This post is not for the faint-hearted or any glove wearing gear lover!
I have not yet posted about my latest turn in classical photography, which brought me into large format. Yes, you read correctly, I am into large format now, more about that in a later post.
Along with a very nice Plaubel Peco Supra outfit came a 65mm Super-Angulon lens with a #00 Synchro-Compur shutter. All was fine with that shutter, but the slow speeds, which were gunked up.
"What do I care about slow speeds, since we have fast film!", you may think ... not so fast my friend. Large format lends itself to very slow film speeds, e.g. by use of photographic paper, rather than film. Now we are talking ISO 3-6 actually.
For me, the slow shutter just had to work!
So, I decided to give a try and dismantled the Synchro-Compur, well, ok, I just took the lid and the speed-cam off.
First attempt to free the gears:
Zippo lighter fluid. Essentially, I swamped the entire mechanism with that stuff. Firing the shutter gradually freed the gunked gear and the slow speeds were coming up again. After some struggle with some springs, I managed to get the cam-plate back in place, closed the lid and had the shutter firing normally again. All speeds working! .... YEAH! Well ... not for long.
The slow speed mechanism got sticky again a day later.
Cleaning with lighter fluid only did thus not do the trick!
Second attempt to free the gears (this is were real geeks should stop reading!):
WD-40 next to Duck-tape is the technicians best bet. Both are known for some severe and unwanted side-effects. Actually, the side-effects are somewhat similar, sticky gunk, which is difficult to remove!
WD-40 however, has the brilliant property to to loose old grime real good.
With the motto: no shutter is as good as a useless shutter, I tried to carefully spray some WD-40 into the stuck gears. Of course this did not go to plan... WD-40 ended up everywhere... in the shutter blades, on the aperture blades, etc. etc.
The result was, all shutter speeds ran extremely smooth! The volatile light highly viscous component of WD-40 did an excellent job.
Now, let's remove WD-40 as quickly as we can from the shutter.
In a first step, I flushed the shutter with Zippo lighter fluid.
In a second step (now look away if you are a purist!) I bathed (!) the entire shutter in medium hot water with a high a concentration of neutral (no perfume, no coloring) dish soap. Actually, I poured some of the dish washing soap right into the shutter and on the blades. Having done so, the entire mechanism experienced a dive, during which the shutter had to operate many time through all the gears (speeds).
Some time later, the Synchro-Compur experienced a hot shower of plain water, whilst firing, to be dried on a heating radiator a moment later.
Contrary to the first attempt of freeing the slow gears, the second attempt's result holds up. Fully dry, showing no signs of "lubricant", the shutter speeds, down to 1s, are just fine, finally, thanks to WD-40!?
Time will tell if I managed to also remove the heavy component of WD-40, which has the reputation to keep water away by greasing up, i.e. becoming sticky.
Use with care! Please understand the risks of using WD-40 in such delicate mechanisms as photographic shutters. Having warned you, I wont sign responsible when you messed up your $$$ camera mechanics.
Showing posts with label diy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diy. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Gary Fong Lightsphere Clone for Fuji EF-20
Nope, the following is not my idea... credits to Artur Gajewsk! Have a look:
DIY Gary Fong Lightsphere
Artur designed his diffuser for normal speedlites, the head of which can swivel. I must say, this design works very well! Please refer to Artur's article for the materials required.
Looking at the Fujifilm EF-20, which accompanies my X100S, things start becoming different.
First of all, although the EF-20 allows to tilt the flash 90 degrees upwards, there is no swivel possibility.
Secondly, the EF-20 is slightly tapered towards the business end.
So, I adapted the dimension as follows:
The constraint here is to employ an aspect ratio and orientation similar to the sensor in the camera, since the EF-20 does not swivel.
Since the flash is tapered, it is important to get as much friction as possible between the flash head and the diffuser. The rubbery material of the EF-20 is a good help here, since it is pretty sticky when used with the smooth side of the silicone lining material. The knobby side provides essentially no grip at all.
When building the diffuser, you hence want the flat/smooth surface inside. This might actually help the light bouncing inside the diffuser.
To mount the diffuser on the EF-20, you want to mount it on the front part of the head first and then slide it back to obtain good grip.
All in all, the first result look pretty promising!
