Brian's Notebook: old cameras

Showing posts with label old cameras. Show all posts

9/23/2010 - Yashica Electro 35 GSN Light Seal Replacement

Posted by Brian Godfrey Thursday, September 23, 2010 comments (5)

I replaced the light seals in my GSN tonight and Ami and I took pictures.

I assembled my tools. The seals and bamboo tool came from Jon Goodman and was absolutely perfect. It even came with very easy to follow directions.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

This seal didn't look too bad.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

This one was pretty much gone.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

This one was pretty bad, too.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

This seal wasn't so good either so I replaced it, too.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

I wet the seals with some Windex.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

Then I scraped and scraped.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

I had to pull out the cloth seal with some tweezers.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

Then I scraped out the glue.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

After all the cleaning I put the new seals in.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

And trimmed them to fit. It's really nice that the kit has them a little long. They're cut perfectly and you can tell Jon knows what he's doing.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

You have to make sure you cut the top seal so that it fits around the film frame reset.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

Tweezers help here, too.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

The mess afterward.

From Yashica GSN Light Seals

Replacing the seals isn't hard, but it is a bit time consuming. These old cameras are worth it. I can't recommend Interslice enough for any light seal kit you might need. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, the seals are perfectly cut, and the kit is very affordable.

9/3/2010 - Back in Business

Posted by Brian Godfrey Friday, September 3, 2010 comments (0)

I got my second Yashica Electro 35 GSN today and took some parts from the older one to fix a couple of very minor cosmetic things about the new one. Now, I'm back in the rangefinder business!

From 9-2010

8/21/2010

Posted by Brian Godfrey Sunday, August 22, 2010 comments (0)

This is what has been the bane of my repair job.

From 8-2010

I think I have a solution. I'm going to take a jumper wire and put it into the cut off wire and solder it on the other end that I can get to. Wish me luck.

8/17/2010 Yashica Electro 35 GSN Repair - Part 1

Posted by Brian Godfrey Tuesday, August 17, 2010 comments (2)

This is how it went down.

I took off the battery check button plate.

From Yashica Repair

Taped the button in so I wouldn't lose it.

From Yashica Repair

The ASA dial wasn't coming off without a fight. I had to heat it with a soldering iron to loosen it up.

From Yashica Repair

Getting it to move finally.

From Yashica Repair

An indispensable tool.

From Yashica Repair

Taking off the film advance lever.

From Yashica Repair

The rewind knob.

From Yashica Repair

Rewind knob removed.

From Yashica Repair

Slightly out of sequence, the screws that hold the top cover on.

From Yashica Repair

The top cover removed.

From Yashica Repair

You can't really see it but under there is the "Pad of Death".

From Yashica Repair

Removing the screws so I can get the lens assembly off.

From Yashica Repair

The bottom removed. Notice all the little pieces of the disintegrated pad.

From Yashica Repair

The skin all flayed.

From Yashica Repair

What's left of the pad.

From Yashica Repair

This will be continued, most likely Saturday. While I was taking it apart a wire broke that went to the lens assembly so I'm going to have to take it apart further and solder it back together.

Maybe these pictures will help you if you're doing a "Pad of Death" replacement. If you are, please check out the guide at the Yashica Guy's page because it's what I was going by. Many thanks to The Yashica Guy and the fine folks over Rangefinder Forum for all of the great info there as well. Most of all, thanks to my beautiful and talented wife, Ami, for taking 99% of these pictures. I really appreciate her patience.

8/16/2010

Posted by Brian Godfrey Monday, August 16, 2010 comments (0)

I did some kludging and got some pictures from what I thought were lost negatives. The film was old so it's not going to look great, but you can see an image in there. I also discovered that I'm going to be doing some major surgery on my new camera this weekend due to what's called the "Pad of Death". Well, it's a 30 year old camera, it's going to have its quirks.

Here are the pictures I sorta salvaged from the expired film.

From 8-2010

The thing about expired film is you don't know what you're going to get, and I didn't get much! The camera's malfunctions added to the problems but after changing out this part it should be in good shape!

8/13/2010

Posted by Brian Godfrey Saturday, August 14, 2010 comments (0)

I took some more shots of the GSN and turned them black and white. It can really look cool when you turn a picture of technology black and white, I think.