the changing bag

The camera came from a house clearance and cost less than a roll of film plus development. The shutter fired at one second and at 1/500, and at every speed in between it made exactly the same noise, which is not a good sign. The viewing lens had a faint web of fungus and the focusing knob felt like stirring cold porridge.

Shutter first

On these cameras the front lens elements unscrew without special tools if you have a rubber jar opener and patience. Behind them the leaf shutter was coated in old oil that had migrated onto the blades. I cleaned the blades with lighter fluid on a cotton bud, a few drops at a time, firing the shutter between each application until it ran freely. It took an evening. I did not take the shutter apart further than that; I know my limits and the springs are tiny.

Focusing and the fungus

The focusing helicoid needed its old grease removed and a thin layer of new grease. The fungus on the viewing lens wiped off with a dilute mix of hydrogen peroxide and ammonia, leaving a slight haze that does not matter because nothing is recorded through that lens. The taking lens, luckily, was clean.

I checked the speeds roughly by recording the shutter with a phone app that listens for the opening and closing clicks. It is not a proper tester, but it told me the slow speeds were now within about a third of a stop, which is better than my metering.

First roll

Twelve frames of HP5 on a grey Sunday around the canal. Two are double exposures because I forgot that this model does not stop you winding on wrong, and one is completely black because I left the lens cap on, which a twin-lens reflex will happily let you do since you are looking through the other lens. The remaining nine are the sharpest negatives I have ever made. There is something about a six-by-six square of film on the light box that makes even a lock gate look important.

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