Tag: Cameras

Canon Snappy 50 automatic 35mm camera

A compact Canon 35mm camera from 1982. It doesn’t work, so let’s make it work!

What the listing stated:

In generally good condition but does not power up
Sold as spares or repair

EBay

Canon snappy 50

I came across one of these a few weeks back and was just taken by the shape and aesthetics of it. However i wasn’t going to pay a high price demanded by the seller, so i just hung around and waited for others to come on the market. I have just purchased this camera with free postage for a total of £1:13GBP. I’m confused, the seller will basically be paying me to take it off his hands as postage will be at least twice the value of what I have paid today. Let’s wait and see if this sale gets suddenly cancelled, as I suspect it may well do.

Anyway here’s a little bit of its history:

Released in July 1982 and based on a new concept, this is a fully automatic 35mm Lens-Shutter compact camera.

The camera height was reduced by about 30 percent, giving the camera an oblong and unique form.

The camera uses active autofocus with a solid-state near-infrared beam. EE and the aperture are controlled electronically with a program. Metering range is EV 8.6 (f/3.5 at 1/30 sec.) to EV 15 (f/9.5 at 1/350 sec.). The shutter speed is set within a range of 1/20 sec. to 1/500 sec. to suit the film speed.

There is only two film speed settings. ISO/ASA of 100 or 400.

The built-in flash (Guide No. 11 at ISO 100 in m) must be turned on manually with a switch when the camera-shake warning lamp lights in the viewfinder.

Canon

I’ll just wait now to see if it turns up. I don’t know what the problem with it is, it’s just listed as a power up problem.

Well I’m shocked, I’ve received a postage notification so it is definitely on its way. Next stop…Assessment.

Assessment:

Well, it arrived, I’m shocked. It’s got to be one of the best packaged items I’ve ever received, never have I seen so much bubble wrap protecting an item that cost just £1:13GBP.

My Canon snappy 50

On top of that the sender has spent £3:45GBP on postage and charged me nothing. God I feel guilty now, least I can do is give him some glowing feedback.

Wow – And I paid nothing

Right, back to the camera. For a 44 year old camera it really is in beautiful cosmetic condition and needs nothing but a slight dusting to finish it off. But first I put in two AA batteries and can confirm it is dead. No life at all. Also, the film door is flapping about (So there was another issue!). I’m going to have to get inside this unit to see what is wrong. To be honest the unit is such a basic one, I suspect there isn’t a lot that can go wrong with it.

Repair:

The film door issue is a simple one, and if I didn’t have a ton of spare parts spread around the place, I’d be quite annoyed to say the least. It would have been either a case of making a new catch for the door or building some Heath Robinson contraption to secure the door, looking completely out of place. However, I just so happen to have a complete rear door for one of these cameras so hopefully it should be a simple swap out of parts.

Broken door catch
Replacement door with catch

But before I do this simple replacement, I need to get the top and bottom off of the camera to check where the electrical issues lie.

Taking the bottom off of the camera, the problem presents itself quite clearly. At the bottom of the battery chamber the negative wire has detached and needs soldering back into place.

Negative wore detached from battery chamber

I put the base back on and put two batteries into the chamber and the rewind motor instantly kicks in. We now have power. The shutter works and the winder motor operates as it should. When the rewind button is depressed the rewind motor kicks in as well, all seems to be good…..until!

The live supply to the flash was detached

I try the flash, and nothing. Not even the usual sound of the flash capacitor charging. Damn, I hope that capacitor isn’t dead! So now I have the top off of the camera and another problem presents itself just as clearly as the first. Not a problem here as I need the top off to replace the rear door.

Rear door hinge removed and replaced

The live supply to the flash had broken loose and this also needed re soldering, in fact I re soldered about eight wires in total as it seemed that the solder joints in these critical areas could possibly be fairly. They may not be failing, but whilst I’m inside why not just do this simple task to prevent anymore premature failings?

Batteries back in, flash turned on (it’s manual on this camera) and the check light illuminates. This camera is now fully operational.

Flash check light now illuminates

Result:

I’ve had a fairly simple repair here with some soldering and luckily, some spare parts available. These cameras are quite tricky to repair due to their compact build. Normally when you detach one part you have tiny springs and other parts that fly out, leaving you with a head scratching puzzle to add to your issues. However having dealt with these cameras in the past and having learned my lesson previously, I was very careful and took my time ensuring nothing occurred that would cause me any issues further along in this fix. I also open these cameras in a box, so if anything does fly out, it doesn’t fall onto a carpet disappearing into the pile, it just falls into the box, saving me the embarrassment of looking for a tiny piece of camera, that could be just about anywhere on the floor of that room. You learn from previous mistakes, I have, and i now have procedures in place to prevent such issues happening again.

All cleaned up and working
And neatly cased

We now have a lovely example of compact 35mm photography, rejuvenated, repaired and ready to get back to doing what it was designed for, creating memories.

And long may that last, another one saved from landfill, repaired, recycled and now with many more years of purpose.

Many thanks for passing by 🙏

Yashica 35 ME

An old Yashica camera from 1972 with a non functioning light meter. Time to get it back into a working condition.

I purchased two vintage point and shoot cameras, and this post is related to the Yashica 35 ME. Both cameras were purchased for the princely sum of £4:99GBP and that equates to roughly £2:50GBP each. Both cameras were sold with the following sales statement:

This bundle includes a Yashica 35 ME and Ricoh Auto 35, two vintage 35mm film cameras ideal for collectors or those seeking parts for repair projects.

These cameras are being sold as faulty and for parts or repair only. They have not been tested for functionality and may have issues with their mechanical or electronic components.

Cosmetically, both cameras may show signs of wear consistent with age and previous use, such as scuffs, scratches, or dust. No accessories, batteries, or additional items are included, €”only the two cameras as pictured.

EBay

Having purchased from this seller before, I suspect the cameras themselves are in perfect working order mechanically, but as one camera – the Ricoh, is from 1960 and now in its 66th year of existence, I very much suspect the issue would be with it’s Selenium light cell that is more than likely now very dead. The Yashica however is from 1972 and has a CdS light cell that could also be an issue, more than likely related to the old Mercury 1.3v battery that used to supply it. Either way, even without the light sensors both cameras are very capable of doing what they were built for, however you’d just have to use a separate light meter or use the “Sunny 16” rule. Let’s wait their arrival so we can asses the issue. You can read more regarding the types of light metering used on these two cameras by reading a recent post of mine regarding their differences Photographic light sensors in older point and shoot cameras

Both cameras
Yashica 35 ME

Some more photos from the seller:

Yashica 35 ME

Whilst we await their arrival here is a little bit about the Yashica 35 ME:

The Yashica 35-ME is a small, compact 35mm viewfinder camerawith auto exposure, made in Japan by Yashica, introduced c. March 1972. 

