I have processed the roll of Kentmere 100 at home today, it’s currently drying in the shower and I’m really pleased with what I’ve seen so far. The carriage of the camera is working well with even spacing, exposures look promising and no sign of fogging proving the new light seals are good.
Kentmere 100 through Olympus 35ECRKentmere 100 through Olympus 35ECRCheck my gallery’s to see these results
I’m yet to run the negatives through the scanner, still waiting for them to dry but when they do I will post a gallery here. Gallery – Olympus 35 ECR trial roll
The camera in my eyes is now in good working condition, all that I did with it has proven beneficial and I’m adding this into my personal collection.
Olympus 35ECR now in storage
I’ve now packed it in a bag with all the air extracted and a couple of silica bags to stop any potential moisture. I do this to all the cameras I store for their protection and to save me having to go through the whole process of maintaining them again.
I’ve enjoyed this little project and am now happy to say….
Just an update of what’s going on with the old Halina TLR.
Today I have tinkered with the ground focus screen, and hood and related springs and hinges. the majority are fine but I’ve found a hinge on the rear door that has a broken weld on one side, I discovered this as I began to clean the old light seal around the back door prior to putting some fresh seal in place. I’ve stopped at seeing this as I am going to put a repair in place so as not to stress the other side of the hinge that seems to be holding. Another head scratching moment whilst I seek a solution.
Halina A1 Reflex broken door weld
The focus screen required me to remove a couple of 60 year old springs, this went well, they are ok and I’ve cleaned them as well. The ground glass screen has been cleaned as well as all surrounding metalwork and hinges and all looks good. All went back together with no real issues.
Just preparing for cutting the new leatherette for the camera, today I have just made some templates and measurements for the eight pieces that need to be cut for this camera.
Halina A1 Reflex new skin templates
Stage one of ridding the case of the dank musky smell has begun today. It’s sitting in the sunniest place I can find on a shelf at work, and in a week or so I will be placing it in an airtight bag with some silica gel packets and some suggested fragrance for a further couple of weeks to see what happens.
Currently still awaiting the right time to open the lens up and start removal of that lens fungus.
Yes. You are right the picture is of a chocolate box and not an old camera. However today in a quieter period I have dismantled in it’s entirety the Halina A1 Reflex camera – the smelly one that’s right 👍
Halina A1 Reflex in a chocolate boxCamera in a chocolate box
The lovely thing about this camera is that it is easy to dismantle right down to its original body shell as most of the parts are held together by screws and not rivets. This has allowed me a lovely scope for putting new leatherette on the body as I’ve been able to move all winders, locks and strap holders giving me a naked body as such to work on.
Halina A1 Reflex shell Halina A1 Reflex shell Stripped down to the body shell, minus leather
However the old leather has been kept to be used as templates for the new skin that will be attached. Firstly though it’s clean, clean, clean to remove the old adhesive and to replace some light seal within that is literally just two black pieces of string, I will upgrade this with some new up to date light seal though. I will clean everything removed today and only then will I attempt reassembly.
The lens assembly is going to have to be opened and recalibrated as I need to get inside to treat that fungus that was reported in earlier posts.
Halina A1 Reflex old leather panels
I have damaged a couple of small screws here that I will need to replace, couldn’t be helped as they’ve probably not moved since the day the camera was assembled. Nice to be able to do this project in small chunks due to the ease of disassembly. May need to get another sheet of leatherette as the sheet I have may not be sufficient for this task.
Only problem is still the stale old smelling case…but I’m looking into it and will share what I do with it at a later date.
I’ve managed to obtain another old box type Pseudo TLR camera at a reasonable price in a very good condition, well, at least the pictures seem to indicate this, I’ll just have to wait until it’s in my hands to know for sure.
Here is some history on this camera, I will cite the reference at the end:
Introduced in 1950
Pseudo TLR
One speed rotary shutter +B
Use both 620 and 120 roll films
Flash sync
Built-in green filter
Body: metal
Coronet Box Cameras are medium format 120 & 620 film cameras made by Coronet in England.
Coronet was a British camera maker based in Birmingham. The company was formed in 1926 by F.W.Pettifer. It manufactured a variety of cheap box and folding cameras until 1967. After the war it worked together with the French company Tiranty to avoid French import restrictions. Several Coronet camera models were made in France, some with Boyer lenses, and some with instruction imprints in French. Coronet also had their own brands of film, including Corochrome.
The F-20 Coro-Flash by Coronet is a simple camera for 6×6 cm exposures, but one which offers a few twists on the usual box camera. First, its centered viewfinder window and (small) folding hood give it a certain faux-TLR styling. Secondly, it was designed (and proudly labeled) to accept either 120 or 620 film sizes. Finally, it offers flash sync, for example when using its namesake Coro Flash flashgun.
This camera was in such a good condition that no maintenance was required. In fact it went straight onto eBay and sold within 7 days. Was a lovey little camera and commanded a good resale price.
I have been after an original Olympus trip for a while now, however the prices are so volatile for them at the moment even the non working ones demand high prices, it’s crazy just how popular they are. So, I’ve had to settle for a camera that was sold alongside the “Trip” a 35 ECR.
Olympus 35 ECR
Asking for a reasonable price, this one flashed up on my phone and I purchased it immediately, I could end up regretting it but fingers crossed 🤞 it will not be too bad. If I’d left it a few minutes longer i believe it would have been snapped up.
