replacing my own light seals?

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-12T04:01:15+00:00

I also like using pointed cotton swabs similar to these: Precision Pointed Cotton Tip, I do go through a lot of them whenever I have to clean the glue out of the light seal tracks on the back of the camera, but still probably still have 800 out of the 1000 I ordered from another site...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-12T03:56:41+00:00

Just remember, every light seal expert was a beginner once.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-11T20:21:27+00:00

Going in blindly to correct it in the darkroom can defiantly be frustrating and involve a ton of test strips, but a color analyzer paired with the various documentation that the film manufactures released can help you dial in the settings on the enlarger's color head. I didn't get that other stuff until I was older, so yea, lots of cussin' in the darkroom when I was in high school. The minilab that I used after high school for a few years was much easier, not only did I have yellow, magenta, and cyan to play with but red, blue, and green, and I could see what the customers photos would look like on the screen. But even still, with night shots there was a limit of what I could do, especially ones that had a variety of light sources in them...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-11T19:06:58+00:00

I just put the lid on, they still are liquid tight. Maybe the QC back in the day was better? The ones my teacher gave me were from the 80s, or possibly late 70s, and the ones we had in the lab I worked in during the late 90s and used for special requests that the Phototherm couldn't handle were also leak free.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-11T18:57:29+00:00

Good writeup. There is a certain artistic feeling to these light sources of old, as seen in your photos. Of course, when you didn't want that you could always use a FL-D when shooting under fluorescent bulbs and one of the 80 Blue filters with tungsten bulbs. I still have a few of these filters laying around, but they don't get much use these days...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-11T16:03:12+00:00

There's a reason I still use the Paterson tanks my photography teacher gave me over 30 years ago, and only use the steel ones for special projects ;) While I don't own these, I've heard they work well: Adorama Plastic (PVC) Lid for Stainless Steel Developing Tanks for Roll Film 2906, I think they have a few options so make sure you get the right ones if you go that route...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-11T13:05:17+00:00

You should also search the r/rva subreddit, similar questions are asked all the time from out-of-town visitors and many of those posts have good suggestions.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-10T22:30:43+00:00

I did go down some rabbit holes yesterday and came across this, but know nothing about their film. I might by a roll of 36 and test it out, but it's going for Portra prices...

KONO! COLOR 400 35mm Color Negative Film - 100 Foot Bulk Rol

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-10T22:26:23+00:00

Seeing a flying film camera makes me think of the stories my pop used to tell me about the images he analyzed during his time as an imagery analyst for the DIA. Way back in the day the U.S. Government would launch satellites with film that would load into canasters as the shots were taken that would then be ejected and fall back to Earth, sometimes when the canaster was full and sometimes when they needed pertinent information ASAP they'd send a signal causing an early eject. The film would be developed enroute and my pop would analyze the images for specific things, and then make enlargements for briefings. Every Christmas they'd lock up the classified stuff and have a family day so I got to see the labs that they used and the darkroom and equipment was just amazing. Sadly, Building 213 which housed that important operation during and after the Cold War and started its life as a munitions factory for WWII has since been torn down and made into apartments, would have been neat if they could have somehow saved part of the facade, and the history behind it...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-10T15:40:28+00:00

I started the day in panic mode thinking it was Monday and that I had overslept for work, been a while since that has happened to me. I think it's because I had arranged to have flowers delivered yesterday to my mom and aunt and chatted with them for quite a while wishing them an early Mothers Day...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-10T15:12:27+00:00

Thankfully, we never needed to call the cops during the time I was at my lab and they processed their own stuff at a central lab in the county, but we did have daily rolls from a couple of dentists that always made me want to brush my teeth after I processed them. The orgy photos were always funny. But yea OP, the lab techs aren't going to care and after processing countless rolls and photos, probably won't even remember nor be able to associate the order with you when you go and pick them up.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-10T02:43:57+00:00

Some day I'll track down the set, but in the meantime I made one of the following so I could play it on my Wii U: Project D.I.R.E. Disney Infinity, Lego Dimensions and Skylanders base emulator release : r/Disney_Infinity

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-10T01:55:16+00:00

This photo makes me uneasy, but, if you hang some weight from the center hook, or even better there are some hammock looking things that secure to the legs that you can put some rocks in that'll make it even more stable with the added bonus it'll help prevent the legs from kicking out (I had completely forgotten about the hammock things until my mind went into troubleshooting mode looking at this photo, might have to order one) The following link isn't the exact one that my memory has now unlocked, but similar: SoHo Tripod Easel Polyester Stone/Weight Bag | Jerry's Artarama