It uses a 38mm f/2.8 lens made of 4 elements in 3 groups with a screw-in filter size of 46mm. The film speedis set using a ring around the lens, with the setting window on the bottom face of the lens. The metering system uses a CdS sensor with a sensitivity of 8 to 17 EV. The viewfinder has bright line frames with parallax correction marks for focus distance of 1.5 meters or closer. The shutter display scale is on the right of the finder has speed markings 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 and 1/650 of second. Aperture scale is also displayed at 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8 and 14. The setting for the meter uses a pointer type indicator. Correct exposure is assured when the pointer is in the yellow areas of the scales. Also in the finder scale is over exposure, under exposure zones along with symbols of the selected zone focusing settings. The top plate carries the shutter release, hot shoe and frame counter.

Specifications

  • Lens: Yashica 38mm f2.8; zone and feet/metres scales
  • Shutter: Copal auto, speed set by metering, 1/30-1/650 sec.
  • Meter: CdS sensor
  • Film speed: 25 to 400 ASA
  • Flash: hot shoe, flash sync 1/25 of a sec.
  • Power: 1.3v mercury

Camera-wiki.org

It’s arrived, it has that familiar aroma of age old mustiness, but looks a nice item, in good condition for a camera that is now 50+ years old.

Assessment:

The case is quite tatty, but it does the job. The body is dusty but free of any dinks dents or scars. Inside the rear of the camera all is good, it’s clean and the light seals are ok. They will need replacing at some point, but currently they appear to be ok.

Camera looks nice

The winder works fine, the shutter fires and there is no sticking of the shutter leafs.

When you look through the viewfinder it’s a fairly clear view, however the exposure reading needle on the right is sitting firmly on the bottom of the scale. Moving the camera from light to dark makes no difference, the meter is not responsive. Let’s check the battery.

Meter reading does not move

Repair:

The battery that was used is an LR44 cell rather than the old Mercury 1.3v cells that used to be installed on these cameras. They are hard to come by nowadays and people tend to go with the more modern LR44 cells that have a slightly higher voltage of 1.5v. They work, however some have stated that they notice a slight overexposure of about one stop, personally I haven’t really had issues when I have made these battery changes in the past. Each to their own as they say.

The battery currently in place was dead so I tried a new battery to no avail. When I opened the battery chamber again I then noticed some oxidation of the contacts, so a quick clean with some contact cleaner and they looked a lot different.

Before and after battery contacts

A new battery back in place, and hey presto the light meter is now working.

Light meter now working

I’ve given a good disinfectant clean. Buffed up the case to make the best of a bad thing, and it all looks good. The only thing I can do now is run some film through it to give it a final test. I have some old out of date colour film at home, so I will use one of these to run a test roll. As I stated at the beginning there is not really a lot that can go wrong with these point and shoots, and I’m confident that the only issue was with the exposure meter as everything else seems to be fine. let’s get that film run through the camera to check things out.

I’ve taken the film out of the fridge. It’s a roll of Kodak Gold 200ASA film, and it’s only 20 years out of date. I’ve tested a roll of this before, you can see that post here: 20yr old Kodak Gold.

Expired in December……2004

The results won’t be anything spectacular, it will be grainy, it will have a colour cast and in fact might not even work at all. After this period of time the sensitively Will have dropped so I’m going to over expose this roll by one stop to attempt to compensate a bit. This 200ASA film will be exposed on this occasion at 100ASA. When I’ve exposed this it will be off to a local film developer- Classic photo supplies – for them to do the developing and scanning. Read this post regarding my rationale behind using this film: 3..2..1 – 20yrs out of date.

Result:

Well, the scans of the developed film have arrived back and it has proven a couple of things, one that the camera does actually work and two, that the film has definitely reached its limits, as the negatives show immense grain, and a colour cast due to the chemical structure of the film breaking down. I’m glad I only overexposed by one stop, I know that the recommended +2 stops would have been too much for this film. Below I have displayed a selection of pictures from this film, you can see the age related “colour cast” along with grain size if you zoom in. These aren’t the high quality pictures as the originals came back at about 30mpx each, and that would be far too high a resolution to show on this site, and I’d probably use up all of my photo allowance as well. So here are the greatly reduced results of those scans.

Back gate
Forklift
A house view
Driveway
Train passing
Football shelter
But if double exposure
Broken fence
Refreshments
Chat
Graffiti
Storage

To be totally honest if you switch to B/W in editing mode, all the pictures come out fine and are completely presentable and maybe that’s the way to go with the next batch, don’t bother trying to get a good colour balance as that will never be achievable, just display in good old black and white, you can’t go wrong.

So the camera works, and this one will now be put aside until I decide how I’m going to move it on. It’s such a basic camera, the distance selections are questionable, but that’s just a remnant of the 70s technology behind it. It’s a good little point and shoot, but I do believe the likes of the Olympus trip totally outshone all other competitors in the point and shoot category.

Job done. Another old camera saved from the scrap heap, and given a new lease of life, and it probably took no more than 10 minutes to get it back in working order.

Thanks for passing by, it’s very much appreciated.

Canon EOS 7D

Can I get this classic EOS 7D operational again? It has damaged card reader pins.

I received this camera from a good friend who is a professional photographer, a few weeks back in a bundle of cameras and photographic equipment he no longer uses, he has kindly donated them to me to get working again. You can see that post, and just what was donated here: Cameras…i need more!

Canon EOS 7D

I’m in a situation where I don’t have my repair gear with me at the moment, as it is all packed and in storage awaiting our impending house move. Hence the reason I am racking up a whole load of draft posts that I can’t complete until I have my workspace back in use. Therefore any work I can do is severely restricted to inspection, cleaning and preparation with the only maintenance being attempted on the outside of the camera.

Let’s have a brief history on the Canon EOS 7D:

The Canon EOS 7D is a high-end APS-Cdigital single-lens reflex camera made by Canon. It was announced on 1 September 2009 with a suggested retail price of US$1,699, and was marketed as a semi-professional DSLR camera.

