[HN Gopher] Reverse Engineering a 1979 Camera's Spec
___________________________________________________________________
Reverse Engineering a 1979 Camera's Spec
Author : manoloesparta
Score : 23 points
Date : 2025-10-13 18:45 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.mano.lol)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.mano.lol)
| matthews3 wrote:
| > Seems like I loaded the film incorrectly and nothing was on
| them, so I hate my life right now. Let's skip this part then.
|
| That's a shame! It's a mistake almost everyone that has used a
| film camera has made, though.
|
| On these older SLRs, one thing you can do to check that the film
| is loaded properly is to watch the rewind crank as you advance to
| the next frame. If everything is loaded and the film is engaged
| properly, you should see it turn.
| blacklion wrote:
| Very nice text with very nice voice.
|
| It is nothing new to me, but I think it is very-very good
| introduction to film SLR cameras in particular and photography
| basics (aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, etc) in general
| for person who never study this topic before.
|
| I wish author good shots with this <<basic>> but perfectly
| capable camera!
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Nice explainer for someone wanting a brain dump for analog (film)
| cameras.
|
| I am old enough to have grown up with film. I learned to use a
| darkroom when I was in 5th grade. I used one again in middle
| school, high school. I even worked at a "1-Hour Photo" out of
| high school.
|
| But my cameras were typically the Instamatic(tm) kind. My mom had
| a Canon AE/1 and borrowing it from time to time was my only
| experience with a "real" film camera.
|
| I was at Apple, working in fact on the ColorSync team when
| cameras went digital. I didn't throw the kind of money some of my
| coworkers did at the early entries into digital from Nikon,
| Canon, but I dabbled in it.
|
| But it was when my daughters, born very much in the digital
| camera era, started to show an interest in film cameras that I
| also dove into them again. This time I could learn about film
| cameras on the internet, could by film cameras on eBay. My
| disposable income meant I could get some decent hardware -- and
| then of course it was a lot less expensive than when it was new
| because it was used, "obsolete".
|
| I learned at last about "medium format" and was able to get into
| it with a surprisingly modest amount of cash. A Yashica 635 for
| example was a fine medium format camera and fairly inexpensive on
| eBay. Often there are sellers from Japan that seem to give you an
| honest assessment of the camera they are selling -- I have rarely
| been disappointed.
|
| 120 film for medium format cameras is still readily available.
| Finding a place to develop it and make prints easy as well (in
| Omaha, Nebraska there is at least one store, thankfully). I even
| learned to develop my own B&W and color film (it's just a bit
| tedious though).
|
| I confess though that once developed, I tend to take the digital
| path -- scanning the photo digitally and then adjusting levels,
| etc. in the computer.
|
| In any event, more than ever, I really got to learn the clever
| relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture -- and
| appreciate them when going with film. I encourage everyone to try
| it.
|
| A photo from the Yashica 635: https://imgur.com/BNdbzjC
|
| Also Yashica 635: https://imgur.com/o4eYteG
|
| Minolta Autocord: https://imgur.com/oQgXjW0
|
| (Cameras get a little pricier from here down.)
|
| Mamiya C220: https://imgur.com/nL9JjPl
|
| Me (Mamiya RB7): https://imgur.com/Y49UxLQ
|
| Bronica SQA: https://imgur.com/ZMJ3SGq
| heliographe wrote:
| If you've gone all the way to shooting medium format and
| learning how to develop film, I can't help but encourage you to
| get into printing black and white as well.
|
| (color is IMO less interesting - more finicky, less creative
| latitude)
|
| It's a minimal investment of time & money (even simpler if you
| have a community darkroom near you - there are more than you
| might think!), and it's both more creatively rewarding as a
| process than what you get working digitally, and for IMO a
| better result (you need a really high quality printer to match
| what standard b&w printing gives you).
|
| Prints also make for great gifts - people just aren't used to
| seeing 8x10 printed portraits anymore, and I've had
| friends/family members moved to tears when presented with a
| framed print of their family.
|
| Oh and there's also always large format ;)
| rhinoceraptor wrote:
| The linked manual site was useful, I have four various Leica III
| series cameras that were my great-grandfathers. One of the more
| obscure pieces of the collection that I'd never seen before is
| the Visoflex [1], which essentially transforms them into an SLR.
|
| Rangefinders have a fixed viewfinder for framing, as well as a
| special focusing viewfinder, which projects two images
| superimposed from different angles, via a very small mirror and
| beam splitter. The mirror is mechanically linked to the lens'
| focus ring, and when the two images align in the viewfinder, the
| lens will be in focus.
|
| 1:
| https://www.cameramanuals.org/leica_pdf/leitz_visoflex_ii.pd...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-10-13 23:00 UTC)