getOBphoto

This post is old news. You can find this information elsewhere on the internet. Here's my take on Modding the Industar-69 to the Leica Thread Mount (LTM) system. The lens in question was made for the Chaika camera. It does have a threaded mount identical to that of the LTM lenses. However the distance to the film plane is different so you'd be out of focus using it on a LTM camera. But if you're determined to use one of these lenses the conversion is not at all difficult, which is my intention to show with this post. Step 1: Remove the focusing ring. It is fastened by three tiny screws on the side of the ring. Step 2: Using your digital camera, focus to 1 meter. Identify which of the two larger screws fastened to the lens body stops it to focus to infinity. This is done by holding the focusing ring in place and turning it along with the lens helicoid starting from the 1 meter marking. To find the correct starting position you align the 1 meter marking - which is ...

Well, here's a Chaika 2M that I bought from Alex Helios via Instagram.  It's a great full manual viewfinder half-frame camera. The wheel on the top is for shutter time selection, from B to 1/30th to 1/250th of a second. The square button on the front right of the camera is the release/exposure. The lens mounted on the camera in the picture is not the original Industar-69. The Chaika is a rare model compact camera since the prime lens is detachable. What is more is that it has M39 screw mount. But - like with the Paxette M39 system - you can't get focus with a lens from another M39 system. Unless you adapt the lens or - in this case - the camera (mount)! The Chaika mount is easily detached from the body by loosening four screws. If I want to mount the Leica thread mount M39 (LTM) lenses on the Chaika - which is my goal with this mod - I have to add 1.3mm to the mount. That is what is needed to change the camera's flange focal distance (FFD) from Chaika system to L...

That which you see before your eyes are hybrids. They are the concoction of a twisted mind. (Mine.) The idea sprung to mind while researching the Paxette camera. I learned that it had exchangeable lenses with M39 screw mount - not compatible with Leica thread mount (LTM) system M39 lenses, though. The reason they weren't compatible systems? FFD difference. I.e. Flange Focal Distances differed. The Paxette body project But! I have another lens with M39 mount that's not compatible with LTM cameras, I pondered. The Mir-1 which came with the early Zenit SLRs. I had to use an adapter ring to make it fit my M42 screw mount cameras. What if... So I fit it to the Paxette body. The exact same screw threads. Then I read up on FFD. The difference between the Paxette system and the M42 SLR system is 1.46mm apparently. That explains why I hadn't come across anyone online who claimed to use Paxette lenses on an SLR. It would be out of focus. On the other hand... Why don't I ju...

As anyone who's been reading this blog knows I am partial to the not-so-great cameras of the world. Today we'll have a look at two of them. And go back to one I've written about before, at the end of the post.   No. 1: Bencini Comet NK135 The first one is the one appearing in the topmost image: Bencini Comet NK135. I like how it looks like a cross between a rangefinder and an SLR camera with its peak on the top. I also like the shutter speed control to the right in the image, situated on the front left of the camera. It is rather light, despite the slightly bulky shape of the camera, mostly I think due to the plastic lens barrel. I think that the lens itself is glass - but I can't be sure. These are the photographs from the first film I exposed with the Comet NK135. Again - apologies for the crappy scans made with a rickety rig with a digital camera. The pictures were edited using the Negative Image app and Google Photos app. There was a film in the camera when ...

Viewfinder cameras. They are an entire chapter of their own. In this day and age everyone's used to auto-focusing on SLR:s or compacts and phones. Who'd want to even guess their focus?   Well, that's what you did in the old days unless you had the money to get the expensive professional cameras. (I'm not touching on large format cameras here.) Professional or high-end consumer cameras sported rangefinders since it was introduced in the 1930s. Sometimes they were coupled to the lens, sometimes not. Most consumer cameras up until the 1960s didn't have exact the exact focusing that we are so used to. You really had to make an educated guess or measure it. Zone focusing or guessing was part of the photographic process that our parents or grandparents went through to make those memorable snaps that we now keep framed on the mantlepiece. Focusing without the choice of pre-focus is a large part of what photography has been about. Viewfinder These two are examples of view...