Wow, from our friends at Hackaday, who would have thought the time would come when you could downland and print a camera. Even the shutter.
A nice read for those interested in photography and some good links to follow regarding the build. Don’t think I’ll be starting one as I’ve only just mastered the standard paper printer 😂
A couple of years ago we were excited to read news of an entirely 3D printed camera, right down to the shutter. We wrote it up back then but sadly …
When my parents were at my current age it would have been 1986. They were probably doing their best to just get by, and they both had multiple jobs. I remember a few details from this period as there were some significant goings on around this time.
My mother would have been a shop worker in a local store as well as a cleaner at the company i worked for. I would have been in the photographic industry about four years at this time, i would have had a darkroom in the spare bedroom and would have probably been on my third computer at this point. I’d have ditched the Sinclair ZX81 and the Commodore Vic 20 and I’d probably be trying to master the Amstrad CPC464. I loved the start of the computer era, as did a lot of my friends at the time.
I had my first SLR camera around this time and that would have probably been a Praktika. I was saving as much as i could, to try and purchase my all time favourite camera at the time, and in fact it is still my favourite of all time to this very day. A jet black Canon A1.
I know that i was heavily into photography at This time, as i took one of the most iconic photos i have ever taken in my family history, of my father. I have it to this day. He was leaning on a coal bunker in the garden, it was a beautiful sunny day and i took it, and processed the film and enlarged the photos in my little darkroom in the spare bedroom, on a Gnome enlarger. It was a black and white photo and it represented a turning point in all of our lives.
He had just had a heart attack, and he suffered a deep immersive depression that he never really came out of. Please don’t misunderstand me he lived for another 21 years with no other medical issues, however he had changed and became highly abusive to my mum, my little sister and me. He was heavily into alcohol at this stage, and we were paying the price. I had to grow up quick as i became the protector of my Mother and sister, it was hard and i was not prepared. We were the only ones at home at the time as my two elder brothers and elder sister had all left at that point, and boy how we suffered big time. Our lives were changed the very day his heart attack occurred.
He was a very good electrician, he had been an aircraft electrician but was now working for a local building company, he was also a part time baker.
In the next few years my mother would lose all her brothers and sisters as time took its toll. Father would lose his mother and sister and the family began to dwindle in size.
But thats enough of the bad as its all in the past and though i never forget what happened, i have to move on with my own life for purposes of maintaining sanity.
I loved the 80”s as the world was opening up and starting to develop technologically, however i do believe the older generations did struggle. It’s strange really as it is a mirror image for us older generations today, with some of the things that are going on around us currently. Perhaps all generations have their own Groundhog Day periods.
Here are some points of interest that also occurred back in 1986
Plans were announced between the UK and France to build the channel tunnel
The space shuttle Challenger exploded just after its launch
Halley’s Comet makes a show
The Soviet Mir space station is launched
Microsoft goes on the stock market
The Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes
Argentina wins the World Cup
The M25 motorway – The UK’s biggest car park opens officially
A lot happened that year and these are just a small selection of them. However the dynamics of my family changed that year and what occurred from that point on will never be forgotten . WordPress really couldn’t have chosen a worse time line to talk about for me than this one I’m afraid, but then, it’s good to get it out there.
However, time moves on, wounds heal and we all learn. This is why it is important that we don’t erase our past, otherwise how will we ever learn to be better people and treat others with the mutual respect and belonging they all so rightly deserve.
I so much wish to write some posts of substance on this blog but in the last few weeks I just can’t be bothered. I’ve reposted a few posts that I’ve liked or found a familiarity with but that’s about it.
Looking at my draft posts I have 14 – yes 14 that are in the process of being completed dating back to May of this year. These are all a number of projects I have on going including Camera repair, musical keyboards, video games, a complete radio control boat build as well as radios and some old cassette players that I have taken on board. I’m stuck for a number of reasons.
I do most of my repairs in our conservatory out of the main house away from the wife. My equipment that I use can be moved in three large boxes that take about an hour or so to assemble and disassemble, hence I like to be able to leave it assembled for a while to get any satisfaction and achievement out of what I’m trying to repair. If I had to put it all together and take it straight down again I think I’d lose total interest in the task at hand.
However it’s getting near Christmas and the wife has invited her entire family around for Christmas Day dinner, hence I have had to make myself and my gear scarce, as she plans to be feeding them all in our conservatory, my workshop.
It’s like I have had to shut up shop for the season, with so much still to do. I’m also awaiting a good number of parts to finish these projects, so that doesn’t help either.
A selection of the backlog of projects I have ongoing
So as it stands, unless I can adapt my kit to be a bit more stealth like then I’m probably not going to be attending to any of these much before the new year.
