Courtney's and David's Wedding

The wedding was fun. Did not get to take the picture of the bride and groom that I wanted with the vintage medium format camera. You can see the images that I took here. The couple was too busy for me to bug them for a picture. After this experience it is clear that if I want to do wedding photography I will have to go and do it as the wedding photographer.

Wedding Weekend

This is Courtney and David wedding weekend. I made it throug the airport with all the equipmet without problems. There is great sunny weather today in San Jose and the same is expected for the weekend. The weekend will be perfect for wedding photography.

120 and 135 film scanner has arrived

The Canon 120 and 135 negative film scanner was delivered today and I can't way to start using it. I hope that it does a good job specially with the medium format negatives.

Just For Art Workshop 2 Portland

This past Sunday I took a drive to Portland to participate in the Just for Art Workshop put together by Mr. T and Ms. T. The workshop surpassed my expectations! Being in this type of photo shoot is great to get more in tune with the camera equipment (I caught myself making some mistakes that I have to keep an eye on in the future). It was a grate time, well worth the 3 hr drive each way. It was definitely a great group of photographers and models. I capture tons of nice images with my Canon XTi. Shot one roll with the Minox 35 EL and shot a roll and 1/2 with the Agfa Isolette II.

The Mountain was out

Saturday it was a preview of Seattle summer. Took advantage to grab the classic Seattle. Good that I did because the rain was back on Sunday for the week.

Lenses are off

I put some lighter fluid on the threads of the middle lens element and the back lens element hopping that they would loosen up enough to unscrew them with my fingers but no luck. My search for the tool to remove the lens (lens spanner) came up empty as the good ones are more than $200 and the cheap ones are not effective and cost $50 (more than the camera that I am trying to fix). So necessity is the mother of invention. I found my 10 cent lens spanner in the cap of my pen. I pull off the cap metal part and bend it to get it the right size to fit the available space and engage both lens treads indentations. I had to apply a fair amount of force to get the threads unbind but after that I was able to unscrewed with my fingers. From there they went into a bath of 99% alcohol for cleaning. I also was able to remove the not that holds the shutter assembly and was able to clean the shutter blades with a cotton swab (that assembly is a mechanical marvel). Today is reassembly night.

Focusing Lense is Off

After a night soak in lighter fluid and a application of WD-40 the focusing lens thread of the Isolette II came finally loose today using only my fingers and a fabric cloth. This will allow me to clean the lens and to properly set focus. Now I just need to figure out how to undo the other lenses for cleaning and cleaning of the shutter blades. The test roll is now being developed to get an idea of the lens performance and the bellow condition. It turns out that the model I got has the entry level lense (Agnar) and the entry level shutter (Proto).

Isolette II - New toy

On Friday I got my new toy on the mail from e-bay. A 6x6 120 roll film medium format camera that looks like the mom of the two little Minox 35. It has a lens folding mechanism very similar to the Minox 35. The Isolette II made by Agfa in Germany for England (distance scale is in ft) is a fully manual and mechanical camera (no batteries needed). The camera came almost fully operational. The only major issue is a frozen focusing ring (frozen at infinity due to dry grease, a know problem with this camera). I am currently in the first test roll testing the status of the original bellow. I am starting the CLA process by putting the lens assembly in lighter fluid to remove the grease and get the focusing to working condition. I already clean the outside of the lens. Now I have to clean the inside of the lens and the shutter once I get the grease out. I am also looking into buying or making a new bellow in red leather for the camera. I hope that the current below is in ok condition so I can use the camera in an upcoming wedding.