This post has taken a long time to sort and prepare due to an issue with the actual camera. I got this camera from 1979 at a fair and it was supposed to be in good working order…but it wasn’t. It had a small but important fault. I will get to that later, but here is the camera.
Well, there is some of it. I forgot to take photos before I reskinned it which you will see at the end as this story has a happy ending.
Anyway, I loaded the camera with some HP5 which I intended to push to 1600 as I was taking it to Thackray Museum of Medicine. As you can see, it was fairly dark in places and everything was closer than infinity, that is important information because here are some of the results.
Well, biscuits. The camera’s meter clearly worked but something was wrong with the focusing. I then tried to focus the camera at infinity, it wouldn’t. It was off.
I did some research and it seemed like it could be the mirror slipping, but that seemed fine. The focusing screen was also set in place and wasn’t moving, so what could it be??
Luckily I had a very similar camera, the FX-D. I took that out and compared them, very carefully. Everything seemed the same, I couldn’t see it for ages…and then I did.
Under the mirror is a stopper that it rests on. Look at the photos below, one is from the FX-D and one is from the FX-3.
There is a tiny washer type thing on one and not the other. I looked through my box of junk parts, but I had nothing like that. What to do? It just need a little extra height on the top?! So I decided to McGyver it. I cut some strips of duck tape and wrapped it around the nubbin, estimating the size then checking the focusing worked at infinity. When it did I stopped adding strips and put a little glue on it to keep it stable. Then I loaded a short roll of Exeter 400 and took a few photos on a walk with a friend.
Here are those results.
Yatta!!! Now I should have called that quits at this point, I had fixed it, but then I decided to reskin the camera and something amazing happened. I don’t know why, but I took the bottom plate off and voila, the washer fell out of the bottom of the camera. I hadn’t heard it moving around and it was clearly damaged. Half of it was missing…but I only needed the top half??
So I took off my taped washer and glued this found, semi-circular one, back in place. I reloaded the camera once again and tried a short roll just to check it was still ok.
It seems a little softer, but much better than the first attempt with this camera. I was happy with the results. So I decided to carry on with the reskinning and make it prettier.
Well, now I have to try it one more time, just because it was there and I wanted to play with some filters. I also wasn’t sure the washer was stable and wanted to give it a good slapping to see if it would fall off again, it didn’t.
So here is the last test roll with the camera.
Yeah, a successful challenge, but I think I might sell the FX-D over this one as that one is more ‘perfect’. I will think about it.
My next post will be a list of cameras which I am going to sell. Though if you would like this one, just use the contact form.
Well, gee, Doctor, we marvel every time you successfully re-start heartbeat and respiration on one o’ these derelict patients. And once re-animated, you give ’em the cosmetics and spa treatment as well. ‘Ats your full sevice clinic there. Big kudos.
Gee, I can’t unsee that pig.
Now, both apres’ Victorian-Medical-Museum-of-Horrors sets of post-fix test shots, both full- and semi-McGyver, are bangers. Were they at 1600 as well?
No the after shots were at box speed as there were mainly outside. Yeap, the medical museum was a bit or a horror show at times, but worth a quick visit.
It’s not real though, forgot to mention.
The bad news is your Camera is Broken, However the Good News is we are having our Peggy look at it, your Camera is in safe hands and she might even re-Skin it for you🙏👏👏👍
For a moment I was all, what camera of mine do you have??
I wonder if we can tar and feather an effigy of the genius designer who invented the original skin coverings for late-model Yashica and Contax SLRs ….
Well, the covers have served their time and their ‘faller-off’ ability does lend itself to an extra fun part of playing with cameras. So I will forgive them. Still better than the sticky goo of others.