That said, has anyone tried these usb portable soldering irons at all? I may be in the market for one.
In the meantime I suppose I’ll just have to mingle and be nice. It’s going to be a tough Christmas 😂
It’s been a hectic week work wise, I’ve been on the night shift and whilst everyone has been sleeping I’ve been out on the lines ensuring everything is good for morning start up. Apart from the relentless rain we’ve been having, it’s definitely getting colder out there and I’ve noticed the trees are shedding their leaves a lot sooner than they did in last year’s mild autumn.
I managed to get hold of a good plumber who came around to fix the leaky radiator valve we had, a nice lad and very quick, in and out in about 30 mins, easy job for someone who knows what they are doing. Proof will be when the heating goes on, but I don’t foresee any issue. A good contact that has duly been added to the phone book.
Sunbury on Thames
We’re off for another adventure of sorts, heading down to visit my wife’s elderly friend in Sunbury on Thames, a lovely town with lots of history surrounding it. I’m going to be busy doing some odd jobs that she’s been saving up for me, so to be honest I’m going to be as happy as a pig in s**t to coin a phrase. No doubt the visit will involve plenty of cake and tea, we really look forward to these visits as she is a wonderful individual. She’s struggling with things at the moment, but that is where my wife is the best friend you could possibly have, listening to the pair of them talk I realise just how lucky I am to be with a person like her, she is so good and understanding of other people. I guess her time and experience working with dementia patients in hospitals and care homes has given her this gift. She really should have wings, she is an angel truly.
Tonight’s my last night shift prior to driving down tomorrow, I’m kind of hoping tonight’s shift won’t be too demanding but I lay money on it, as I’m planning an early departure towards London tomorrow it will be a hectic one.
Fingers crossed 🤞 but we will see what arises.
I’ll give another update in a few days once I’ve got some of my chores under my belt.
I know it’s probably boring some of you but I don’t really care. All I really care about is the welfare of these little chaps who need all the help and assistance us humans can give them.
3 visitors
So proud last night to see, if only briefly that I had three visitors to the feed station at the same time. I think two of them were doing some kind of mating ritual, whilst briefly a third appears, starts snorting and then moves on his way.
I’m so lucky that they choose my garden. I have to help them.
We are so fortunate. Last evening we had two hedgehogs visit our bowl at the same time and it resulted in a little bit of argy bargy. I believe this was a dominant male and a younger one or a young female. Watch the video here and listen out for the noise they make:
Hog cam fight
Getting two together is quite a rare occurrence, so I am quite pleased that on only night three of having the camera back in use I have captured this. It’s great to see them, and they are more than welcome to come and have a punch up in my garden. They know they are welcome here 🦔
Yeah I’ve mentioned it before, I’m fed up with work and want to retire and all things going well in just over two years that will become reality.
In other news it’s been a busy period recently with the Hedgehogs returning to our garden. So for the first time this season I put the Hedgehog cam out again and it didn’t disappoint. Have a look at this video here:
Latest Hog Cam
Even our feral cat who guards the garden sussed the camera out, she knows every inch of her domain. The hogs don’t bother her and they just all go about their business. It really is a lovely sight.
The fact they continue to visit our garden after we’ve developed it as a sanctuary for them always excites me. They are a rare and endangered species that needs our help and support.
I’ve just obtained a bunch of photo manuals for cameras and related photography items from the last 40 years or so. Close to 80 of them.
Various Photo manuals
Now I know these aren’t repairable items keeping in harmony with this site, however they are popular, and I just happen to have a few of these cameras available. What I’m thinking is that these manuals would be a nice little addition when I sell on said cameras to the unsuspecting world. It’s just that little bit extra that just could swing a sale.
The ones I have left I can just sell on as they seem to attract a reasonable price on line. Either way, I’m keeping them out of landfill and that is one of the purposes of this site.
I may even be able to make some kind of collage back drop with them or use some old photos as an alternative skin on one of my old cameras. Something arty-farty you know.
Listing them all online is going to take an age. Maybe I could ask the wife to assist in this matter. Now that will cost me a handbag at least.
This will be a running repair with regular updates. There is quite a bit going on.
The bargain basement DSLR has arrived (See original blog post here: Canon EOS 5D Mk2) and I’ve been able to give it a quick once over. It’s not had an easy life and has taken some bangs and knocks. Other than that it’s about 16 years old and has had about 69000 actuations, I don’t think it looks too bad personally. I’ve spent a good hour just giving it a good clean up and it was filthy, all knobs and buttons are working fine, the shutter isn’t locked and when a lens is attached, manually it all focuses just fine and the screen looks clean. There is no evidence of damage to the curtain however I can’t test this further until the battery and charger arrives.