Among its features are an 18.0 effective megapixel CMOS sensor, Full HD video recording, its 8.0 frames per second continuous shooting, new viewfinder which offers 1.0X magnification and 100% coverage, 19-point auto-focus system, movie mode, and built-in Speedlite transmitter.

The EOS 7D remained in Canon’s single-digit APS-C model lineup without replacement for slightly more than five years—the longest product cycle for any EOS digital camera. Its successor was the Canon EOS 7D Mark II, announced on 15 September 2014.

Wikipedia

Structurally and cosmetically this is a beautiful camera in very good condition. However it would not have been donated to me unless it had problems. Let’s now put my detective hat on and go looking for clues.

Assessment:

As stated earlier, cosmetically there is nothing at all wrong with this camera, it even has the plastic screen cover in place. Mirror looks clean and curtain looks fine no issues here. All electrical contacts such as HDMI are in good condition with no visible damage to the ports.

Everything is fine, cosmetically, externally.

One last place to check and I now believe this is where the problem lies. This is the CF card door, and when opened it reveals one possible big issue.

Bent pins

Bent pins on the CF card reader. These pins are quite small and only millimetres in diameter, in a very restricted space about 8 cms deep and 6cm in width, it really is quite a small aperture. There are two options here, one I try to gently coax these pins back into place with a fine point tool, however the pins are minuscule, and brittle and prone to breaking. I can see potentially 7 pins that are out of position, not an easy or expedient option. But I’ll have to give it a go. Option two is to purchase a new CF card reader replacement, this option carries some expense and quite a complex dismantling of the camera to achieve said replacement. Needless to say I will initially attempt the pin bending procedure. Pending on success or failure, i could venture into step two. Read on to see what occurs.

Repair:

With a fine point set of tweezers, I’ve decided to have the first attempt at seeing if I can straighten the pins. Using a bright LED torch I angle the beam slightly so I get a bit of shadow on the pins, and this allows me to see how many are bent. I can see seven pins in total that are bent, and two of these seem as if they have been forced down to about half their height. This is quite normal when people go in a bit heavy with the CF card, if these pins go down too far there is no option but to go inside the camera and push them out from inside, or replace the card reader completely. I kind of hope that I have been able to pull them out far enough for them to work. I won’t know though until I get the CF card and batteries out of storage.

The camera in question

I’ve spent about an hour, bright lights, little subject matter, and now have very tired eyes. I’ve been breathing slowly just like a surgeon heading into a part of an operation that requires the utmost concentration, and precise and very delicate movements. I think I’ve done a good job. Only testing will tell.

LED light and some fine tweezers
Pins straightened as best as can be externally

Speaking with my friend Jon, who this camera came from, he has stated that he rather foolishly lent this camera to a ham fisted colleague who hammered the card into the camera, causing the issues that I am dealing with today.

If we have to open up the camera, I will probably be looking at about 3 hours of work, as there is an awful lot of dismantling that has to occur, and I believe there are around 30 screws to remove just to get under the skin of this camera. It’s built like a brick, weighs about the same and is just packed with electronics.

Fingers crossed 🤞 let’s hope option number one has been successful.

Well, today I went to the lock up and dug out a small 2GB CF card and the two Canon batteries and a charger. I came home and Put the batteries in that surprisingly still held a little charge, sufficient to turn the camera on. I gently inserted the CF card only for the following message to appear on the screen, “Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change the card or format card with camera.” Aww shucks I thought, it hadn’t worked. I tried to format the card and the format failed, at this point I thought the pin maintenance had not worked. Damn. I was a tad annoyed.

CF card being installed

So I removed the card and checked the pins, they were ok. I reinserted the card and the same fault appeared, however this time when the option came up to format the card it worked. I was so shocked I tried it again and forced another format, again it worked!

Right it was now time to get a lens on the front and test the camera to check to see if it would write to the card, it’s only a stock lens, nothing special but absolutely fine for testing purposes. Just walking around the house I put the unit into auto, the flash popped up and I proceeded to rattle off a few random shots. And it worked, the results all came up on the rear screen.

Random shot 1
Random shot 2
Random shot 3

To say I was pleased at this is an absolute understatement. The work on the pins has worked and I now have a perfectly well working example of quite a top end camera. There’s no doubt that in the future the camera will require a replacement card reader, but for the moment it’s been given a new lease of life, and whilst I remember to be gentle with the removal and placement of the CF card, let’s just enjoy the camera and its capabilities until that time comes. In the meantime here are just a few, “Randoms” taken to test the card and camera in and around my home.

Just a few random test shots. It works.

Result:

You little beauty
A perfectly fine working unit

Time to give this camera a little buff up. (Clean)

This unit only appears to have taken 1,860 pictures. It is completely unused, and in perfect condition. And it now works. To be honest I feel more confident with this camera than I do with the mirrorless Sony that my wife purchased for my birthday. This was going to become my number two camera, however it’s just been promoted to my number one, as long as that card pin issue and repair holds up, and I have no reason to doubt that it should be a long time before any issues arise. I am confident that my repair has longevity as they say.

I want to give it a good test in daylight conditions in all modes rather than auto. I want to get a bigger CF card maybe a couple of 8GB ones, I don’t see the point in going for the bigger cards just in case there is a read/write issue in the future. It’s just an OCD thing for me, you know what I’m like.

So overall I’m really quite happy and satisfied with this camera. Of all the cameras I was gifted by my good friend Jon, all have been repaired apart from one that was beyond economic repair, even that has been broken down into it component parts, every screw recovered and will be used for spare parts. Nothing, and I mean nothing has been disposed of from this collection of cameras and accessories.

That’s what I do, I don’t waste anything. Ask the wife!

Many thanks for passing by, it’s always very much appreciated.

Canon EOS 3000

Another entry level camera, unloved, made good

Here I have another basic, entry level camera made by Canon. Produced around 1999? this camera is probably around 26 years old. These cameras don’t have the traditional identification number printed within the film spool holder that the older cameras had, hence the precise manufacturing date is difficult to confirm.

Canon EOS 3000

This is a camera passed onto me by a good friend and professional photographer, Jon, as can be seen in this post: Cameras…i need more!

