All I had to do was travel to a different state and city haha. Found them at Ross in Salt Lake City and Ogden. Box codes for Neko is the mark facing up, Tapioca mark facing left. I think tokage was right? But not sure. I didn’t want that one. I’m so stoked to have Neko and Tapioca!
No luck on blind boxes but they did have this super cute Shirokuma for $8
Did some cameras just suffer from bad plastic batches? I have a camera I’m working on that had a cracked fresnel carrier assembly, and as I’ve been working on it more it just seems the internal plastic frame is much more brittle than other cameras I’ve worked on. It’s like it’s crumbling apart. Has anyone else run into this? For context it’s a sonar model. Idk if it’s part of the later cost cutting using shittier plastics or what but it’s shocking how brittle the interior frame is on this particular camera.
I modeled some brackets for the SX-70 replacement motor, they fit nice and snug. I’ll upload these tomorrow or the next day. Whats the best platform(s) to share these on? I know thingiverse…what else?
I’ve been watching theinstantcameraguys youtube videos for the past year or so, slowly building up confidence to take on doing a restoration and mod and I finally finished my first one.
Because the camera came with its leather falling off or completely off of the metal sheets that are glued to the camera I wanted to keep them as part of the aesthetic. So I took inspiration from the Hasselblad Lunar Surface cameras from the 1960s and had some custom stickers made. They need some wear and tear and aging to look right but that will come in time as I use the camera.
The camera started life as a sonar model (the sonar wasn’t working along with a LOT of other issues). Hers a list of all the things I did to the camera:
Removed the sonar shutter, replaced with one from a model 1, removed antistatic and replaced with pencil graphite.
used the plastic sonar lens to do the Pvetzal lens mod
cleaned all interior surfaces
checked mirror silicone
cleaned fresnel screen
fixed a cracked edge of the fresnel carrier (I used super glue and baking soda to plastic weld the crack).
SX70r PCB installed
Adjusted erection arm
Superglued part of the viewfinder assembly that holds the first lens (the one that swings out)
Replaced the viewfinder accordion things
Cleaned all viewfinder optical parts
Adjusted the main viewfinder mirror (sonars apparently have these adjusted funny)
Drilled holes in the metal of the base plate to make screw access easy
Replaced the motor and made 3d printed bracket things to hold it in the spring clips (the camera didn’t have the normal rubber ones when I opened it)
Replaced/added a missing spring for the fresnel assembly swing part of the camera (the one you can see near the rear on the gear side past the pick arm)
Adjusted solenoid and tested shutter speeds. I adjusted the solenoid to be a little bit fast/underexpose since I left the tinted window in the chrome model 1 shutter cover. I just need to shoot a pack and verify exposure.
I’m having a really strange issue with the focus on one of my SX-70s. The split prism does not appear correct at infinity (even though the lens mark is at infinity)z But a bit of context first.
The camera was a sonar I bought cheap because it wasn’t working. It had issues with the sonar module, the lens was a bit crap lookingC the viewfinder accordion wouldn’t open well, the camera wouldn’t fully cycle, a whole lot of issues.
But it’s a chrome one and I had an extra chrome non sonar shutter module, and I decided to turn the camera into an Alpha (sort of).
I completely disassembled the model 1 donor shutter, removed the antistatic coating from the shutter blades and did the pencil trick from Jake (theinstantcameraguy), swapped in a 2 post solenoid, cleaned it with Deoxit, lubricated the flash follower assembly. I also swapped in a new motor, checked the mirror silicone, cleaned the bellows, rebuilt the viewfinder accordion thing, and installed the SX70r PCB (successfully, all functions are correct).
I did two additional things that I assume caused the problem: I also swapped the fresnel carrier to one with a split prism for manual focus. And I swapped the plastic lens from the sonar onto the model 1 board and did the Pvetzal modification to the lens (this also required drilling pilot holes for the screws to attach the plastic lens board to the metal shutter).
And this is possibly where the issue came from but I don’t fully understand how. It could be from swapping the fresnel carrier or the lens, but I can’t think what else would have caused it. I do know from another post a while back that if the viewfinder mirror is misaligned it can throw focus off, could be that?
Anyway, I would love some help! I tried to take a picture of the viewfinder issue but I just couldn’t get a good angle with my phone. Everything else I did on the camera was a success, I hate to have to tear it back down to the lens but I’m scared that’s the only likely solution. Help!
I’m considering moving to the Republic of Ireland this year. I have dual US/UK citizenship and have already researched and confirmed that as a UK citizen I can live and work in Ireland without a visa. So that part is handled. But I’ve only ever moved cities once in my life and it was within the same state.
I know the obvious stuff like job, housing, etc. as part of the considerations for moving, and I have savings to cover costs, but like what sorts of things are important that maybe are easy to overlook, things that may be trivial. For example: I would need to buy all new house wares/pots and pans etc.
Looking for tips and tricks, first hand experience around things you wished you’d known or thought about. I’ll say I handle things much better in the moment than planning for them but I don’t want to be blindsided. So I don’t need like a full 100% all things covered. Just maybe more like a watch out for these unexpected challenges that can make the first 3 months way harder.
Thanks in advance!
I haven’t seen this discussed elsewhere so I wanted to share. It is very possible to swap fresnel screens on SX-70s. I bought a model 3 last year to use as a throw away camera to practice working on them and for extra parts. I also received a free Alpha model a few years ago that didn’t work (it turned out that the mirror assembly plate, the one that swings up and down, was broken along the edges, which is supposedly an uncommon issue). The Alpha model had a good fresnel screen on the bad mirror carrier, and of course the model 3 had a trash fresnel screen. Today I was looking at those two junk parts I thought “what the hell”. Since id been using a hair dryer to heat up and remove the leather from some cameras I’m going to work on, I decided to use that on the fresnel assembly and then slid a plastic scraper gently and slowly under (I did the bad fresnel first of course). It came off honestly very easily and without damage. I then did the same for the good one from the Alpha. Same, slow, low angle thins scraper and heat had it off no problem. I then used permanent spray adhesive to the back of the fresnel screen and glued it to the good carrier from the model 3. I just checked it in the camera and it’s bright and clear!
TL:DR you can remove and reuse the fresnel screens from SX-70s. Use heat, a plastic scraper at a low angle, and go slow.
Do this at your own risk of course but I figured I’d share in case anyone else out there could use the info.
I really like this funky film! I think it’s ISO is higher than the normal 640 it does seem to like to be underexposed by a stop or two. Highlights go to base pink (that’s the brightest the film gets) with shadows varying shades of blue and purple. It’s like if synthwave were a film. I think this film will really shine with careful composition and will allow for some very cool photos that play with silhouettes, take advantage of whites and other highlights blowing out, etc. these photos don’t fully capture the color effect, they’re close but in person the highlights are more pink and have a sort of glow to them.
I’m trying to figure out what plug this is and where I can buy both male and female of it ideally already wired. Chat GpT said it was a JST -SH 2 pin 1mm pitch, but after ordering that and trying it it doesn’t fit. I think it may be 1.5mm pitch, I measured with calipers and as far as I can tell the pins are 1.5mm apart but I can’t really figure out what conector type it is. One image I saw on AliXpress looks like it may be a MX 1.25, but honestly I can’t figure it out. Anyone able to ID the plug?
Thanks!