A new addition to the bag, which easily fits into the bag's tablet compartment.
DIY Gary Fong Lightsphere
Artur designed his diffuser for normal speedlites, the head of which can swivel. I must say, this design works very well! Please refer to Artur's article for the materials required.
Looking at the Fujifilm EF-20, which accompanies my X100S, things start becoming different.
First of all, although the EF-20 allows to tilt the flash 90 degrees upwards, there is no swivel possibility.
Secondly, the EF-20 is slightly tapered towards the business end.
So, I adapted the dimension as follows:
- length: 23.5 cm
- width: 12 cm
The constraint here is to employ an aspect ratio and orientation similar to the sensor in the camera, since the EF-20 does not swivel.
Since the flash is tapered, it is important to get as much friction as possible between the flash head and the diffuser. The rubbery material of the EF-20 is a good help here, since it is pretty sticky when used with the smooth side of the silicone lining material. The knobby side provides essentially no grip at all.
When building the diffuser, you hence want the flat/smooth surface inside. This might actually help the light bouncing inside the diffuser.
To mount the diffuser on the EF-20, you want to mount it on the front part of the head first and then slide it back to obtain good grip.
All in all, the first result look pretty promising!
A new addition to the bag, which easily fits into the bag's tablet compartment.
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Poppy-Uppy Flash Mini Soft Box
Lately, I have been asked by some friends, why the flash of their compact camera creates such "crappy" images. Assuming that the problem was flat images with lots of hard shadows and a cold color cast, my answer was always the same: the tiny built-in flash-tube create really hard light.
Hard light, i.e. light that comes from a light source being (much) smaller than the subject, creates a flat appearance and pretty harsh shadows in the background.
Using the built-in, is therefore only good for "fill flash" when shooting in bright (sun) back light.
There are a very simple solutions to make most of the flashes useable, even with the tiny flash being the only light source.
Options 1, 2 and 4 can easily be achieved by a very simple device... a translucent film canister.
One simply has to create a template of the cross-section of the poppy-uppy flash's footprint and create a corresponding cut-out in the canister. The cut-out should actually be a bit wider, so that the canister can lean a bit to the front of the camera.
Somewhat like this:
Going from here, the optional reflector can be created. I experimented a bit with the dimensions of said reflector. And here is my solution:
The reflector inserted into the "soft box" looks somewhat like this (red side up):
And there are some of the resulting images, showing one of my messy book shelves. The LX7 was on aperture priority f/2.8 @ ISO1600:
The difference might be hard to see on the given examples, in particular since blogger will "improve" the photos again, I fear.
An assortment of different reflectors, such as different colors, aluminum foil, etc. can make the mini soft box really useful.
Enjoy photography!
UPDATE:
The original design gave a lot of spill towards the back of the camera. To keep this a bit under control, I attached aluminum tape to the inner backside of the canister, such that is directed more towards the upper front.
Hard light, i.e. light that comes from a light source being (much) smaller than the subject, creates a flat appearance and pretty harsh shadows in the background.
Using the built-in, is therefore only good for "fill flash" when shooting in bright (sun) back light.
There are a very simple solutions to make most of the flashes useable, even with the tiny flash being the only light source.
- diffuse the flash
- redirect the flash
- tone the flash
- redirect the flash with a tone
Options 1, 2 and 4 can easily be achieved by a very simple device... a translucent film canister.
 |
| the translucent canister |
One simply has to create a template of the cross-section of the poppy-uppy flash's footprint and create a corresponding cut-out in the canister. The cut-out should actually be a bit wider, so that the canister can lean a bit to the front of the camera.
Somewhat like this:
 |
| template and modified canister |
Going from here, the optional reflector can be created. I experimented a bit with the dimensions of said reflector. And here is my solution:
- length: 43mm (fitting the canister lengthwise)
- width: 23mm (creating a 45-ish degree angle)
 |
| the internal reflector |
The reflector inserted into the "soft box" looks somewhat like this (red side up):
 |
| the internal reflector inserted into the soft box |
And there are some of the resulting images, showing one of my messy book shelves. The LX7 was on aperture priority f/2.8 @ ISO1600:
 |
| reference shot, bare built-in flash |
 |
| diffuser (no internal reflector) |
 |
| white side of the internal reflector |
 |
| red side of the internal reflector |
An assortment of different reflectors, such as different colors, aluminum foil, etc. can make the mini soft box really useful.