Eos 5D MK2- assessment Eos 5D MK2- assessment
To be honest if I can get this working it will be going into my own personal collection. As long as I can get some nice results I’m not that worried about how it looks cosmetically. The body can be touched up or I can add a skin, we’ll see how it goes.
Eos 5D MK2- assessment Eos 5D MK2- assessment
Update: 6/4/24
I’ve now received a couple of bits consisting of two new batteries and a charger as well as a new battery door cover. Once powered up all indications, buttons, sensors are working and TTL indications are displaying as they should.
New battery coverTTL indicationsBack indications Top indications
All lenses are working and moving and focusing as they should. The real good news is that the shutter fires at all speeds and is not stuck, and the sensor cleaner appears to be working.
I’m really happy with what I have found so far, I need to get a CF card to check the original issues that were reported with the suspect sensor. If that is the only issue I will get one ordered and install that at a later date. I have cleared all settings and the firmware is up to date. I’ve downloaded a raft of Canon software so I will be able to test this all once I get that CF card that should be here in a few days.
23/4/24
The CF card adapter has arrived from China. I’ve purchased this type as this particular adapter allows an SD card to be utilised in CF form. I have ample SD cards in use all around so this makes sense for me, I have nothing apart from this camera that uses CF cards so for a relatively low outlay this is the best option for me.
CF SD adapter
Now I have Every thing in place to test the camera. I’m using basic settings and an old test lens so I’m not looking for any spectacular photos as that’s not going to happen here. I just want to see what’s going on.
What happens most of the time
When I’m taking a shot everything lights up ok. Indications are all good, the shutter fires but all I see is a pinkish screen as demonstrated in the small video above. However every now and again I do get a “proper” photo, usually only the one then you have to turn the camera off then on again to get another and that’s not always guaranteed. As you will see in the two photos below you can get one photo and then the next has a pink band appearing from above.
No issues with picturePink issue emerges at top
Whilst taking a random photo looking at our ceiling, I became aware of what looked like a water leak by the chimney stack. This gave me some concern but I needn’t have been worried as it appears in other photos and is more than likely an Abberation mark on the sensor. The two pictures below show that mark on the sensor in the same area.
Sensor Abberation issueAbberation still visible
Occasionally the pink line that appears at the top of the photo also takes on a pixelated test card look. The weird thing is that if you put the camera into video mode the image is clear with good sound and no playback issues. Strange 🤷♂️
The general view and picture stateThe pink issue has occurred
It really is looking as if the issue is around the sensor that in this camera is a CMOS sensor. But before I make any decisions on what action I’m taking I’m exhausting all the obvious issues if I can. I have looked at several forums on line and there are a multitude of tasks I could try but it all seems to filter down to two in general. A full camera reset and a reinstall of the last issued firmware.
Now I have completed the full reset and on top of this I’m going to install a new CR1616 CMOS cell, as I just don’t know when this was last done.
Replacing the cmos battery
The CMOS deterioration rate is about 3% of the battery value per year, now if this camera was purchased around 2008 when they first came out then it dosen’t take a mathematical genius to work out that the cell could be sufficiently depleted. In fact I don’t know why I haven’t used the multi meter to test it🤦♂️
I’ll get on to that and will report back. It kind of makes sense seeing the sensor on this camera is a Cmos sensor. All tested, battery was at 2.3v, I have now replaced the battery but everything is still the same. I don’t know if updating the firmware will assist in any way, but I’m just following a procedure that most who have been in this position before have also done. it’s just a process of elimination before doing a full tear down of the camera. And if I can do anything to avoid that I certainly will.
I’ve finished all the testing and it is certainly looking like the Cmos sensor needs replacing. I’ve done all I can here, but I’m reluctant to order the new sensor from China as I’m not 100% confident of having the facilities or time to do the work required. Will I gain anything after the outlay? I very much doubt it. I’m going to move this camera on now with all my findings and hopefully I can find someone who will be able to take this project on to a successful completion.
I know parts wise I can make a good profit on the original outlay so maybe that is the route to take.
So I’ve failed on this renovation, but nothing is going to waste, it just needs to go to some who is somewhat more experienced with these type of upgrades than me. Hopefully I can gain some experience along the cheaper more available stock route.
I have learned some interesting things about this camera and it’s operating. So in many ways that’s a win, knowledge is everything.
Me and my wife both collect. She loves a certain brand of handbag, me, I collect cameras, photo postcards, radios, models, garden plants and ornaments and empty boxes.
Together we both collectively collect dust as we’d both rather be out making memories than doing boring household chores.
Foxes Den 
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