Here’s a little information about this camera:

The EOS 3000 is an autofocus SLR for 35mm film introduced by Canon in 1999. It was sold as the EOS 88 in Asia. (It was not sold in the US.) The pentamirror viewfinder and manually-activated popup flash helped keep this a lower-cost model; but a full range of autoexposure modes were included, including off-the-film flash exposure setting. Film transport is motorized and the camera requires two 3-volt CR123 lithium batteries to operate.

A compact, lightweight, low-priced SLR camera. Successor to the EOS5000, but with greatly expanded basic functions. The camera incorporates the Mode Dial and most other basic features of the EOS Kiss/EOS REBEL XS/EOS500 and includes six-zone evaluative metering linked to three focusing points. In addition, the flash is linked to the measurement point so that during shooting the flash out-put level is constantly adjusted for optimum exposure control. For reasons of cost, the flash unit is manual pop-up/retractable head type. The EOS3000 is compatible with system accessories for the Kiss and New Kiss. The high-quality design has a feel of genuine elegance.

Canon/ Camera-wiki.org

This camera was pitched at a low cost to attract people into photography, and to encourage those who were just hobbyists to upgrade to something more than the traditional point and shoots/disposables available at the time.

There is not a lot wrong with this camera as far as I can see, let’s have a look and do some tests.

Assessment:

It has a grip that’s starting to develop the sticky issue so that will need cleaning. The mirror and prism are dusty and will need a cleaning.

Sticky grip and dusty internals

Overall the condition is very good, again this was a training camera, and seems to have had a quite low usage, as there is no scratches or marks. And only one dink as such. That dink happens to be the right hand strap holder that has been bent down to a point where the rear case does not open completely, it restricts its full movement.

Strap holder bent, restricting door opening
Door doesn’t open fully

Top and bottom of camera look fine, no bleed on the LCD screen that is always a good sign

No screen bleed
Bottom clean

Battery chamber is clean and there is no contamination. This camera takes two 3v Lithium CR123A batteries. Let’s put two in to see if we have any life.

Clean chamber
Batteries installed

With the batteries installed we have a good display on the screen with no pixelation and it’s nice and clear. I install a roll of test film to see what happens. This camera winds the whole film onto the take up spool and winds back one exposure at a time. The take up when the door is closed works perfectly.

All lights up fine
Film ready to load
24 exposures loaded on to the take up spool

I then operate the shutter, to fire off the 14 exposures, all viewfinder indicators are good, with my 28-90 EF lens attached it focuses well and fires well. When the last exposure has been taken the film rewinds as expected with no issues. In reality the camera is working very well with no internal issues.

Repair:

First the dirty stuff. Let’s get that goo off of the sticky grip. I use my IPA and lint free cloth method that I posted about in a previous post here: Sticky, Rubber camera grips. This one is actually worse than I thought and has taken four applications to remove the deterioration on the grip. It feels a lot more pleasant though now that it is done.

The dirt from this grip can be seen on the cloth. Each black blob is one application

The issue with the strap lug restricting the door movement. Quite simply, a gentle movement with a pair of pliers was all that was required. Gently does it as these parts are brittle and easily broken. Don’t over do it, give up when it looks right.

A little gentle coaxing was all that was required

I’ve checked the film pressure pad and this is fine, there are no sharp ridges and the light seals are good. I don’t expect them to be bad as in theory they are not that old, they are in a good healthy condition.

I have cleaned the prism and the mirror with a swab and they are now fine. Using a B setting I have opened the mirror and curtain and used some compressed air to clean throughout. A brush blower was used with the curtain closed to clean around the film spool area and back plate. A quick final blow of the mirror and the aperture is then sealed with a cap to insure no further dirt and dust gets into the internal parts of the camera.

The final action is to use some cockpit polish to finish off the exterior of the camera.

Result:

I’ve cleaned the exterior and used some ceramic cockpit polish to finish it off, I must admit it’s looking very good.

Cleaned up lovely
Looking just gorgeous

Here I have yet another nice little camera packed with features that will make a great camera for someone to learn the basics of traditional photography with. However, it’s remaining in my collection for the while.

It’s yet another camera that I need to test, another one that needs to have a film put through it for its final test, however I am 100% confident of it’s capabilities and the fact that it operates just fine and all its settings, buttons and controls are doing exactly what they should. When I do get to put a film through, I will link to it here.

Another successful restoration and return to use of another old camera that had been put to one side. Not that this one really required a lot of attention, just a bit of servicing and tlc.

Thanks for passing by. It’s always very much appreciated

Canon EOS 500N

A nice entry level camera, from the mid 90s, now back in working order

Here I have a very basic, entry level camera made by Canon. Produced between 1996-9 this camera is currently between 26 – 29 years old. These cameras don’t have the traditional identification number printed within the film spool holder that the older cameras had, hence the precise manufacturing date is difficult to confirm.

Canon EOS 500N

This is a camera passed onto me by a good friend and professional photographer, Jon, as can be seen in this post: Cameras…i need more!

I believe this camera was previously used by a large photographic organisation, to teach staff and students wishing to learn traditional 35mm film photography techniques. It was a training camera, at entry level specs.

It is a very good example of this model of camera, and despite its simplicity, low cost appearance and feel, it is in a very good condition cosmetically.

Here’s a little information about this camera:

The Canon EOS 500N is also known as the EOS Rebel G in the Americas or the New EOS Kiss in Japan. Sometimes it’s referred to as the EOS Kiss 2 as it followed the release of the EOS Kiss in Japan. This camera was released in 1996 and replaced the EOS 500. The Japanese version of the camera had the date back as standard. Its successor was the EOS-300 / REBEL2000 / Kiss III, released in 1999.

The body of the Rebel G is plastic, weighing 370 g (13 oz). The only colors available were black or a mix of silver and black. The Rebel G has an EF lens mount making it compatible with any EF lens. The viewfinder offers a 0.7x magnification, 90% coverage, center auto focus, wide auto focus and many more. The Rebel G shooting modes consisted of 6 basic modes, full auto, portrait, landscape, macro, sports and night scene. It also has 5 advanced modes, P, Av, Tv, M, A-DEP. These modes would continue on in the Rebel G series. The camera features a built in flash, and can shoot at 1 fps. The fastest shutter speed with flash was measured at 1/90 of a second.

A few new features include compatibility with ETTL type flash. It still has the same 1/90 of a sec sync speed of the previous model, but when equipped with a Canon Speedlight such as the 380EX, 220EX it can be used at 1/2000 of a sec. Focus has improved a bit as as a AF assist light is now available. Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) can be use from -2 to ++2 in 1/2 stop increments. The command dial now has an easier to access night scene mode. The body is able to use the BP-8 vertical grip that can also accept four AA batteries.