Enjoy photography!
UPDATE:
The original design gave a lot of spill towards the back of the camera. To keep this a bit under control, I attached aluminum tape to the inner backside of the canister, such that is directed more towards the upper front.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Shutter Release Cable for Canon Cameras
Some weird coincidence got me into buying a Canon DSLR years ago. The EOS-350D, aka Digital Rebel XT, was top notch at that time... I still love it today.
Today, I am happily choosing Canon cameras for CHDK, Magic Lantern and BaclyardEOS, but this an entirely different story.
Luck had it, that Canon made it very easy to build a remote shutter release cable. The internet is full of decent descriptions. Yet again, I would like to share my solution with you.
First of all, the materials I used where all in my possession, nothing needed to be bought. Actually, all the stuff was lying about since years, unused, and you will see why in the next few lines.
When you search the internet for shutter release cables, you will come across many square of rectangular boxes, which not only look DIY, but also look not following latest ergonomics standards.
About 20 years ago, I bought an analogue joystick for my PC. I really never got into gaming ever, the thing just went into a box and was moved about only when I changed cities.
The same can be said about a pair of headphones, that once came with a first generation digital camera having an MP3 player. What where people thinking?! An MP3 player in a camera?! The player was crap, the camera, for the time, was OK. The developers of this great design had a brain-wave, why not preventing people from using their decent headphones (having a 3.5mm TRS jack)? Hence, the developers added a 2.5mm TRS jack to that particular MP3-player-camera-gadget, just what I needed for the Canon cameras.
And here we have it, 2 useless gadgets can be put together into 1 useful accessory.
I used a of perforated PCB to create a stable transition between the flimsy headphone cable and the very sturdy joystick cabling. A knot reduces the length of the latter.
It might be somewhat obvious, I used the blue cables for focus and the white ones for exposure.
In order to prevent the flimsy cable from being pulled off the PCB (not shown), another know secures the external cable to one of the posts of the joystick.
Although I took a picture of the 'not yet closed but functioning' device, I wont post it here, due to the potentially offending shape of said object.
Concluding, a remote shutter release which feels like being built to be held in a fist (actually the joystick is) is a great addition to my bag.
Needless to say that this device works great with either of the two cameras, the EOS-350D and the PowerShot G15.
Today, I am happily choosing Canon cameras for CHDK, Magic Lantern and BaclyardEOS, but this an entirely different story.
Luck had it, that Canon made it very easy to build a remote shutter release cable. The internet is full of decent descriptions. Yet again, I would like to share my solution with you.
First of all, the materials I used where all in my possession, nothing needed to be bought. Actually, all the stuff was lying about since years, unused, and you will see why in the next few lines.
When you search the internet for shutter release cables, you will come across many square of rectangular boxes, which not only look DIY, but also look not following latest ergonomics standards.
About 20 years ago, I bought an analogue joystick for my PC. I really never got into gaming ever, the thing just went into a box and was moved about only when I changed cities.
The same can be said about a pair of headphones, that once came with a first generation digital camera having an MP3 player. What where people thinking?! An MP3 player in a camera?! The player was crap, the camera, for the time, was OK. The developers of this great design had a brain-wave, why not preventing people from using their decent headphones (having a 3.5mm TRS jack)? Hence, the developers added a 2.5mm TRS jack to that particular MP3-player-camera-gadget, just what I needed for the Canon cameras.
And here we have it, 2 useless gadgets can be put together into 1 useful accessory.
 |
| the parts, taken apart, and the complex schematics diagram |
It might be somewhat obvious, I used the blue cables for focus and the white ones for exposure.
In order to prevent the flimsy cable from being pulled off the PCB (not shown), another know secures the external cable to one of the posts of the joystick.
Although I took a picture of the 'not yet closed but functioning' device, I wont post it here, due to the potentially offending shape of said object.
Concluding, a remote shutter release which feels like being built to be held in a fist (actually the joystick is) is a great addition to my bag.
Needless to say that this device works great with either of the two cameras, the EOS-350D and the PowerShot G15.
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