Author: Joe

The Dark Horse

Black And White Photography, Joseph, Photography

Image was taken with a Fujifilm X-E5 and XF 50mm f/2.0 lens

This camera is sort of a dark horse in the world of 1970’s rangefinder cameras. The Ricoh 500 G is a totally mechanical camera that uses a button battery to power the light meter. The camera can also be used in shutter priority mode by placing the aperture ring in the “A” position. The really nice thing about this camera vs the previous Canon rangefinders I have posted about is that the light meter stays active in shutter priority mode and also in manual mode. On the Canon rangefinders the light meter is only active in shutter priority mode. In order to shoot in manual mode with the Canon’s you must first memorize your light meter reading while the camera is in shutter priority mode then switch to manual a make your adjustments accordingly. The Ricoh has a tack sharp 40mm f/2.8 lens. The Canon’s seem to have a more robust build quality also IMHO. For example when you open the back of the Ricoh the door feels a little flimsy compared to the Canon’s. The controls on the Ricoh are precise but you really must have small hands to work them. The focusing ring is an exception because it’s on the front of the lens barrel so it feels like you are focusing an SLR camera rather than reaching for a lever towards the rear of the lens like the Canon’s.

Now let’s talk about what I had to do to get this camera ready to load some film. As usual the light seals were crumbling and had to be replaced. The seals on this camera are fairly basic so I cut my own out of a sheet of 1.0 mm light seal foam. That job went relatively smooth except for removing the previous adhesive. I usually use 99% isopropyl alcohol and Q-tips to saturate old light seals and let them sit for about 15 minutes. This usually results in making the adhesive removal a fairly quick job. Not so with this camera. I don’t know what kind of adhesive the previous technician used when they replaced the light seals but I almost was tempted to use a pneumatic jack hammer to remove it. After soaking and scraping multiple times the camera door was ready for the new light seals. Surprisingly the shutter and aperture blades were clean and working properly so all I had to do was clean the front and rear lens elements. Next up on the agenda was to clean the rangefinder and I purposely left this step for last because unlike the Canon’s where the top skin of the camera has to be removed to access the rangefinder the Ricoh is assembled like an ice cream sandwich and the front of the camera had to be removed to then remove the top to access the rangefinder. After a little head scratching to try and figure out the most efficient way to take this camera apart it was obvious I had to peel back the faux leather to access some screws and remove a few of the rings around the lens to get the job done. After that it was time to re-assemble everything and the finished product is displayed above. Now up for sale she goes.

To view this image in color please click – here

Not Another One

Black And White Photography, Joseph, Photography

Image was taken with a Fujifilm X-E5 and XF 50mm f/2.0 WR lens

A few weeks ago I posted about An Oldie But Goodie – here

The camera I referenced in the link above was a Canon G-III QL 1.7. As soon as I sold that camera this one popped up on my radar. This is a Canon QL 1.9. The 1.7 had a 40mm f/1.7 lens and this camera has a 45mm 1.9 lens. Unlike the previous camera this shutter surprisingly worked (more about this later).

The light seals in this camera were deteriorated so that was my first project. While I was replacing the light seals I noticed some sort of film in between the rear lens elements so after I finished the light seals out came the spanner wrench to remove the rear lens group. Surprisingly I didn’t have to struggle with the tightness of this lens group and the job went quickly and more importantly smoothly. Now let’s get back to the shutter I mentioned earlier. The shutter would not fire when I purchased the camera but it was a $25 purchase so I wasn’t too disappointed. When I installed a new battery to see if the light meter worked I moved the aperture ring to “A” which placed the camera in shutter priority mode. I moved the film advance lever about one quarter of a stroke then pressed the shutter button and bingo the shutter fired. Obviously the battery must have died mid film advance when the previous owner last used it and it jammed the shutter. This baffled me a bit because this is a totally mechanical camera. Maybe one day I’ll try to figure out how a mechanical camera shutter can jam due to a dead button battery that powers the light meter.

The biggest job on this camera was cleaning and adjusting the rangefinder which took me about 90 minutes. To do this the top cover of the camera must be removed and a lot of finger crossing takes place because everything underneath the cover is brittle and fragile from age so my big sausage fingers had to be very careful. After cleaning the rangefinder glass a lot of tweaking took place on the horizontal and vertical adjustment screws to get the split image to align perfectly. After finishing this little gem I’m undecided whether I will run a roll of film through it. Only time will tell so stay tuned.

Oldie But Goodie

Black And White Photography, Joseph, Photography

Image was taken with a Fujifilm X-E5 and XF 50mm f/2.0 R WR lens. Exposure was 1/90 th of a second at f/2.8.

What’s not to love ? A small pocketable rangefinder camera with a fast, sharp 40mm f/1.7 Canon lens. This is a recent acquisition and I have been working on for a while. Like most totally mechanical vintage cameras equipped with leaf shutters the lubricant dries up and becomes a sticky mess preventing the shutter blades from firing at the correct speeds, or even firing at all. I have already removed the front lens group and thoroughly cleaned the shutter and aperture blades, re-assembled and re-lubricated all the parts and everything is now working as it should. Unfortunately the internal light meter does not work which is fairly common on these cameras. Now I am waiting for the new light seal kit I ordered to be delivered so I can finish up with this camera.

To view this image in color please click – here

Nikon F Circa 1969

Black And White Photography, Joseph, Photography

Image was taken with a Fujifilm X-E5 and XF 50mm f/2.0 lens

This is a vintage Nikon F camera equipped with a Photomic FTN viewfinder. Base model Nikon F cameras were usually equipped with an eye level pentaprism viewfinder without a light meter. The Photomic FTN viewfinder incorporated a light meter and a shutter speed readout. The approximate manufacture date of this particular camera is May – July 1969. The F was Nikons first SLR camera and it had a very long production run (1959 – 1973). It was well regarded for its extreme reliability and many Vietnam war photojournalists used them in the field. Hasselblad cameras along with modified Nikon F’s also accompanied NASA astronauts to the moon starting with Apollo 15 in 1971 and SkyLab missions in 1973. A total of 862,000 Nikon F cameras were manufactured during its long 14 year production.