Camera-Wiki.org / Wikipedia

Assessment:

As Stated, this camera is in a good cosmetic condition with no sign of dents, dinks or wear. Considering this was a camera used in training I can only presume the students were extremely careful and respectful, or it was lightly used. Having worked with some of these students myself, i very much suspect, it’s more than likely going to be the latter option.

There is another such unit I have of this very same camera however that is damaged with a faulty screen that requires replacement and that will be dealt with in a future post. Meanwhile, let’s get back to this one.

A sticker on the rear

There is an old ownership sticker on the rear and this is one of those old vinyl type ones that will be able to be removed, but just may take a little while, as they are brittle and break off into lots of little pieces that go everywhere.

The battery chamber is clean and there are no signs of contamination. The screen is clear and does not show any bleed, though I haven’t powered it up just yet.

Clean battery chamber
No screen bleed

The film chamber, back pressure plate and shutter curtain all appear to be in good order. Again I will further test this when I put some batteries in and run a dummy film to check transport.

Curtain and film chamber appear fine
Back pressure plate and door working fine

The unit is quite grubby and dusty, the mirror is dirty and the prism is as well. initially all looks good. Batteries, and the dummy film might tell us something different.

Repair:

Let’s get that sticker off the rear, a little soak in IPA to soften things up, and then using a small plastic modelling spatula to gently get under the label, I was able to remove the sticker relatively easily. If I’d used the metallic option I may well have scratched the casing. I’m happy that this option has worked well for me. A final clean at the end with some car cockpit cleaner should bring the detail out nicely.

Sticker now removed

Let’s get some power in, and fire this unit up. It takes two CR123A 3v lithium batteries.

CR123A batteries
We have power

Batteries in, and everything lights up, all menus function and as stated earlier their is no bleed from the LCD screen.

I load the film in and it instantly winds the whole film on to the take up spool. Here on the display, you can see that this roll is 24 exp and it has wound fully on to the take up spool. I fire off these 24 exposures to check the shutter and that fires fine, film transport also works well and the final rewind of the film at the end also works. In a nutshell, this camera works!

Film in and film out

I clean the prism and the mirror with a soft swab and you can just see the dust and dirt lift. A final brush over with a bulb blower completes this task. The internals are now clean.

It just needs a very thorough exterior clean and polish.

Result:

I’ve cleaned the exterior and used some ceramic cockpit polish to finish it off, I must admit it’s looking very good.

Here I have a nice little camera packed with features that will make a great camera for someone to learn the basics of traditional photography with. However, it’s remaining in my collection for the while.

Looking clean and presentable
From all angles a lovely clean example, operating just as it should

I’ve cleaned the camera throughout and used compressed air to finish the clean prior to sealing it from the elements. It’s yet another camera that I need to test, another one that needs to have a film put through it for its final test, however I am 100% confident of it’s capabilities and the fact that it operates just fine and all its settings, buttons and controls are doing exactly what they should. When I do get to put a film through, I will link to it here.

Another successful restoration and return to use of another old camera that had been put to one side. Not that this one really required a lot of attention, just a bit of servicing and tlc.

Thanks for passing by. It’s always very much appreciated.

Canon EOS 30

Cleaning, repair and maintenance of an old Canon EOS 30 35mm SLR

I’m calling this camera my EOS Dirty, it really is suffering a bad case of the sticky rubber syndrome that was widely experienced on cameras of this era, where the Vulcanised rubber used in its construction, had a falling out with its own internal polymers, and they then decided to part company. Creating a sticky mess. This camera is currently 25 years old, originally manufactured in the year 2000.

A lovely lump of a camera
My hand, simply after handling this camera for no more than a minute.

That said, it’s a lovely camera with a lot of features, this was pretty much one of the last 35mm cameras that Canon produced, and they threw a lot of R&D into these units prior to producing its “D” Digital offering, hence it was packed with lots of pre “D” technology. It has “Eye” control, the Eye Control focusing feature makes selective focusing quicker for many. It uses IR to detect eye movements to determine focusing areas. Up to 5 eye presets can be stored for different users. I wonder if that still works?

This dirty sticky pup, needs some heavy cleaning

Here is some information, about this camera:

The EOS 30 (or Elan 7 / Elan 7e / EOS 7 / EOS 33 in different global markets) is a Canon autofocus 35mm SLR camera that uses the Canon EF lens mount. The camera was introduced in 2000.

There are three main auto focusing modes. Automatic, manual selection focusing, and Eye Control (EOS 30, EOS Elan 7E). It was given the 7 name because it has 7 auto focus points in manual selection mode. The Eye Control focusing feature makes selective focusing quicker for many. It uses IR to detect eye movements to determine focusing areas. Up to 5 eye presets can be stored for different users. Some users with corrective lenses may experience problems using this feature. The shutter speed ranges from 30 sec. to 1/4000 sec. in 1/2-stop increments with bulb. X-sync at 1/125 sec.

Metering modes use a TTL max. aperture metering with a 35-zone silicon photocell. The included modes are evaluative, partial and center-weighted averaging metering. The measurement range is from 1 to 20 EV (at 20-degree with 50mm f/1.4 lens, at ISO 100). The ISO can be set automatically with DX-coded film at ISO 25 to 5000. Exposure compensation can be adjusted from +/-2 stops in 1/2-steps.

Exposure modes available include Program mode, shutter priority, aperture priority, Depth-of-field, Auto, scene modes with (Portrait, Landscape, Close-up, Sports, Night Scene), manual exposure and bulb mode. Flash exposure includes modes for E-TTL, A-TTL and TTL program flash modes. The motor drive is capable of up to 4 fps. The finder has dioptre adjustments built-in with settings from -2.5 to +0.5 dpt. Two CR123A batteries power the camera.

If equipped, the QD (Quartz Date) / Date back require the use of one CR2025 coin type battery. Imprint display modes include M/D/Y, D/M/Y, Y/M/D, D/H/M and off. The last date the unit can imprint is Dec. 31, 2019

Camera wiki.org

Assessment:

As stated in the sections above, the biggest problem with this camera is its stickiness, and to be honest that is not really a problem. I have cleaned many of these in the past and this one will be no different. Here’s a post I wrote a while back about sticky camera bodies: Sticky, Rubber camera grips

This really does feel like a lot of camera. You can see the digital “thought” that the development guys introduced into this camera in preparation for the arrival of its “Digital” brothers and sisters, I’m going to have to do a bit more reading up on its full operation and capabilities. This camera is in very good condition, no dinks, dents and very few scuffs, all doors are functional and when a battery is installed (a 2CR5 – 6v lithium) everything lights up, and appears to do what it should. I will check this thoroughly though later.

