Rob, I can give provide some rather specific feedback about that particular camera if you like. Oddly enough, I am actually something of an aficionado of Meteors, and currently have 4 of them, including
this one which as you can see I gave something of a facelift.
🙂 Despite my strange fondness for these cameras though, I have to chime in with the others and say, "cannibalize away!" They really are rather common after all, even if they aren't especially well known.
A couple questions for you. Do you have a Meteor already or just thinking about getting one? And second, were you intending to convert the Meteor itself to a pinhole camera, or just wanting to harvest some of its parts to go into something else? The reason I ask is that since the Meteor is designed for 620 film, it may not be the best choice either for a conversion or for its parts. Unfortunately it would be darned near impossible to convert it to 120, and some of the components would require extra modification to use with 120. As for the wind knob, I can tell you that they usually clean up rather well with a wire brush and sandpaper, giving you a nice satin or brushed aluminum kind of look. But you would need to modify the key for 120 film - so again, maybe it is more work than it is worth? Another thing is that like most other "lens tube" cameras, the Meteor is susceptible to light leaks between the lens tube and body - especially if you extend/retract the lens tube in bright daylight. This would probably be even more of an issue for a pinhole camera due to the longer exposures, so you would want to check for it first, and see what you can do to mitigate any leaks you found - maybe a good idea to fix the lens tube in the extended position as a starting point.
Well those are some of my initial thoughts anyway. I will be curious to hear what you end up doing for this project!
🙂
Jeff
