10 Jun
2010
10 Jun
'10
11:22 a.m.
This thread is really going off the rails, isn't it? And to think it
started by me asking if anyone was going to VCF!
On 10/06/10 19:00, Tony Duell wrote:
I find rechargeable batteries to be a pain in gneeral.
Unless it's
something I'm using all the time, the self-discharge means they're
genrally pretty flat when I want to use the device. And then I have to
want for a considerable time for them to recharge. For stuff I don't have
to carry around I prefer to plug it into the mains.
Self-discharge isn't really a problem with Li-(ion,polymer) and the
"hybrid" NiMH technologies (e.g. Eneloop). Generally speaking I get more
use out of my box of Eneloop batteries even though they have a lower
rated capacity than a similar set of Energizer NiMHs.
Being able to pull the flashgun out of the camera bag, switch it on and
be almost certain it's going to work really does count for A LOT...
They are not hard to work on (one thing I have
discovered when it comes
to repairing cameras is that the mroe expensive cameeras have more parts,
but they are better made and actually easier to work on. I would much
rather repair a Leica than a Kodak.).
I've done rebuild work on cheap digital compact cameras. I bought a
couple of dead ones on ebay for something like ?2 all told (the post was
more than the cameras) and ended up making a couple of working cameras
out of the bits. They're pretty dire quality (not even up to the
standard of my Canon A710iS compact, and that's pretty ropey) but good
for tests which may go Badly Wrong, and where you don't want to risk an
expensive camera...
Or where you just want to build a stereo camera for as little money as
possible... Ahem.
And for a lot less in charity chops. And they really
are easy to take
apart and rebuild..
I must be looking in the wrong charity shops. The ones around here won't
take anything other than clothing and books, if it takes a battery or
has a mains lead then it's banned.
You are going to kill me... Some years ago I bought a
jammed Leica III
(pre-war, screw mount, of course) in a camera shop for a bargain price.
That night, I partially stripped it, extraced the second curtain latch,
cleaned it, put one drop of watch oil in the right place, and it's been
fine ever sinxe. I need to strip the slow-speed escapement sometime, but
it's not urgent
Nicely done.
Most of the OM-series stuff is just as easily repairable -- 95% of the
time it's the light seals that go (they're easily replaced) but when
something jams, you usually only have to clean out the (small amount of)
grease, relubricate the parts and put it back together again.
Some cameras really are evil, though. I had a 35mm compact a few years
ago (the typical all-plastic POS), which had some "issues". The worst of
which was a rewind button that almost never engaged properly -- it would
look like it had gone in, but in reality had only enabled the winding
crank and hadn't disengaged the take-up spool. Couple that with a REALLY
stiff winding crank...
That camera jammed quite a few rolls of film, either by breaking the
trailer off of the spool, or by snapping the film into two separate
pieces. Evil little thing.
--
Phil.
classiccmp at philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/