The horrendously sticky areas
Rear
Mode dial
Screen

The battery chamber is clear of any contamination, and looks nice, the mirror will need cleaning and the area within it will need a blow through, the shutter curtain seems to be working well at this stage. I will test it more after the clean.

Clean battery barrel
Dusty mirror and curtain chamber

So. Let’s get on with the repair and maintenance.

Repair:

I’ve started the clean of the rubber and it is filthy. The amount of black that came off on the first clean has required me to get another cloth as it really is that bad. Another two applications and the cloth is a lot cleaner, it has removed a massive amount of goo and dirt and feels a lot better to the touch, and my hands are staying clean and that’s a good sign. I will give a final clean with the car cockpit polish that should finish it off nicely.

Looks beautiful after a proper clean

I’ve cleaned the mirror and prism above using a swab and the effect is instantaneous, there was a lot of dust here. Opening the curtain in a “B” setting I gave the whole interior a good blast with compressed air that has left the chamber as free of dust and contaminants as I can get it. With the curtain back down, a bulb blower and brush is all that was needed to complete the task. A lens mount cover is now in place to prevent anymore dirt getting in.

Transport tested

I’ve put in one of my old test films to check the camera’s function, and it’s transport & rewind, and I’m pleased to say this works just fine. At a shutter speed of 4000 I’ve never heard such a sweet sounding camera. This really feels like a lovely camera that I can’t wait to take out and run a film through.

All functions and options tested via the display screen

Going through the function screen, there are no bad pixels and all options are available. I have tested the eye control function and programmed my own profile into the camera, it does seem to be working, it might be a little hit and miss, I programmed it very quickly so maybe I just have to read up on it more, just to tweak its use as such.

All rear sub menus working, and buttons operable

All sub menus on the rear of the camera are operable and all buttons and dials are doing what they should. This camera is ready to go, and is in a perfect working order.

Result:

She’s a beauty
Canon EOS 30

This camera was probably discarded to one side when the sticky grip problem started to rear its ugly head. It really is a shame that this happens, it’s such a simple problem to eradicate. This is an absolutely superb camera and packed with technology that would eventually have gone on to be incorporated into the soon to appear professional digital offerings from Canon. For 35mm photography this was a perfect swan song, 35mm photography had peaked with this range of cameras and Canon had perfectly produced cameras that in effect had pushed this theme of photography to its highest level. It was the best of the rest at the time.

This camera deserves some respect, it feels superb in the hand, looks good, sounds terrific and performs exceptionally well. There will always be the haters out there, there always will be. But as you will have gathered, I don’t really report badly of any of my cameras as I truly love them all. They are superb items of modern and semi modern technology that have captured history. They just deserve to be preserved and protected and most of all enjoyed.

I will shortly be posting some pictures from this camera that can be found here:

Thank you for passing by, as always it is very much appreciated.

Canon EOS 10

An old EOS 10 was in need of attention. And I was able to lend a helping hand

Here I have a Canon EOS 10, a quite superb little camera. The date code within the film barrel is HE1213, indicating that this camera was manufactured in December 1990. At the time of manufacture this camera sat firmly at the top of Canons camera tree only surpassed by the EOS1 professional camera that had been released the year earlier in 1989.

My EOS 10 35mm SLR

This camera was amongst a selection of cameras and equipment passed on to me by a good friend and professional photographer as can be seen here: Cameras…i need more!

Here is a little history regarding the EOS 10

The Canon EOS 10 is an autofocus 35mm SLR introduced in 1990. The model name was EOS 10S in the Americas, and EOS 10QD in Japan. There was a commemorative metallic-silver version introduced in 1991 to mark Canon’s 60 millionth 35mm camera sold.

The improvements over the original EOS cameras are a newly improved autofocus sensor. Focus modes include One-Shot AF for non moving subjects and AI Servo AF for moving subjects. It is able to detect and switch automatically between the autofocus modes. Shutter ranges from 30 sec. to 1/4000 sec., with B. X-sync at 1/125 sec. Similar to the EOS 750, is has a built-in flash with a guide number 12 (at ISO 100). It uses one 2CR5 lithium battery and weighs approx 625g for the body without battery.

Camera wiki.org

Assessment:

One of the nuances introduced on this camera was the barcode option. Introduced at a time where barcodes were starting to creep into our life, in a knock at Minolta and their use of specific expansion cards for specific scene settings, Canon thought it would be good to utilise barcodes that you could scan, to automatically set your camera with these options without expansion cards. Needless to say it didn’t take off and was soon dropped from later camera production. It was a sign that the development teams were looking for advancement opportunities.

That barcode mode – soon forgotten

These cameras are available at fairly reasonable prices now partly due to the dreaded sticky rubber grip issue that tends to send buyers running for the hills, god knows why, it’s an easily remedied issue that just takes a little time and patience. I did a previous post about cleaning these cameras here: Sticky, Rubber camera grips it’s all down to the polymers in the Vulcanised rubber breaking down and reacting with hand sweat and other stuff. Have a read, and never throw away a camera just because it’s sticky.

This camera has some stickiness but it is not an advanced case. It will still be cleaned in the same manner, to prevent it developing any further.

The camera is just a bit dusty and in need of a good clean. The mirror is dusty and needs cleaning, a blow out of the interior should suffice as the shutter blades are opening and closing with no issue.

Inside clean shutter blades are ok
Film plate unmarked
Mirror is dusty and requires cleaning

The battery is a lithium 2CR5 cell. The battery chamber is clean with no signs of battery contamination, this is a very good sign. When placed into the camera the screen comes on, is clear with no damage. A lens put on the front confirms that auto focus can be achieved and the camera fires and winds as expected.

Camera screen working
Battery chamber is clean
2CR5 battery cell

To be quite honest, there doesn’t seem to be a lot wrong with the camera. It really seems to be just a clean and maintenance issue. I’m going to give the camera a thorough look over, dust and clean, a thorough clean of the external rubber and finish it all of with a good exterior body treatment. I will then run a roll of used film through to check the DX reader is working, as well as the transport system. Fingers crossed nothing major raises its head during the repair process.