I believe the main fault on this unit is a winder issue that is quite well documented on these cameras, and to be honest if that is the only issue then I should be able to rectify this and add it to my collection.
A good clean and assessment of the optics is the first and foremost action to take.
Another problem that sometimes raises its head on these units is with the two little batteries that originally powered the metering, they used to be mercury based 1.35v versions (PX640 x 2) and to add further pain to the problem, they can no longer be manufactured or legally purchased. There are alternatives but they are 1.5v and have been known to cause issues with the metering resulting in film exposure/rating issues, widely documented online. The best option is to purchase a battery convertor that allows you to use a more appropriate lower power pair of hearing aid batteries (Zinc Air 1.45v – 675 battery x 2), much friendlier in the long run as well as being a much cheaper option. However i will use this option only if there is the need to do so. I have a couple on standby if required.
Im really looking forward to running a black and white film through this camera, to develop it myself and see the results.
Come back and see what is found when the camera is assessed on its arrival.
Cameras go back a good few years since the first photograph was taken back in 1826 – 1827 by Nicephore Niepce. Back then he used a bitumen substance on a pewter plate as his light sensitive base for his photo of a rooftop in France, the exposure was somewhere around 8 hours, oh how things have progressed.
I’m putting this piece together to give the reader an idea of just how many cameras were produced between then and now if I can pull sufficient data together. The issue here is that cameras took many forms, from boxes with holes punched into them through to disposable items that were popular throughout the eighties and that are now seeing a resurgence in popularity due to people wanting physical prints rather than trawling through many thousands of images they have stored on their electronic storage devices.
What defines Vintage?
Well that’s a good question. Even good old digital is classified as a vintage if you go back to the 80s and observe what was around then. Camera companies pump out version after version of cameras each one supposedly better than the last, I should imagine almost every family on the planet has an old camera of some sort in their possession, those old Kodak Brownies et al were absolutely everywhere. Truthfully I’d expect anything over 10 years old to be vintage, they are also reducing in popularity now due to the appearance of the smartphone….. as I have said previously, everyone is now a photographer.
Some figures then..
It’s pretty much impossible to compute the really old lines of cameras as there were so many brands and very little in the way of monitoring output, sales of the big brands were immense as we know, the likes of Kodak monopolised the photographic arena for decades and they absolutely flooded the markets world wide.
Digital cameras peaked in sales of 121 Million individual worldwide unit sales in 2010 deemed to be the height of camera demand pre Smartphone arrival on the scene. Since then sales worldwide have decreased to about 8 Million units a year in 2021 and continue to decline, that said there are an awful lot of units out there more than likely stuck at the back of a drawer or hidden away elsewhere within the household.
The big number is this though. According to Visual technology and investor LDV Capital the numbers of cameras around the world will have risen to at least 45 Billion by 2022. Ok, that does include the smart phone and almost 770 Million CCTV cameras as well. Think about that figure for a moment, there are currently 8 billion people on this planet and this figure equates to there being 5.5 cameras available to each and every one of them. A phenomenal number you’ll agree.
So…
The sole purpose of this page to me is just to highlight the amount of cameras out there, I want to do my little bit to repair, recycle and repurpose a small number of them but I also want to point out that there is no shortage of stock….😎
So most of my adult life I have convinced myself that despite having a hatful of interests there was nothing that I was particularly any good at. It’s strange really how you always knock yourself back if you don’t have that much confidence. In truth it really is quite the opposite. I started out in Photography way back in the days before digital when you had to get your hands wet to produce results, for me the old Silver halide era of photography cannot be matched or equalled and personally I think anyone can be a photographer these days, however give them developing tanks, print dryers developers and fixers an enlarger and then ask them to dodge and burn prints and then retouch them and the result might be slightly different. I remember days when I used to photograph weddings and shoot maybe 6-8 rolls of film, a friend of mine in the digital arena shoots maybe 2-3000 exposures per outing! Wow, she will never experience the fear of having a blank film post processing.
On top of this I’ve had an interest in electronics from an early age, I used to visit jumble sales as a kid, buy old radios and repair them and sell them on to get some pocket money. I obtained a city and guilds in electronics back in 2000 as well as an “A” class Radio Amateur qualification (M0ESB) so yes I’m a Radio amateur as well. I could have ventured into a job role utilising this however I preferred to maintain it as a hobby as I didn’t want to fall out of love with electronics.
I also enjoy arty stuff, I love painting both pictures and stuff, tarting stuff up – you know what I mean. I have recently had lessons in the Bob Ross method of painting with a local tutor and I really enjoy this. I’ve always enjoyed making models and painting them and I like building small dioramas as well so I can be quite crafty when I put my mind to it.
So to return to the start when I was searching for my worth as such, I have decided to combine a number of these hobby/experiences and I will be purchasing old unloved equipment, making it good “Tarting it up” and hopefully moving it on either for decorative purposes, for use as props or even returning it to its original purpose.
The site is new and I’ve kind of jumped the gun by getting this up and running before I have any projects on the go or even stock to use in those projects. Hey ho, that’s the way I roll is anyone else as ass about face at doing things as I am?
Hopefully I can record my progress through this site that is a new venture for me as of Feb 2023.
Maybe you as a visitor will follow my journey, maybe you will pass on through, however please feel free to feedback any constructive advice as we can all learn from that.
Foxes Den 
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