great surprise the reflective gold coating improved quite dramatically. I do not think it can be termed as a "new" yellow patch, but certainly it became a very easy identifiable yellow patch, allowing quick focusing in all lighting situations.
As I am a surviver of my own provoked RFF oil war, kindly allow me some disclaimers. First and most important I have no serial experience in alcolhol cleaning of beamsplitters. Secondly it can be that in a month or more my QL beamsplitter may deteriorate because of my use of home alcohol. Thirdly, different brand beamsplitters may have a different coating formula, making the use of home alcohol abrassive. Fourthly the formula of my home alcohol may not be yours. Lastly any comerade wanting to warn against the use of alcohol is kindly invited to voice his/her opinion, being my advise this time to listen him/her.
Darkening the whole wiefinder window - the other way around
Now I was left with the second working camera, with the most pale yellow patch. Here, even cleaning its beamsplitter with home alcohol didn't help.
As a Kiev school emigre I asked myself about darkening the whole external viewfinder window.
First I masked it from outside with a cut from those Ilford darkroom celluloid filters, originally designed to increase/decrease contrast when printing. And oops ! some improvement did show. The yellow patch did start to become identifiable. Then I went to select the best working graduation among the different filters until I arrived to the right one. The superimposing images improved a further bit.
BUT I was left with two problems. The celluloid filter somewhat diffused the sharpness of the image outside the yellow patch, and the overall magenta coloration of the image was unpleasant, like wearing magenta glasses.
As for the image sharpness I tryied a different way. Instead of locating the filter at the outside or inside of the top casting protective glass, I moved it behind the refractive (?) lens of the viewing window. The image became sharp again. But still magentish
So I thought about cutting to size a polarizer filter. Disaster again with cutting glass. But I had an ND4 plastic filter from the Sunpak flash set, easy to cut with the proper cutter. Dramatic improvement again, but only for indoors. At sunlight the yellow patch becomes easily identifiable too, but the intensity of the two images to superimpose is quite contradictory. One very visible, the other a slight shadow. So identifying the yellow patch with ease is just the start of wisdom, the superimposing images within the yellow patch must be of close intensity. Yet inside the different lightings of my salon, the result of this proceeding is almost perfect.
As I use two cameras with different ISO, one for indoors or poor light, the other for bright outdoors, this solution does work.
Lastly I asked myself if the ND4 filter could further improve the camera with the good yellow patch, brighter after the alcohol cleaning. No, it didn't, again because of the opposed intensity of of the two images to superimpose within the yellow patch. One very strong, the other very weak. Perhaps if playing with different ND intensities a good balance may be obtained. But for this triyal I have to learn how to cut glass.
Any way, with two good-viewfindered QLs, I am spared so far from a CLE. For the time being.
Cheers,
Ruben
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