Repair:

Straight in and at the cleaning, and to be honest the rubber wasn’t too bad. I only used two applications and not a lot of dirt came off on either. After it has dried, it does feel a great deal better.

Heavy cleaning, wasn’t that heavy

The mirror has cleaned up nicely, so has the prism above it, however whilst in there I noticed that the mirror damper felt was failing, so this I have now removed and will have to replace prior to using as I don’t want to cause any further damage.

The missing damper felt area, highlighted in red

I’ve had to order some new material that will hopefully be here shortly, as my supply, as is always the problem lately, is in storage with all my other gear pending this house move that will probably never occur. it’s a real pain in the butt not being able to access your most required kit. Hey ho.

The light seal has arrived, and so I start by getting the damper felt put in place. First I cut it to size, remove the sticky back paper and just wipe the sticky bit with some water, this allows me a little more time to reposition it before the adhesive does its work.

Cut to size
Dampen the adhesive
Then put in place

Below is a very small video with me putting the camera into manual mode on a single exposure setting to test the actual worth of the damper foam.

All working fine

I’m happy with what has been done so far.

Strap cleaned and restored

I’ve even given the neck strap a good buff up, the rubber on it was almost white rather than black, a bit of a clean and a polish and it’s now been restored to it’s original glory.

With the new damper in place it’s now time to run a film through it, I have an old test film I use for this purpose, I’m going to set the camera to its highest shutter setting and just run the whole roll through in quick succession to check the transport and rewind.

And here is that test, it went super fine and the full roll rewound at the end.

Transport works just fine

I’ve tested all settings, shutter speeds and functions including the flash and all is as it should be. I’m happy to say that this camera appears to be in full working order.

Now for the final clean and presentation.

Result:

Well, a little bit of car cockpit cleaner has done wonders. It looks beautiful and has a nice aromatic smell as well. I know I’m biased when it comes to cameras but I think this is an absolute beauty.

All polished and looking fine
Covered from all angles looking resplendently clean and tidy

I’m really pleased with this camera, I’m heading out later today to watch a relative play football and I’m going to take this along to grab some snaps with an expired film from 20 years ago. It will be a good final test of the capabilities of this camera, and should finalise its renovation. It’s been a great camera to work on and is yet another worthy addition to my collection. I will post the photos here when they are finalised. Canon Eos 10 test shots

Thank you all for passing by, it’s always most appreciated.

Cameras…i need more!

I say more cameras, my wife begs to differ.. my friends agree with me.

Well, my wife would probably disagree with the above comment.

However, i have some very good friends who are quite happy to ignore my wife and her protestations. Some would say they are very brave…others would even say they are foolish. Time will tell.

A couple of beauties – you wouldn’t understand

Jon, is a friend and former work colleague that i have known for many years. We both worked at the same Kodak plant in Harrow, me on the graphics art film production track and Jon was in the training and development area. We rarely met there as the plant was so huge that our paths crossed quite infrequently. However Jon has also been the mainstay and life blood of a local football team since the early 70s, and it’s true to say he is a local legend and pillar of the community. This is how i really met Jon, and we have always discussed issues of photography, he is very much involved with promoting the armed forces and has been fortunate in the subject matter he has been asked to photograph. Needless to say, he has a lot of redundant equipment, and when he became aware of my blog site and the repairs i attempt to do, he very kindly donated a number of items for me to write posts about, and to be quite honest it will keep me busy for quite a long time.

A few items to keep me busy

The majority of the items probably just need a little service and a test session, a couple have some battery corrosion issues, but in general cosmetically, they are in good condition. We have a number of old lenses, but as you’d expect from someone who looks after their equipment, there isn’t a sign of haze or fungus in them. They just need a clean up, and very little else.

Here’s a list of what i have received, and observed after a very quick look at the items.

8 cameras:

  • 1 Canon AE1 film camera and user manual, mirror was stuck, now freed up and firing ok but requiring a check over.
  • 1 Canon EOS 30 film camera, a bad case of sticky body.
  • 1 Canon EOS 10 film camera, issues unknown
  • 2 Canon EOS 500N film cameras, issues unknown
  • 1 Canon EOS 3000 film camera, issues unknown
  • Canon EOS 1N film cameras with E1 power drive, beautiful camera, issues unknown.
  • Canon EOS 7D digital camera with BG-E7 battery grip, stunning camera, issues unknown.

7 lenses: all Canon fit

  • 2 x Canon FD 50mm 1:1.8
  • Tokina 300mm 1:5.6
  • Tokina 135mm 1:2.8
  • Tokina 35mm 1:2.8
  • Canon 75-300mm 1:4-5.6
  • Canon 28-80mm 1:3.5-5.6

There is a separate lens that i have been asked to look at and repair for him as it’s his third go to lens, that is a Canon EF 28-200 1:3.5-5.6 USM lens. It doesn’t focus in auto, i notice it has lens wobble and a lens washer appears to be exposed in the zoom section of the lens. It needs investigation.

Other items:

  • Canon Power winder-A. Part of the AE1 camera, you can smell its issue as you hold it, battery corrosion. Batteries inside have seriously corroded, however i believe the issue is salvageable.
  • Canon speedlite 199A flash gun, untested.
  • Metz 45 CT-1 flash, again there is corrosion in the battery pack, you can smell it. Again this should be salvageable.
  • Sangamo Euro master light meter and invercone. In excellent condition, could be that the selenium light cell is dead. Needs investigating.
  • 8 rolls of film, expiry date 2005, may still work..who knows.
  • 3 x 6v lithium batteries, all tested and working.

Add to that the two camera bags and a hard case that they all came in and I’m sure that you will agree that it was a pretty nice package to receive.

I’m extremely confident i can get these all into a good working condition, any cameras that i will not be keeping will either be sold on to benefit charities supported by Jon or donated to local charities for their benefit. Either way nothing will be heading to waste, that is a promise i have made to Jon and thats just how it will be, i do not break promises.

Thanks for passing by, and i will be posting articles on all these products in the coming months. As I already have 13 projects already in draft awaiting a time when i can back to repairing them, you can plainly see I’m going to be very busy for quite a while and should be able to supply quite a regular feed to this blog.

Have a super day. stay safe.