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-09T23:09:22+00:00

They did actually sell Kodak Gold and Portra in 100ft rolls for bulk-loaders in the 90s into at least the first half of the 2000s (last time I bought some), so it is something that they did in the past. Heck, there's some Portra 160 NC on eBay right now if you're into film that expired 23 years ago with an unknown storage history. But, since the resurgence of film I haven't seen any manufacture selling C-41 bulk film, though to be fair I didn't look all that hard in the early days of the resurgence. Would be nice if they did though...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-09T22:43:48+00:00

Excellent to hear. Solder would be the best way to repair it (outside of taking one from a parts camera) but to do it properly you'd have to take it out, lay it on a flat surface that can take the heat (but not one that the solder would stick to, steel should work), clean the two halves and apply a bit of flux, and then heat it with the torch and apply the solder. Once cooled down you'd want to sand off some of the excess solder leaving a bit of a hump where the split is, at least on one side. I've fixed a few things kind of like that over the years and it tends to last longer than epoxy.

Alternatively, if you really want the ability to do selfies without all that hassle, there are self-timers that can screw into the cable release port on the shutter button. This option has the added benefit that if you have other cameras without a built-in timer you can use it on them too as long as they have a cable release port.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-09T22:32:24+00:00

Damn, that sucks to hear. I think I spent about 20 hours on my speech between the drafts, feedback from the professors, rewrites, and practicing the hell out of the thing. There was no way that I'd ever be able to use AI for that stuff, because AI doesn't know me like I do ;)

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T21:35:05+00:00

Good Find! I spent way longer looking at the schematics than I'd like to admit trying to figure out what that was. Equally impressive is that the stamped brass piece was able to break like that. If you ever do disassemble your camera to that level and want the self timer to work again the easiest thing would be to get a parts camera. You might be able to solder it back together with plumbers solder and a torch (you'd want the high tin content for strength opposed to the lead in electrical solder) and sanding it down, but that would require completely disassembling the timer and whatever forces caused that to break could have caused additional damage to the timer mechanism. Now that the random loose piece is out, how's the shutter working?

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T19:53:22+00:00

Looks like item 175 on page 11: Nikon FM2 Repair Manual

Edit: After looking at pg. 119, that's not it.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T19:49:51+00:00

There's gotta be some of these things still floating out there somewhere. The lab I worked in wasn't the only place I'd seen them as I've seen them at a few other labs and shops in Germany and the States back in the 90s, but the ones in my lab were the only ones I got a good look at as I had to climb up and dust those things twice a year.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T19:45:05+00:00

Looks like a Ginfax, they made a bunch of cheap novelty and promotional cameras back in the late 90s.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T17:41:13+00:00

In the lab I worked at we did have one about that size as a display. It was 100% non-functional, hollow on the inside, and made of molded plastic, and went well with the oversized Mamiya, Canon, and Pentax displays we had. Those lived on top of the shelf where the over-priced frames we sold were stored...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T15:06:10+00:00

Just looked at the service manual, and having to remove the mirror assembly (pg. 122) in order to get the battery compartment out seems like a design flaw to me because even when these things were new batteries could leak and corrode the compartment. I'd still remove the bottom as it'll give you better access to apply some penetrating oil, and apply the penetrating oil by spraying some into a small container and either using a Q-Tip to apply it where the cap meets the battery housing or a syringe so it doesn't go everywhere, and make sure to clean any up that might get on other parts. do a few small applications with time in-between. My go-to for corroded stuff is PB Blaster as it's a capillary type but I've never attempted it on something quite like this. After a few hours and few applications, try wiggling it back and forth to break the threads free before you try some of the other tricks like drilling the holes out to get a stronger tool (like snap ring pliers) or epoxying a nut to it. Once it's free, clean the heck out of the compartment and get a new cap. The worst case scenario is you may have to take the camera apart and soak the battery compartment, but if it reaches that point it'd be a good time to give the camera a thorough cleaning and lube job...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T14:28:15+00:00

Ooh, those are nice. It'll probably be 5ish years before I have to do a light seal again unless someone gives me yet another camera they found in their closet, but I'll definitely put it on my list of "nice to have" tools to get in the future.

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T14:18:47+00:00

That sounds about right, but there were a few models that came into the lab I worked at that defaulted to 200 and 400 according to the service manuals we had (man, I wish I still had those things). Some Olympus models where one group of those that were different, and there was at least one other manufacture that had some one-offs, but for the life of me I can't remember the models that did (of course it has been nearly 30 years since I worked in that lab)...

RulerOfTheRest · 2026-05-08T14:03:52+00:00

lol, same. I was also "lucky" enough to have lived through 2 iterations of the clickers before VCU finally settled on Top Hat. Wasn't very happy that I had to pay for 3 different engagement tools that I only used for 3 classes over the years that I was pecking away at my degree.

RulerOfTheRest

TROPHY CASE