Introduction, and question re: Rolleiflex "old Standard"

[brazile]

Oh, my. Well, I can't say I wasn't warned.

But who am I fooling? This is the kind of thing I was looking for, after all. This reminds me of nothing so much as the oldtools mailing list I've been on since 96 or so, a.k.a. "the support group from hell", i.e., if you're looking for folks to help you kick the habit, you're in the wrong place...

OK, so I spent a while futzing with the focus. Man, what a fussy process. I'll have to come up with a better, repeatable setup for that, so as to get good light on a suitable target with the camera at a height that won't break my back and fixed so it won't move. None of which features my current setup has.

Ah well, I think it's reasonably close. The main issue I have now is that while messing with the viewing lens, I never found any sign of anything that would actually lock it down. There was no apparently set screw, and the little split ring thing I was dealing with doesn't show any signs of the ability to keep the thing from turning, really. For the moment, I just have a tiny piece of scotch tape keeping it from moving, but I hope to find a better solution.

Just loaded a roll of film into it, will have to do some test shots. Naturally, the sun just disappeared and it started snowing, further challenging my already weak "guess the exposure" skills. I suppose I'll drag the DSLR into service, it sometimes guesses better than I do. Got a spot meter on the list for xmas, or, more likely, post-xmas.

Robert

[wlewisiii]

The main issue I have now is that while messing with the viewing lens, I never found any sign of anything that would actually lock it down. There was no apparently set screw, and the little split ring thing I was dealing with doesn't show any signs of the ability to keep the thing from turning, really. For the moment, I just have a tiny piece of scotch tape keeping it from moving, but I hope to find a better solution.

I would think that a bit of Loctite on the threads would keep it in place. Just get the color that can be undone... :eek:

[LarryD]

Oh now don't let low light and snow slow you down any.


Snow Day 14 by inetjoker, on Flickr

[Mike Kovacs]

Clear nail polish is the budget option. Or purple lok tite. (I wouldn't use blue, definitely NOT red)

But seriously is there not a threaded collar you can turn to lock the viewing lens down?

[brazile]

Yeah, I've seen Loctite cause problems with other things before, so I'm pretty wary of it. Purple, hmm, that might make some sense. Like the clear nail polish solution, though, as it's so easily reversible.

As for the threaded collar -- I may be overlooking something obvious (wouldn't be the first time, my wife would tell you) but I surely don't see it -- this is a much more minimalist machine than I expected based on the stories of Rollei innards (and the exploded diagrams available in the repair manual online, which unfortunately only covers models back to about 15 years after this one). But, as you imply, there really ought to be something to tighten up the thing, or they'd be forever getting knocked out of whack. I'll take another look if I need to go in again for some reason.

Larry, the snow didn't stop me, just slowed me down a bit because I had to dig out the car. Then family duties intervened. Now that folks are out of the kitchen post-dinner, maybe I can go do my thing and see if I helped things, hurt them, or had any effect at all...

Robert

[LarryD]

Glad you have a name Robert. Looks like a white Christmas in Tennessee this year too Starting Friday we have Snow forecast they 70% to us that means it will snow 70% of the day. When I was in Arizona 6 inches of rain meant that the drops were 6 inches apart.

[Glenn Thoreson]

Some TLRs have a set screw on the back of the lens mount that you access through the top of the camera. It would be by the front of the mirror if it has one. I dunno..... :confused:

[brazile]

So I took some test shots yesterday and managed to get them developed last night and hung them to dry before bedtime. After random errands this morning, finally got around to scanning them in. In my hurry yesterday, I messed the shots up in various ways, mostly in exposure, but I found other, more eclectic, ways to screw them up as well. Regardless, despite everything, I find them encouraging -- if the contrast and sharpness are a bit improved on poorly-exposed, potentially slightly out-of-focus shots, then I might be on the way. Once I set up a re-usable focus calibration station (light, good target, board with small cleat to hold the camera in one spot) I'll check the focus again. In the meanwhile, I think it's usable, so I'm going to run another roll through it, this time hopefully with better technique.

Next time I have some excuse to pull the hood, I'll look around for a possibly-missed set screw, Glenn, thanks for the tip.

Here are a couple shots from the I-get-in-too-big-a-hurry roll:

A snowy shot for Larry:



My daughter who was having a hard time sitting still long enough for such low light (we'll ignore the fact that I exposed for the windows by accident and had to pull up the exposure considerably in post):



The miter vise I had been using to test the focus in my messy shop. Oh, and the edge of the stupid board the camera was sitting on -- I'd moved it back for uninteresting reasons and was so focused on the target (see what I did there?) I managed to ignore the fact that most of the frame was filled with a lot of nothing:



Still, I think I'm on the right track and this old guy will end up being a decent user again.

Aside from locking down the focus, the other thing that could use some tweaking is the film advance. It sounds like the gears might be a tad stripped out in a couple places, and sometimes it slips a bit, so the film doesn't quite advance enough to get good spacing between the frames, even to the point of overlapping a little sometimes. Pretty wary of digging into that part of the camera, though, as I suspect the opportunities to screw it up are even greater there, in addition to being less amenable to repair without some replacement parts. But you never know, I might get wild and impulsive again...

Anyhow, thanks again for everyone's suggestions and help, it is much appreciated.

Robert

[Mike Kovacs]

Nice. You have to watch the parallax on a TLR as evidenced by that last picture LOL.

Setting the camera on its side is one way you can get the viewfinder lens at approx the same height as the viewing lens if you're worried about getting table tops in the picture

[brazile]

Ha -- yeah, parallax on a TLR, duh, good point. Hadn't thought of that, but now that you mention it, it's glaringly obvious. Apparently I'm guilty of 2D thinking in a 3D world. I'll get there eventually...

Robert

[brazile]

Just to close this out for now: I took a few more shots on Christmas Day with the cleaned-up Rolleiflex. It was a roll of TMAX 400 that I developed in D76 1:1; the results were (as expected) a little grainy and sharp enough for my purposes. The contrast was a little low, but not out of the ordinary, I think. The resulting photographs were fairly susceptible to a bit of curve-fitting and sharpening after scanning, so I'm happy enough. At some point I may take another crack at adjusting the focus, but I think it's sufficient for now. Thanks again for the advice.











Robert