Pancake/Cookie lens

It’s a colloquial term for a flat thin lens assembly that started to emerge from the 60s through to the 80’s, commonly seen in compact SLR cameras of the time. This then developed into a body cap lens, an extreme type of pancake lens that is designed to both protect the camera internals as a body cap normally would, yet still allow the user to take photos. These lenses are manual focus only and generally have no more than a couple of optical lens elements, no image correcting elements, a very-slow fixed aperture, an extremely thin focusing ring (if any at all), and a retractable lens element cover. Due to this compromise in design, body-cap lenses generally suffer from numerous image quality issues such as heavy vignetting and poor image sharpness.

Recently there has been a resurgence in this type of lens culminating in the one that seems extremely popular at this time, a cookie lens.

Cookie lens

It’s not hard to see why it is named so, it looks like a big Oreo cookie, it even looks as if it has the cream between the two biscuit pieces. These current ones are sold as being recycled from old disposable cameras. Original pancake lenses can cost many hundreds of pounds, however these ones are classed as disposable, and are priced at around £30 to £40GBP, being sold by a company called Retropia. But hold it! Don’t waste your money on that one, as they can be purchased for at least half that price from Ali Express of Temu, just make sure you shop around. By looking at the reviews £30 can still be a bit of a hefty outlay for what is basically a cheapo lens out of a disposable camera set in a cookie shaped piece of plastic.

One guys in depth review of the “Cookie” lens

These lenses have risen in popularity, as the new mirror less cameras have become more accessible. This lens allows these cameras to be used as a straight forward point and shoot camera, no focussing or metering. achieving that retro disposable camera look, but in much more modern equipment. It’s a fun item and for an outlay of around £13GBP, which is what I paid for mine, it’s not too big an outlay to do some experimenting with, and if it turns out to be a load of old bilge, then it’s no real loss. Reviews are mixed, but in general it seems people are having fun, and that’s what photography should be.

I’m waiting for mine to arrive, and when it does I shall post some photos below to see how I’ve got on with it. Oh, and I now have a suitable camera to use with this lens and that can be found here Sony A7II Mirrorless camera.

The lens has arrived
Lens installed

It’s such a simple thing. It turns a complex camera into a quite basic point and shoot disposable, lomography type of camera. Perfect for street photography and just everyday randomness, yep kind of like you’d now find on your mobile phone. However this is more fun and you actually have a camera into your hand, Perfect.

The lens is 32mm, and the CCD in the camera is full 35mm so there is a kind of small vignette around the edges of each shot, but that just adds to the basic rawness of the lens. it’s a bit of fun.

Angles in the living room
Garden pub
Rusty chair
Across the kitchen early morning

Above are a small selection of some of the scenes around home, taken quite randomly and all I have done in the post process is added some vintage presets. The light has been so poor lately that to be honest this already added to the vintage effect. If we see any sun I suspect the results would be very similar to the hazy 70s effect that the disposables always managed to achieve. Don’t expect too much from these lenses, they are just fun to experiment with, and that’s just what photography should be. Fun.

Thanks for passing by. Always appreciated.

Mamiya M Autofocus – 35mm point and shoot camera – Part two

Here we are again. I recently wrote of my failed attempt to get this 80s camera operating here: Mamiya M Autofocus – 35mm point and shoot camera.

Not one to give up on a project I have looked at a suitable donor camera and believe I have found one as detailed below. Only difference is that I had to buy two cameras as they came as a bundle. Not a problem as I can always do a separate post on the other one, the two have cost me a total of £15:00GBP bartered down from the original price of £30:00GBP. A bargain! So let’s just call it £7:50GBP per camera.

What the listing stated:

mamiya shutter button is stuck. red light on the right comes on. some external corrosion pictured

ricoh no power at all

EBay

The two cameras

Assessment:

The Mamiya is in quite a poor state, and is the Time Memory version that differs very slightly from the version I originally worked on, it’s essentially the same camera as the Mamiya M, but with an added quartz dating mechanism for imprinting time and date information on the film. This model was the last 35mm camera Mamiya produced before focusing solely on medium format. However the back seems to be a bit rusty whereas mine is in excellent condition, so I will be using a mix of the two units to make the one good one.

Repair:

The Mamiya looks good cosmetically until you open the rear and see the rust around the door, not a problem as I won’t be using this part of the camera. The red light does not come on at all and the shutter button is stuck, that’s for sure. The whole camera is dead.

Let’s get into it.

Once opened all looks ok so I decide to have a search around with the multimeter checking the basic operation. Am I getting 3 volts at the top of the battery barrel? No I’m not. It appears that one of the traces on the positive side of the power input board has lost continuity. For some reason the traces has been damaged, this could be either from corrosion or rubbing on something. The area affected is in the photo with the red ring around it.

The board top right
Area of no continuity

I’ve fixed this immediately using some solder to bridge the gap, I have checked continuity and all seems ok. I put some batteries in and the motor squeals like a banshee and then stops. You can hear the screaming motor below in the short video from its first screaming session through to its proper 80s sounding drone.

The screaming motor through to its repair

I don’t think this motor has run for years and it does not run consistently. I have sprayed it with some contact cleaner and let it soak. I have left it overnight and checked the operation in the morning and it seems to have improved.

I’ve used the original fascia, rear door, focussing beam and flash capacitor from the first failed unit, and apart from a few bits of soldering, plenty of contact cleaner and some silicone grease, I’ve revitalised a failing motor and it is now working as it should. I forgot to mention I used some graphite on the shutter leafs to “lubricate” them. All optics cleaned and camera has been tested without film and is working just fine.

View finder indications are good with light meter operational, motor rewind works, flash and exposure is fine, and the motor advances as well.

Result:

I’m really pleased with this little camera and am pleased I didn’t give up on it. It’s taken two broken cameras to make one good one, and I have a good few spare parts left over to be used at a later date.

Re assembly taking place

The unit looks so smart, the only real issue is the battery door that is notoriously flimsy and lots of references to its poor design can be found on line. A temporary way around this is just to put some tape across it to keep it closed.

That flimsy battery door

Beyond that issue, the camera is a really good looking unit that has cleaned up really well.

The completed camera

I can’t wait to run some film through it to see how it performs. I have a few cameras like this to test so I’m looking for some decent priced film to use, as i do need quite a bit.

As soon as I have some photographs availability I will link to this post accordingly.

Many thanks for following the repair, it’s always very much appreciated.